Okay, I bought this 2TB drive to free up space on my laptop and allow for backups. Now the damn thing is full. The largest folder I have on the drive is for photos, which takes up about 3.5GB. The rest of the folders combined do not total 2TB or even close. So where are the backup files that are taking up all this space, and how do I delete them?
So what is the capacity of the drive? If you didn’t format it for 2TB (less overhead), it can’t store 2TB. What does the properties display say?
What computer, OPsys, how connected, etc. would be useful. We’re flying blind here.
We may have the same HD. One thing to check for are backups. Is your system making backups on this external drive? Those backups can really chew up hard drive space. The files are often hidden. Open your backup program to make sure this isn’t happening. Otherwise, you should check the drive for other hidden files, and (assuming you’re using Windows) use the Windows utility to check the drive for errors.
Why not just search the thing to see what is there? The answer will be clear.
Maybe you only have 200MB formatted and the rest unallocated. These things can come with no space until you designate it.
Consider a free partition program or the one with the product and divide thee device up in pieces that assure you extra space when needed.
Nobody here can tell you why the space is showing as full.
Sorry about the delay getting back.
System: Lenovo Thinkpad T61, Windows 7 Pro
Seagate drive info:
Used: 1.62 TB
Available: 196 GB
I don’t know how to look at hidden files, so can’t see the backup files.
if you are using Windows’ search function, select “include hidden files” in advanced options. Win7 is probably slightly different from XP, but I’m sure the option is there.
Look up for info on that particular drive it could be a hardware issue. Seagate while being extremely cheap is also notoriously bad. The 1.5TB Seagate drive I have died in about a year, well kinda, I can retrieve info off it about 50% of the time. I had nothing important on it so wasn’t all that concerned.
Bump. Can’t figure out how to check for hidden files, and no resolution to the problem yet.
are you using the Backup and Restore program in Windows? IIRC when I set up my system to back up to an external hard drive, at the step where you’re supposed to choose what folders to back up, there’s also a checkbox for it to save an image of the C: drive. I think that’s checked by default. Disk images will chew up a ton of space.
also, if you used the Windows utility, the backed-up data is in a folder on the external drive which has the name of your PC. Explorer for some reason shows this folder as “empty” even though it isn’t and you can’t easily view the contents.
ETA: this is how it shows up on my system. “CARBON” is the computer name, all my stuff is in the highlighted folder even though it’s empty.
Hit the Windows Start button on the lower left corner and at the search bar type “folder options”. This will get you on the Folder options settings. Then, click the tab “View” and select “Show hidden files, folders and drives”, then click OK.
Now you will be able to see hidden files and folders when exploring the file structure of the drive. Their icons show up as semi transparent.
Download WinDirStat (free program) and run it against the drive. It can show all the content of the drive and space consumed, in list and graphical format. It’s a fantastic tool for looking at full drives. Quite often my finding is “what the heck is ***that ***doing there?”
Also, be sure to empy recycle bin to get rid of “deleted” files still using space.
Also, Disk Management (in Control Panel - Administrative tools - Computer management ) can usually show you if you have only used a small portion of your drive or formatted the whole 2TB. DO NOT MESS WITH THE BOOT DISK C-drive unless you know for sure what you are doing!
Aha: I’ve seen that file. So I’m assuming that one can delete those files once I do what Dog80 said? I’m on my notebook at the moment, which is why I can’t go check things immediately.
if you don’t mind deleting your backup, go ahead. Or are you referring to different files?
It’s either delete the backup(s) or go buy another hard drive.
Uh-oh: the ‘display hidden files’ button is already checked. Also, I don’t see anything that looks like a computer name on the Seagate drive. There’s a folder called “$AVG”, which says it’s empty (AVG is my virus program). Could that be it?
can you post a screencap (like mine?)
If you tell me how. 
Oh, and it wasn’t the AVG folder.
Have you tried doing a right-click on each folder, and selecting properties? That should add all the files, hidden or not, to the total. Once you have narrowed it down, you can start more detailed investigation.
There are also free utilities out there that show folder sizes, and even search for files greater than a specified size (the Win search does that). You’ll have to find the culprits before you can determine why they are hogging the space.
Yup. The only other folder that says “empty” is the one called “Seagate”.
It’s not the empty ones we are concerned about, but the ones that are large, but have no reason to be. Find the biggest user of your space, then examine why.
I just checked my own system and I have a utility (from download.com, I think) that is called “folder size.” Running it allows me to see which folders are using how much space. Can you find that program and run it?
(I just ran it, and 50% of my C: drive is in the “porn” directory. Wonder what that is?) 