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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?

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enter image description here S.M.A.R.T. Diagnostic Extended Test in Western Digital Dashboard

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    Does this answer your question? Can the $BadClus file hold recoverable data?
    – Blindspots
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 20:05
  • the other question deals with another problem, my $BadClus doesn't span the size of the drive's capacity, which would be normal for this sparse file. My disk is fine, it doesn't contain bad sectors according to multiple tests. Also I'm using the paid version of TreeSize. I've also researched metafile $BadClus and NTFS, but couldn't find anything describing this problem, that's why I came here
    – Nick
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 21:11
  • 1
    I understand. In your question you should share your research and why it didn’t meet your needs.
    – Blindspots
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 23:04
  • A couple of screenshots would be good, so we see what you're seeing.
    – Joep van Steen
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 10:35
  • Hi @JoepvanSteen I added some screenshots
    – Nick
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 13:12

1 Answer 1

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Since $Badclus should be size of volume and chkdsk finds no errors I can only assume the software you use is wrong unless there's loads of bad sectors. If you'd want to get to the bottom of this you'd need a tool like DMDE that actually decodes MFT entries.

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Note $BADCLUS is not initialized and as such is completely sparse.

I'd install "Everything", search "e:\*" and sort by size to identify space mongers.

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  • Sadly other software like SpaceSniffer and Windows search also only find 5,4TB of files. Doing a full DMDE now
    – Nick
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 14:20
  • Info I forgot to add: 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?
    – Nick
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 14:22
  • 'FULL' format zeros entire volume first so this takes time. If this is an SMR drive it would be even slower. But for file system it should make no difference, full format is simply followed by quick format laying down file system structures.
    – Joep van Steen
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 14:32
  • same type of drive formatting now with diskmgmt.msc, looks like it will be around 9 hours, so a big difference with this new Windows 11 Disks & Volumes app
    – Nick
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 15:18

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