yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[HTC One X] BarryH_GEG:
I have 3,145,728KB being reported as bad sectors. I'm guessing since your results are so similar to mine they aren't really bad sectors. More than likely they're either protected files, protected disk space, or something in HTC's unique configuration of storage (see above) that's not being read correctly by CHKDSK. If we all get the same result it's probably not an issue with the device itself.

P.S. - If someone does a hard reset (w/o loading any apps) and CHKDSK still reports 3ishGB in bad sectors that would confirm it's an issue with CHKDSK reading the phone's storage.
[HTC One X] Birdskenburg:
That's a lot!

Well, I don't think this problem has anything to do with unsafely disconnecting the device, this shouldn't give bad blocks; at the utmost corrupt files.

Then again, I don't know that much about the subject. I believe the memory controller keeps track of bad sectors on a lower level, and bad sectors are mostly caused by damage/faulty hardware. If we'd really have bad sectors, a high level format wouldn't solve the problem (which it did, appearantly). So I think this problem is software related, or related to the memory controller. But again, I know very little about this.
[HTC One X] seedoubleu:
I'm not really very clued up either, just learning as I'm going along.

It seems like too much of a coincidence that the size of the system data file on the storage card is pretty much exactly the same size as the amount of bad sectors shown from the chkdsk.

It seems there's a more overarching issue at hand here which is slowly affecting more of us.

BarryH_GEG - I think that's what we need to find out, what files are actually in that System data directory, if anyone has root access they may be able to dig deeper with an explorer app.

Supaiku - Yup, System data is directly below Storage Card but doesn't show up on any explorer apps, only when using DiskUsage.
[HTC One X] Birdskenburg:
Yeah I think you're right. Still, it's strange that seedoubleu is reporting to have more than 14GB of 'bad sectors', what would be hidden there?

I still think this has something to do with the device's memory controller, because the 3+ GB really isn't accessible.
[HTC One X] Reckless187:
Heres a shot of Mine using Disk Usage App. about 6gb in System Data lol...
[HTC One X] BarryH_GEG:
As Paul from MoDaCo said, HTC's not using the standard ICS MTP protocol. They've created a hybrid so the phone can support mass storage. Rather than letting the OS manage storage as a single disk, they're manipulating storage behind the scenes to create the illusion of two separate disks. It would make sense (to me) that what CHKDSK is viewing as bad sectors could be a virtual drive expanding and contracting. Just a guess.

P.S. - To further support this, something strange happened when I had the phone charging via USB. I was using Astro to move some files around and I got "disk full" errors. When connected via USB, even for charging, phone storage is locked on the device and isn't reopened until it's disconnected and the phone does a media scan. So HTC's obviously doing some voodoo in the background.
[HTC One X] seedoubleu:
Attached mine,

Funnily enough the System data has once again increased in size since I disconnected my phone (which I didn't do safely :o). Coincidence?
[HTC One X] BarryH_GEG:
Try moving some apps from phone storage to SD (and vice versa) to see if that effects the size of the system file. If it does, that supports the virtual drive theory.
[HTC One X] seedoubleu:
I moved a few things backwards and forwards and System data went down from 15234 to 14855...
[HTC One X] Birdskenburg:
Hmm nice work HTC:rolleyes: Not very neat

So I guess we might get in to problems when using a large amount of the supposedly available capacity
[HTC One X] BarryH_GEG:
It really shouldn't be an issue. If there's 10GB of crap on your phone and 25GB of available storage it doesn't matter which virtual drive it lives on. Using an interface like Astro you can see which virtual drive things are on and move them back and forth. Things like CHKDSK and other drive tools won't work though. I kind of like the approach HTC took vs. using MTP. It's faster for transferring files and easier when accessing the phone from a (Windows) PC.
[HTC One X] seedoubleu:
So this is a non issue really? If I were to upload a 1GB file for instance would that just reduce the size of the 'System data' folder to accommodate for that?
[HTC One X] irishj:
I'm also seeing the same thing, but on my phone is showing 14160 MiB taken up by system data ?

