Unidentified area on storage device
Unidentified area on storage device
Hey everyone, I’ve got two identical hard drives set up for storage and they’re synced. Windows 10, WinDirStat, and TreeSize all display the same file count, but one drive shows 5.2GB less free space in Windows Explorer. WinDirStat labels it as “Unknown.” I’m familiar with checking hidden files, but it seems this isn’t a system file. Any ideas on how to uncover what’s missing? Thanks!
The system is designed to handle various file systems, especially suitable for compact Unix partitions. Windows often claims it supports any non-Microsoft file system, though this can vary.
Additionally, there are systems even older than Unix that are even more efficient in size. Unix mainly eliminated flat files, allowing file systems to shrink dramatically. Devices like palm pilots ran on such compact setups, using just a few kilobytes rather than megabytes.
Maybe someone accidentally removed a Unix partition from your drive. Unix uses various file systems, the oldest being called fs. It was originally built for magnetic tape. I’m considering booting a BSD live CD to check if it can help identify the issue. I haven’t used these systems much myself, but I prefer BSD because some versions support older file systems that others have stopped using.
If the location has a negative address, someone might be concealing something. A common method involves starting addresses at zero and increasing them, but modern drives use a design from an old technology called “drum memory.” They reshape the drive into a cone and flatten it into a platter, keeping the same logic. This means that if you assign a partition a negative address, many systems won’t be able to locate it even though it exists. But if you’re aware of the pattern, it becomes easy to find.