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System: Windows 11, externally mounted 8TB HDD WD disk NTFS

Used TreeSize Duplicate Search (Jam Software), then deleted some files with the option "Move to Recycle Bin (if available)" turned off (one file was almost 1TB), but I didn't get the disk space back (recycle bin is empty). Total drive size is 7,27TB, but there's only files for 5,4TB.

Then used TreeSize with "Track advanced file system features" option and I can see metafile $BadClus being 2,5TB which would account for the missing space.

Then did chkdsk /x /b to see if chkdsk could find/fix bad clusters, but it found 0KB in bad sectors. WD Dashboard also found no error with drive. I suppose deleting the $BadClus wouldn't be a good idea? Any other ideas how I can fix this?

This is not about trying to recover deleted files, it's about deleted files not returning disk space.

Extra info: I used the new Windows 11 Disks & Volumes app instead of diskmgmt.msc to format the HDD disk (normal format, not quick format), which took an unusually long time (48 hours and this new app would stop formatting sometimes when I wasn't using the laptop, which never happens with diskmgmt.msc), is it possible this new Windows app did a bad format?

enter image description here

System: Windows 11, externally mounted 8TB HDD WD disk NTFS

Used TreeSize Duplicate Search (Jam Software), then deleted some files with the option "Move to Recycle Bin (if available)" turned off (one file was almost 1TB), but I didn't get the disk space back (recycle bin is empty). Total drive size is 7,27TB, but there's only files for 5,4TB.

Then used TreeSize with "Track advanced file system features" option and I can see metafile $BadClus being 2,5TB which would account for the missing space.

Then did chkdsk /x /b to see if chkdsk could find/fix bad clusters, but it found 0KB in bad sectors. WD Dashboard also found no error with drive. I suppose deleting the $BadClus wouldn't be a good idea? Any other ideas how I can fix this?

This is not about trying to recover deleted files, it's about deleted files not returning disk space.

Extra info: I used the new Windows 11 Disks & Volumes app instead of diskmgmt.msc to format the HDD disk (normal format, not quick format), which took an unusually long time (48 hours and this new app would stop formatting sometimes when I wasn't using the laptop, which never happens with diskmgmt.msc), is it possible this new Windows app did a bad format?

S.M.A.R.T. Diagnostic Extended Test in Western Digital Dashboard

System: Windows 11, externally mounted 8TB HDD WD disk NTFS

Used TreeSize Duplicate Search (Jam Software), then deleted some files with the option "Move to Recycle Bin (if available)" turned off (one file was almost 1TB), but I didn't get the disk space back (recycle bin is empty). Total drive size is 7,27TB, but there's only files for 5,4TB.

Then used TreeSize with "Track advanced file system features" option and I can see metafile $BadClus being 2,5TB which would account for the missing space.

Then did chkdsk /x /b to see if chkdsk could find/fix bad clusters, but it found 0KB in bad sectors. WD Dashboard also found no error with drive. I suppose deleting the $BadClus wouldn't be a good idea? Any other ideas how I can fix this?

This is not about trying to recover deleted files, it's about deleted files not returning disk space.

Extra info: I used the new Windows 11 Disks & Volumes app instead of diskmgmt.msc to format the HDD disk (normal format, not quick format), which took an unusually long time (48 hours and this new app would stop formatting sometimes when I wasn't using the laptop, which never happens with diskmgmt.msc), is it possible this new Windows app did a bad format?

System: Windows 11, externally mounted 8TB HDD WD disk NTFS

Used TreeSize Duplicate Search (Jam Software), then deleted some files with the option "Move to Recycle Bin (if available)" turned off (one file was almost 1TB), but I didn't get the disk space back (recycle bin is empty). Total drive size is 7,27TB, but there's only files for 5,4TB.

Then used TreeSize with "Track advanced file system features" option and I can see metafile $BadClus being 2,5TB which would account for the missing space.

Then did chkdsk /x /b to see if chkdsk could find/fix bad clusters, but it found 0KB in bad sectors. WD Dashboard also found no error with drive. I suppose deleting the $BadClus wouldn't be a good idea? Any other ideas how I can fix this?

This is not about trying to recover deleted files, it's about deleted files not returning disk space.

Extra info: I used the new Windows 11 Disks & Volumes app instead of diskmgmt.msc to format the HDD disk (normal format, not quick format), which took an unusually long time (48 hours and this new app would stop formatting sometimes when I wasn't using the laptop, which never happens with diskmgmt.msc), is it possible this new Windows app did a bad format?

enter image description here

System: Windows 11, externally mounted 8TB HDD WD disk NTFS

Used TreeSize Duplicate Search (Jam Software), then deleted some files with the option "Move to Recycle Bin (if available)" turned off (one file was almost 1TB), but I didn't get the disk space back (recycle bin is empty). Total drive size is 7,27TB, but there's only files for 5,4TB.

Then used TreeSize with "Track advanced file system features" option and I can see metafile $BadClus being 2,5TB which would account for the missing space.

Then did chkdsk /x /b to see if chkdsk could find/fix bad clusters, but it found 0KB in bad sectors. WD Dashboard also found no error with drive. I suppose deleting the $BadClus wouldn't be a good idea? Any other ideas how I can fix this?

This is not about trying to recover deleted files, it's about deleted files not returning disk space.

Extra info: I used the new Windows 11 Disks & Volumes app instead of diskmgmt.msc to format the HDD disk (normal format, not quick format), which took an unusually long time (48 hours and this new app would stop formatting sometimes when I wasn't using the laptop, which never happens with diskmgmt.msc), is it possible this new Windows app did a bad format?

TreeSize results TreeSize with advanced file system features chkdsk results

System: Windows 11, externally mounted 8TB HDD WD disk NTFS

Used TreeSize Duplicate Search (Jam Software), then deleted some files with the option "Move to Recycle Bin (if available)" turned off (one file was almost 1TB), but I didn't get the disk space back (recycle bin is empty). Total drive size is 7,27TB, but there's only files for 5,4TB.

Then used TreeSize with "Track advanced file system features" option and I can see metafile $BadClus being 2,5TB which would account for the missing space.

Then did chkdsk /x /b to see if chkdsk could find/fix bad clusters, but it found 0KB in bad sectors. WD Dashboard also found no error with drive. I suppose deleting the $BadClus wouldn't be a good idea? Any other ideas how I can fix this?

This is not about trying to recover deleted files, it's about deleted files not returning disk space.

Extra info: I used the new Windows 11 Disks & Volumes app instead of diskmgmt.msc to format the HDD disk (normal format, not quick format), which took an unusually long time (48 hours and this new app would stop formatting sometimes when I wasn't using the laptop, which never happens with diskmgmt.msc), is it possible this new Windows app did a bad format?