I have no music / videos on the phone, just some games and apps, which according to diskusage is taking approx 5-8 GB. I've 3.7GB free !

Something is not right here
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
your sd is eaten by system like i was.

Sent from my HTC One X
[HTC One X] irishj:
How did you 'fix' the issue ?

Wipe SD card or factory reset or did you get to fix it at all ?

I did have loads of MP3 on my phone, but when space started to run low, I removed them all...but noticed it barely touched the free space. Must be some kind of caching going on when you use USB to copy stuff back and forth from your phone, but you would assume when you deleted the original content, that this would be removed too. Just speculation at this point...don't really know why this partition is eating so much space and what's contained within it.

I checked the SD card via FX explorer, but can't see the system data partition, so can't delete it.

I may have to wipe the SD card and see, but hate the hassle of setting up all my folders and favourite apps again :(
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
-copy all contents to pc

-format sd using PC not use phone format , otherwise after format you will loose 1G immediately

-copy pc backup to sd

then you will get all space you lost.

Sent from my HTC One X
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
By doing this you do not need to set anything afterwards. since you copy whole sd to PC and copy back.

Sent from my HTC One X
[HTC One X] fallenwout:
Just to clarify to everyone:

The bad sectors seen by chkdsk aren't broken sectors. But chkdsk is right in windows terms, it are sectors marked with the wrong property or a property unknown by windows. Knowing windows can perfectly handle FAT32 I will take a wild guess and say it is a wrong property.

To explain more:

If you delete a file, it is not thrown away, the sectors were it is on get the property "overwritable" so the OS shows them as "free space". Sectors assigned with a wrong property or not writable due to hardware error get the property "bad sector". Therefor it is theoreticaly possible to recover "bad sectors" if windows notices that those sectors are still readable AND writable. This is triggered by chkdsk /f /r

Like windows, your phone does NOT recognize bad sectors as writeable and ignores them as usable space, therefor you WILL loose that space on your phone.

The only solution I found so far is to copy your sd content to a PC, format it into FAT32 and copy the contect back. You will see you gained the amount of bad sectors back in free space.

edit: factory reset of your phone is absolutely NOT NECESsARY
[HTC One X] irishj:
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the info ! I'll wipe the SD card later via Windows and copy the content back and see what we have. I'll update once completed.
[HTC One X] seedoubleu:
Thanks for the info, will try this when I'm home. My main concern now is preventing it from happening again, any idea what causes the issue in the first place?
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
Does that mean if we use pc to delete the files on phone'SD will cause those deleted space is locked and can not use any more? For instance you delete 1G on sd from PC but SD free space not change at all.

Sent from my HTC One X
[HTC One X] irishj:
Completed the SD card wipe and formatted using windows [FAT32] and showed 25GB free

Copied all SD card contents back to phone and checked DiskUsage again and now shows 17GB free !!!!

Rebooted the phone and checked DiskUsage again, still shows 17GB free. That's just crazy...really want to know what's causing this.

Screenshots showing the differences attached
[HTC One X] shankly1985:
I always un-mount the disk before pulling out usb cable. If you dont you can corrupt the storage.
[HTC One X] fallenwout:
No, files with the property "overwritable" will be seen as free space. And if you delete them (doesnt matter if you use mac, windows, android, symbian...) you give them the property overwritable.

It is when an operating system handles the properties wrong, maybe an unknown property, maybe incomplete,... it is then when you get a bad sectors.
[HTC One X] irishj:
Ok..I installed Fifa12 from PlayStore and checked the space straight after, little change. Launched the game and it downloaded 1.2 GB of data.

Checked space again and our friend 'system data' was back again, just over 1GB in size. Deleted the downloaded content from 'android/data' and checked space again, system data is still there. Rebooted and checked again and the 'system data' partition is still there. So even though i removed the content, it wasn't removed from 'system data' partition. Basically i've lost 1GB of space.
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
Try to find a folder under SD called LOST.DIR (it is empty) and delete it, see is free space increase. I use RE explore which can show all hidden folder. It not work for me but maybe work for you.

