Recovery of free space after moving large files?

[rotaryracer]

It's a non-Sage specific problem, but I thought I'd start here...

I have a media server in my basement that has (4) 120GB drives in a RAID0 array for a 445GB single partition. I'm using FAT32 (yes, I know, I want to convert it to NTFS) and have about 50-60 DVDs ripped to the hard drive. The other night, I came within 2.5GB of filling the entire RAID drive, so I moved 3-4 movies to a completely separate hard drive to make some room (probably moved roughly 16-18GB of files).

Here's the weird thing - no change in what WinXP was showing as free space for the RAID drive.

Tried refreshing, tried rebooting, no luck. Figured it was just an appearance thing, so I tried ripping a movie to the drive. No dice, says it's out of HDD space.

I then deleted 5-6 movies I didn't really need online. This should've freed up another 40-50GB of free space (now about 56-70GB total that I've moved/deleted), but WinXP only shows 27GB free. I tried running disk defrag for grins, but it didn't make any difference. I'm not running any disk compression utilities or other disk management programs. The RAID controller is a Highpoint HPT

Here's the odd part - if I explore the drive, highlight the one and only folder in the partition and show properties, it says there's only 375GB of data which would be about right. In WinXP, though, it is stubbornly refusing to give me back my free space!

Any thoughts of (A) why this is happening and (B) how I can get the correct amount of free space to be available again?

Thanks!

Jason

[beautye350]

Just guessing here, but are you running Norton Anti-Virus? If so, make sure that Norton is not "holding" your files and space in its "protected recycling bin". If it is (or even if it works like that???) try adjusting the settings to give up the files sooner (I think it defaults to a week).


Hope that helps.


Regards,

Beau

[stanger89]

Originally posted by rotaryracer
It's a non-Sage specific problem, but I thought I'd start here...

I have a media server in my basement that has (4) 120GB drives in a RAID0 array for a 445GB single partition. I'm using FAT32 (yes, I know, I want to convert it to NTFS)

convert drive: /FS:NTFS

and have about 50-60 DVDs ripped to the hard drive. The other night, I came within 2.5GB of filling the entire RAID drive, so I moved 3-4 movies to a completely separate hard drive to make some room (probably moved roughly 16-18GB of files).

I have to ask, are you sure you moved them and didn't just copy them? XP defaults to copying across drives and moving on the same drive.

[rotaryracer]

Yep, moved 'em, not copied. I checked my RAID drive and the folders are no longer there.

I am using Norton Antivirus, but when I deleted the files it said they were too big for the Recycle Bin & do I want to permanently delete. I will still doublecheck and make sure NAV is not holding out space on the RAID drive.

I did a Google search and it appears there may be a "FAT32 bug" that incorrectly reports free drive space after moving/deleting large files. Supposedly a ScanDisk will fix it - that's the one thing I didn't try last night. I'll run it when I get home and see if that works.

Regarding the conversion to NTFS from FAT32, what's the recommended cluster size for just storing ripped DVDs? 64K? I know when my brother formatted his drive NTFS using the default cluster size he lost some total capacity (which came back when he switched to 64K clusters). Any recommendations?

Also, should I keep the RAID array or dismantle it? My big fear is having a stripe go bad and losing the entire array (and contents). If I go back to four separate drives and one drive went bad, I'd only potentially lose 25% of the total movies available (compared to possibly losing ALL of them in a RAID0 array). The only downside I see to breaking up the array is that I might lose some efficiency for space - each drive having unused space at the end might total higher than the unused space at the end of a RAID drive.

Any feedback is welcome and appreciated!

Jason

[rotaryracer]

beautye350, good catch - Norton was tying up the space in Norton Protected Files! I purged all and am back to my full capacity! Not sure why it 'protected' moving a file compared to the actual deletes I did, but I've got my free space back!

Let me tell ya - running Scandisk on a 440GB drive is NOT a fast process.....I started at 5:30ish PM and it was at 90% when I went to bed at 11PM!

Thanks for the help guys!

Jason

[beautye350]

You are quite welcome, glad to hear it worked for ya.

Now about this other issue: buy one more drive and convert to a RAID 5 or take one of the four if you can live with a little less space. I know that is not easy, but you did ask for "ANY" feedback

The big problem I see in doing anything right now to your current array is you, I assume, will want the data that you currently have on there backed up and moving a few hundred GB is not fast or fun, not to mention the need for equal alternate space until you change over the RAID and can then copy the data back.


Decisions decisions.


Regards,

Beau

[rotaryracer]

Thx Beau....I just picked up another 400GB from CompUSA! (2) 200GB Hitachi Deskstars that I will connect to a Maxtor IDE controller. I will have the space to move the entire contents of the array, but as you mentioned, I highly doubt it will be either fast or fun.

I really do like the single monster RAID drive concept, but I'm sort of flying without a net. I did break a stripe once on this machine a couple of years ago (RAID0 on two 40GB HDDs) and was able to recover the array and save the data. I can't remember the specifics of how I actually repaired it, but it was a PITA and I think I still lost some files.

JBOD is probably the better way to go, but my thinking was that I can fill the RAID array to within a few GB of full. If I go to JBOD, I could potentially end up with 0-7GB free at the end of each drive - capacity that's big enough to matter, but not large enough to fit another movie into without compression.

I'll keep thinkin' on it, but I appreciate the input! If I'm going to do something, I'd rather do it now....

Jason

[stanger89]

What you need is one of these (for 5 drives):
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-020&depa=0 or these if you only use 4:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-019&depa=0

RAID-5 is not the same a RAID-0, one drive's space is used for parity info so even if a drive dies the array survives. Further with the 3ware cards, you can (AFAIK) unhook drives, move them to other machines, other 3ware cards, whatever, and as long as all the drives are there, the array remains intact (or I suppose all but 1 with RAID-5).

IMO RAID-5 is the only way to go if you've got plans for massive storage, and 3ware is about the only card I trust for something like RAID-5.

[beautye350]

Originally posted by stanger89
IMO RAID-5 is the only way to go if you've got plans for massive storage...

Agreed.


Regards,

Beau