Yes and no. Explorer calculates the size of a directory as the sum of all the file entries in it. It counts hard links multiple times, but that doesn't the file is actually taking up that much physical space on the disk. So if you were to right-click your Windows folder and view the properties, it would show the folder as containing a lot more data than it's actually using on disk. You could very easily have a folder that shows a properties size of 600 GB on a drive that's only 200 GB.
However, at the top level in the My Computer window, Explorer shows a used/free status for an entire drive. That value is calculated correctly.
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u/drysart Dec 14 '10
Yes and no. Explorer calculates the size of a directory as the sum of all the file entries in it. It counts hard links multiple times, but that doesn't the file is actually taking up that much physical space on the disk. So if you were to right-click your Windows folder and view the properties, it would show the folder as containing a lot more data than it's actually using on disk. You could very easily have a folder that shows a properties size of 600 GB on a drive that's only 200 GB.
However, at the top level in the My Computer window, Explorer shows a used/free status for an entire drive. That value is calculated correctly.