Sent from my HTC One X
[HTC One X] ayan15:
even i safely remove it from the PC still im losing 1gb.. another bug? tsk..
[HTC One X] kutbinahar:
I had the same issue 11gb system data showing

I copied all my sdcard content to pc then formatted sdcard nd copied back all files from pc to sdcard now i have 13gb free

Even i had the same issue phone memory full though apps was using only 606mb so it should be 1.5 gb free but it was saying 200mb free! Finally i found folder named lost+found in my system folder i just deleted that and now all fine

Though i m not sure what causes that but i have 70% doubt on RomCleaner coz after using that i get this issues
[HTC One X] shree.cse:
I have the same issue few days back. My free space was usually 500mb- 1gb only even all my files size is only 12 gb. I thought something else was using this missing storage. But I formatted my storage and copied all my contents again and got 13gb free space, just after one hour I copied one more file and I got 1gb missing. So, I felt this is something HTC and developers has to consider as a bug.
[HTC One X] anfozy:
CRAZY!! thank you to the op for making a thread, i had no idea i was running out of space! because i only ever connect my phone to pc to copy over roms (500mb) so thinking 25gb to play with i dont really need to check for awhile until i bumped into this thread being curious i plugged my phone to the pc and checked to my surprise it said i had 12gb free left?! i couldnt have used 11gb right?! highlighted the folders and files in the sd card and it was only 3.8gb?! anywho like everyone else i just copied my files over formatted copied back over and ive recovered all my free space again -BUT i would really like to find out how to prevent this. i really dont want to plug my phone back into my pc, its a pita to copy files and format blah blah
[HTC One X] wintermute000:
This thread is crazy. I haven't noticed anything so far, stayed on 5.94 free for last 3 days so touch wood I don't think I'm affected.

Wondering what the common thread is re: people affected.

FWIW my first OneX had mad storage lag (returned) so something wrong with the storage flash or controller, could be related
[HTC One X] irishj:
Tried that mate..deleted the LOST.DIR folder and rebooted the phone, the same amount of space is being taken up by the 'system data' partition.

I actually copied a new 1GB file via usb this morning and the 'system data' partition has also increased by 1GB :( Need a fix for this issue asap.
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
Guy, try do format again if you has used default format in PC.

- Download Partition Wizard Home Edition it is free.

- use that software to format SD card with FAT32 16K setting, be careful not choose non-FAT32 setting.

- Do the format and copy all files back.

It works for me. And I has used USB to copy 3G files after re-boot not lost anything so far.
[HTC One X] KrisPerry:
This worries me. I think I might take my one x back and swap it for a one s
[HTC One X] Reckless187:
After doing the backup - Format and copying files back onto the phone, the Google Play App Shows a blank page under the My Apps Section and the online Play Store website lists my installed apps as not installed.
[HTC One X] cxhhappy:
I am also the same problem, only FAT32 formatted SD to solve!Look forward to a better solution!::confused:
[HTC One X] irishj:
Ok..will try this and report back. Cheers

---------- Post added at 11:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 AM ----------

Tried this and copied over 1 MP3 album via USB, disconnected via the phone usb menu and the system data partition is back..just over 1GB in size.

Are you running stock or a modified rom ?
[HTC One X] Supaiku:
I had this issue (12GB of it!). Reformatting the SD (after backing up of course!) fixed it.

From how on I will not mount the storage through USB unless I must, but instead use wifi file transfer methods or adb based GUIs.

Hopefully this will prevent the issue (albeit as a work-around).

I assume it was caused by unmounting while reading information.
[HTC One X] irishj:
Thanks for the info !

Gonna try the same thing myself, it's down to usb transfers alright. Surprised more people aren't complaining about the issue to be honest.
[HTC One X] KrisPerry:
Still not an acceptable method in my opinion. If we can't mount as usb mass storage then we are at a serious disadvantage. What about usb charging without mount
[HTC One X] seedoubleu:
Me too, I mean the % of people who safely remove USB devices must surely be pretty low and this seems to be where the issue is stemming from as far as we know.

I guess we need to make sure HTC are aware of and acknowledge the issue... What's the best way to do this?

