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Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

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  • Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

    Computer is showing incorrect free space for my ssd drives after I install 32GB of memory (4x8GB). I should have 42GB of free space on my 840 pro ssd but it's only showing 30GB free, if I restart the computer it will then show only 14GB, if I restart again it will go back to 30GB free space. I tested this with several different ssds all show incorrect free space on the disks if I have all 4 modules of memory installed. Tried different sata cables and sata power cables on different sata ports with both Intel and Marvell controllers, all with the same result. I even installed Windows 7 on a Crucial M4 ssd from scratch and it still shows incorrect free space as it shows I used over 120GB out of 256 which is impossible as nothing is installed besides the OS.

    However if I only use two modules of memory it will show the correct amount of free space. Doesn't matter which two modules I use it will work fine until I have all 4 in installed. I somehow doubt this is an os problem because I encountered the same issue on my linux ssd.

    Other then the incorrect display of free space, there are no other problems I have encountered, my system passed 90+ hours of memtest and 24 hours straight stress test on aida64 and prime95. It runs everything fine from gaming, encoding to normal day use.

    Can someone help me please?

    System (everything is running on stock):
    Windows 7 Pro SP1, Linux Mint 17
    Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK Rev 1.0 with F6 bios version
    i7-4790K
    Kingston HyperX Fury 4X8GB DDR3 1600
    Kingwin LZP-650W
    Samsung 840pro 256GB, Crucial M4 256GB, Liteon M6S 256GB
    MSI GTX 970 4GB

  • #2
    Re: Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

    Well i know little about Linux but my 1st thought when reading your post was that windows must be set to handle the pagefile by itself. Windows will adjust pagefile size by how much physical memory you have. More memory will cause windows to give you a larger pagefile.
    I would overide windows and give it a small fixed pagefile size, reboot and see what happens, then take it from there.
    If that isn't the problem then the motherboard could be getting confused about something so i would reset the bios to defaults with all the new memory in. If that fails to fix it then check for motherboard bios updates as that is likely to be the problem and if so, no amount of messing about will fix it. I've seen quite a few weird bios bugs over the years.
    Last edited by Teantea; 04-19-2015, 09:39 PM.

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    • #3
      Re: Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

      When you install the additional memory in that board, are you clearing the CMOS/BIOS afterwards? You actually should do that every time you change the amount of memory being used.

      Another factor with Windows and memory is the Hibernate file, which is sized according to the amount of memory in the system.

      But given your strange results with different OS's, IMO the problem is probably a BIOS issue. If you are seeing different amounts of free space after a boot or restart, that is not good. If the BIOS version is a beta version, change to the most stable version available.

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      • #4
        Re: Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

        Windows automatically creates a hibernation file the same size as your RAM. If you increase the amount of RAM you have, your hibernation file grows with it.
        You can disable hibernation by running a command prompt as administrator, and typing: powercfg -h off

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        • #5
          Re: Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

          Originally posted by parsec View Post
          When you install the additional memory in that board, are you clearing the CMOS/BIOS afterwards? You actually should do that every time you change the amount of memory being used.

          Another factor with Windows and memory is the Hibernate file, which is sized according to the amount of memory in the system.

          But given your strange results with different OS's, IMO the problem is probably a BIOS issue. If you are seeing different amounts of free space after a boot or restart, that is not good. If the BIOS version is a beta version, change to the most stable version available.
          No, I haven't cleared the cmos, I'll give that a try later tonight. I am using the latest stable bios available, the only newer one is a beta.


          Originally posted by Apokalipse View Post
          Windows automatically creates a hibernation file the same size as your RAM. If you increase the amount of RAM you have, your hibernation file grows with it.
          You can disable hibernation by running a command prompt as administrator, and typing: powercfg -h off
          That still wouldn't explain why my M4 ssd has half of the 256GB capacity being used after installing Windows 7 from scratch and the huge fluctuating of free space after a reboot.




          I also like to add that I have the same issue when I use Linux Mint Live CD, there would be no pagefile or hibernation file stored on my ssd since it runs off a CD.

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          • #6
            Re: Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

            Originally posted by ShortBaldFatGuy View Post
            That still wouldn't explain why my M4 ssd has half of the 256GB capacity being used after installing Windows 7 from scratch and the huge fluctuating of free space after a reboot.
            The hibernation file obviously isn't the only thing that takes up space on the drive.
            But with 32GB of RAM, it creates a 32GB hibernation file, which is still a large portion of it.

            Then there is the page file, which varies when it's set to "system managed". If you're actually using close to 32GB of RAM, then the page file could grow to very large sizes too. Which is why I have a 128GB drive dedicated to page file.

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            • #7
              Re: Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

              Originally posted by parsec View Post
              When you install the additional memory in that board, are you clearing the CMOS/BIOS afterwards? You actually should do that every time you change the amount of memory being used.Another factor with Windows and memory is the Hibernate file, which is sized according to the amount of memory in the system.But given your strange results with different OS's, IMO the problem is probably a BIOS issue. If you are seeing different amounts of free space after a boot or restart, that is not good. If the BIOS version is a beta version, change to the most stable version available.
              Finally have time post an update, I reset the CMOS and it fixed the issue with the fluctuating free space.

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              • #8
                Re: Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

                Originally posted by parsec View Post
                When you install the additional memory in that board, are you clearing the CMOS/BIOS afterwards? You actually should do that every time you change the amount of memory being used.

                Another factor with Windows and memory is the Hibernate file, which is sized according to the amount of memory in the system.

                But given your strange results with different OS's, IMO the problem is probably a BIOS issue. If you are seeing different amounts of free space after a boot or restart, that is not good. If the BIOS version is a beta version, change to the most stable version available.

                Finally have time post an update, I reset the CMOS and it fixed the issue with the fluctuating free space.

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                • #9
                  Re: Drives showing incorrect free space after installing 32GB of memory

                  Thanks for letting us know what happened, glad that worked for you.

                  I'd love to know exactly what caused the OS to detect various amounts of free space on the SSD. Not that I expect you or anyone to know why, I sure don't.

                  Things like this make me wonder how we can trust the numbers or values we are shown any time, or accept just because we believe they are correct. What else do we have to go by? Sure there are other programs that determine the used and free space on drives, but it they derive the information from the same source, we would never know.

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