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I was reinstalling Windows after some part upgrades (so this is a brand new install) and noticed that it is reporting the size of the Windows folder wrong.

Properties says ~2 GB, drive used space and some other programs (spacesniffer) puts it at ~14 GB.

Windows v1809.

What is going on here?

Edit: Note: I am a power user. I know what symlinks, hardlinks, ntfs reparse points et al are. I am looking for an explanation for this discrepancy. While some programs may be misled by those (unlikely as it is, for programs whose primary purpose is counting space), under that theory, it still wouldn't explain why drive used space still falls victim to the same discrepancy.

martixy
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    Viewing the properties of the Windows directory is an inaccurate method of determining the actual size of the Windows directory. – Ramhound May 09 '19 at 22:53
  • Well mind elaborating? – martixy May 09 '19 at 22:53
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    Yea, this is normal. There are lots of questions here about the various aspects of this: https://superuser.com/questions/307869/my-windows-directory-is-huge https://superuser.com/questions/1214208/how-to-find-all-file-sizes-under-windows-folder https://superuser.com/questions/307641/windows-folder-size-far-bigger-than-all-files-and-folders-within-combined – music2myear May 09 '19 at 22:53
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    The short answer is symlinks. A file can take up space on a hard drive in just one place, but "pretend" to exist in several other folders. Some applications will count all the instances as different uses of space. – music2myear May 09 '19 at 22:58
  • Does "some programs" include the code that tells me how much hard drive space is being used? – martixy May 09 '19 at 23:00
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    Settings will report the correct size. SpaceSniffer is also reporting the correct size. – Ramhound May 09 '19 at 23:05
  • @Ramhound Am inclined to agree. I'd like to know why properties however is not. What is counted? How is it counted? – martixy May 09 '19 at 23:08
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    `System -> Storage` is the proper location. I presume when you viewed the properties of the Windows directory you were running as a normal user? – Ramhound May 09 '19 at 23:10
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    This problem may get worse in future versions of Windows, when 7 GB will be reserved by Windows Update. I don't know what path it will use, but it will probably not be visible to regular browsing. – Christopher Hostage May 09 '19 at 23:16

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