---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:34 AM ----------

You can change to charge only via your PC in the settings but I agree, this isn't an acceptable solution to an issue it seems more and more people are having.
[HTC One X] mardon85:
Remember to report this to HTC as much as you can. All well and good chating about it here but you ALL need to email/phone HTC so they know about the problem!
[HTC One X] irishj:
Tried again, backed-up the SDcard and wiped the SDcard using Windows. Copied back the SDCard contents and checked space, no system data partition.

SSH'd into my server and downloaded 1 MP3 album and checked space just like before when copying via usb, but this time no 'system data' partition.

Copying via usb is the problem here. Copy everything via FTP or SSH.
[HTC One X] Supaiku:
Well, it's not mounted so it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to use the mass storage mount, just try to end all apps which could be using your SD card (music, ebook readers, etc.) and then mount it. Then be sure to close all windows and software using the SD card before unmounting the device. Perhaps being careful will prevent the orphaned data. At least there's no data loss! That would be real horrible.

But to be honest, charging via USB seems nearly worthless anyways! When I charge with USB and the screen is on, or it's doing something I often lose charge!
[HTC One X] XDAgeek:
I had this problem too on a rooted 1.29( InsertCoin 5.0.0). 8.1GB of 'lost' space. Did the copy-off/format/copy-on and got most of the space back, although immediately 1GB was lost again.

*****Just checked my wife's unrooted phone and no such problem!!!!!!!!*****

Need to know much more about what is going on here.

---------- Post added at 09:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:43 PM ----------

Hmm. Just received OTA update to stock 1.28.110.7 to wife's phone. Now it shows System data usage of 1040MB! Didn't see this on previous stock 1.26 ROM.
[HTC One X] JDR0iD:
I had 25 gb lost somewhere with my music etc. In es file explorer go to menu, SD analyzer and u see for some reason it stores a load in trash. I freed up 20gb from deleting trash.

Wierd!!!
[HTC One X] JDR0iD:
Check your trash guys, you'll be surprised
[HTC One X] mahesh_9j:
where we'll find the TRASH....may be a noob question but help will be appreciated..
[HTC One X] ewok666:
No offense but, I formatted the 25GB, copied the data back on, 'safely removed' it in windows, changed the usb mode back to charge only then unplugged and still lost 1GB.

How else is one supposed to disconnect this? THis is nonsense, I don't know how many times I forgot to disconnect the SGS2 properly and, while I may have ended up with a lost file or two over time, this never amounted to GBs!
[HTC One X] wintermute000:
Sorry but this happened to me and I always safely unmounted
[HTC One X] kchino:
I've had the same issue on 3 different ROMs, I'm using a Mac and always unmount before pulling the cable but the constant is definitely copying to the sdcard partition in USB mode. The only fix I've found is formatting the sdcard, but once I copy anything over with USB I lose anywhere from 1-6 GB.

I haven't had a HTC since the original Nexus...

Now I remember why :rolleyes:
[HTC One X] DanteGR:
Went into sd analyzer in es explorer but i can't find "trash"..

Btw manually counting all my data results in about 11gb. So I should have about 14gb free.

Instead I have only 4,89gb free lol.

The HOX is getting weirder and weirder every day...
[HTC One X] JDR0iD:
Its right at the top should be in your file explorer to something like ~.Trash check there to free some space up
[HTC One X] BarryH_GEG:
At some point you'll all realize that because HTC's using a newly introduced background process to manage storage, what's being reported by third party tools isn't accurate because what they're programmed to read is either missing or altered. I use Astro and it shows three different amounts of data used on the SD depending on which tool I use. When I add up the sizes of the folders and files on the SD, only one of them is right. The XL has only 16GB of storage of which probably about 11-12GB is user accessible. If this was a real issue don't you think after a week at least one person would have stumbled upon it?

The screen shot on the left is wrong, the one on the right is correct. On my SGS2 they are always the same. But, knowing HTC's managing storage differently, I'm not in the least bit worried about it. Carry on.
[HTC One X] ewok666:
Would be worth for you to get a grip on reality. I copied the exact same files off the sd card, formatted it and copied them back on. That gave me 6gb back as reported by settings....and that was still wasting 1gb. I redid the exact same thing and now I'm only 100mb short .

