Lost hard drive space!

[pcole]

I Know this will of been asked before but i cannot find a tread that answers my question.
I have deleted several large files in the order of 5gigs each, they cannot be deleted via the recycle bin but are deleted there and then, I understand these files are still there, perhaps in a compressed state,,,,,But as a result I seem to be losing hard drive free space,,

1 Can these files be deleted permanently so that space becomes available and what programs should i use and can it be done without having to reformat.

2 How can one view the lost space should this be the case?

3 Also can files be viewed and recovered from the temp int cache and are there any progs to undertake this?

Thanks

 

[Anubis1980]

i also have several files over 5gb etc that i have deleted but ive always regained the space. if u need to undelete things, not sure how it works with the temp int cache, i use a program called Tune up utils 2006. great little program also cleans up ur hard disk space and deletes any unwanted clutter, optimises registry etc. However if u want to undelete something, the quality of the file degrades the longer it is left. When u put more files onto the hard disk it often overwrites the deleted files, causing them to be unusueable, so if u want to undelete something best to do it asap after the mistake.

 

[macbook]

backup the data you need and format it, that worked for me !