1330 reformated via Les's instructions and now 53GB missing from HD

I have a mystery in my computer's hard disk allocation. I have a missing 52.3 GB in my user file. In the properties tree it shows 90.1 GB in the user file (all though when I hover over it with the mouse it shows 37.8 GB) and if I add up the space taken by all the folders in my user file, it only comes to about 37.8 GB. I am the only user on the machine.
I reformatted using Les's bloatware removal guide with media direct. I contacted dell XPS tech support and was told that the hard drive was formatted with "media direct formatting system" instead of "Vista formatting system" and that I would have to reformat the hard drive with the Vista CD, pull it out and install media direct, then install Vista.

Is this correct?

 

What he is saying sounds incorrect.

That size discrepancy sounds far to big to be a matter of formatting. Also, there is no such thing as "Media Direct Formatting System" nor "Vista Formatting System".

I also have MediaDirect installed. When I hover over my C drive, Windows tells me 90 GB have been used but when I highlight all folders and files (including hidden files) in the root, it only shows about 60 GB used.

You most likely have a MediaDirect Partition formatted in FAT32, and your Vista partition formatted as NTFS. Your MD partition is basically irrelevant since you are measuring a specific folder within the C Partition. In the Dell tech's (non-tech) terms, your Vista Partition is using the "Vista formatting system".

My guess as to what's happening is that when you view the folder as an item of its own, you are seeing the space it takes up including super-hidden system folders. When you check the contents of the folder, you are not shown the space taken up by those super-hidden system file, and so the total space occupied reported to you will be less than its true size, which includes those super-hidden files.

Windows also makes shadow copies of your files so you can revert to a previous version, and while I believe those are stored elsewhere, they could potentially be stored in your user directory under application data, or something of the sort.

 

I agree, it could easily be back-ups stored on your machine, as these do not typically show up. However, it would take a few days for 50 gigs worth to be created...how long was it before this showed up?

I recovered close to 20gigs be reducing the allocation cap for restore images. My machine was making daily backups, which were sucking up space and fragmenting my hard drive. Reduced the allocation to 4 gigs.

To change default:
1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type cmd.
3. Right click cmd (at top), and click Run as administrator.
4. Click Continue button for UAC prompt.
5. In command prompt, type vssadmin list shadowstorage and press Enter.
6. To change, type:
vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=3GB and press Enter.

NOTE:
/For= Your main drive (EX: C: )
/On= Destination drive of backup
Maxsize= Size you want to limit it to, # + GB or MB

Hope this helps!

 

I have no backups on my machine
I turned off back-ups first thing, and I back up to a home server and offsite online backup.
any other ideas about what is sucking up all my disk space?