You should be worried!
[HTC One X] alen1234:
Since that is 99% a software problem, we can expect it will be fixed via OTA.
[HTC One X] BarryH_GEG:
How do you know what you're looking at is correct? If a background process is reserving and releasing memory dynamically it won't affect the total storage that's physically available when you actually need to use it. In my case, the same tool is showing both 8.54GB and 11.93GB used. I know the former's right because it maps to actual files and folders on my SD. And I'm assuming the phantom 3GB is still available and is just being reported incorrectly. That's why I'm not worried. Have any of you actually gotten an out of memory message or are you just moving files around and reacting to the result? If I'm right you're just playing cat and mouse with HTC's new method of managing storage.

The flickering threads are at about 100 pages. This one's at eight. Don't you think this would be a bigger issue if it's the pandemic it’s being made out to be? And unlike some of the other issues I can't imagine this wouldn't impact every device equally since its s/w. The XL users with 16GB are much more likely to max out their storage and you'd think they'd have been the first to discover that the phone was mysteriously eating it.

I'm just sharing an opinion. You guys do what you think is best. And I'll be the first to congratulate whoever is able to define this as an issue if it ends up being one.
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
Hi guy this issue is not go to 100 page post because it is not easy to find untill you have .short of space. we use PC to calculate space which not related to phone process.

The problem is there and HTC need to fix it . It is more serious problem than screen flick which you need to set to low light or full light to detect.

Sent from my HTC One X
[HTC One X] BarryH_GEG:
It's very much related to the phone process. If an HTC process is reserving storage that CHKDSK can't see the results CHKDSK are reporting are wrong. If the difference is 3GB there's nothing to indicate that the space being reserved by the system wouldn't be returned if needed.

Here's my CHKDSK. Adding in what are being reported as bad sectors it maps to what Astro's reporting in the left screen cap I posted. Discounting the bad sectors it's close to what's actually on my SD and shown in the right screen cap. You guys are assuming 3GB is missing. I'm assuming that 3GB is being reserved by the system but still available if I need it.
[HTC One X] Holman:
hello all.

i wanna describe what ill do to fix that.

Im not sure that ist panacea for everyone, but for me it work great.

First of all, here is my problem:

Have HTC 1x with stock 1.29. in first day of use, ill copied to internal SD around 6gb of data. then ive found this issue and check it out on my phone.

"Es Explorer" show me that i loose aroud 2gb of space.

After that i decide to format internal SD, and find that its formatted not correct for 32Gb disk usage.

On my phone cluster size was 32kb (i know that its not a big problem, but for 32gb storage it should been 16kb to avoid much space loose).

I mounted phone as disk to windows, and use default windows format (not even cmd command) BUT ive changed cluster size to 16kb and without Quick format check box.

after format is complete first of all im check free space. nothing loose.

then copy back all of my data (6gb). and after that check space again = nothing loosed.

run chkdsk X: /x - no bad sectors found.

after that testing copy/delete 20 times (or even more) with 1000000byte file.

no space loose.

im not sure that format helps me, may be my flash was badly preformatted, but now i have good working internal storage :)

PS: on other forum i also saw posts that same action wont help. so right now i think that my SD was badly preformatted. and as cure = format.

PPS: just for info, on my storage aroun 6000 files.
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
You assumption is wrong, the phone think it is used. I have only 2G left before and I can not copy any file big (like MKV video more than 3G) into it.

Only after I format it, then got all lost space back.
[HTC One X] mmx6688:
It is very good experience. As I said in previous format on PC but not from phone. And format with FAT32 16K setting.

Actually before 1.29 ROM the phone SD format cluster is 16K setting, but after 1.29 it become 32K.
[HTC One X] matmar:
?

Question to people having problems, do you have anny backup of clockwork on your SD ?

Something strange here, I delete withh ES manager a backup and the day afteer files are again there ???? (1,7 Go !)

Can it be related ? How is managed the deleted file when big ?