No recovery program and no it didn't defrag--but I did defrag after I found the GBs. merry Xmas?
The only possible explanation, and I have no idea if it is even possible, I can come up with so far is: about a month ago I was hit be a hacker/spyware (same difference to me) my usually inaccessible 'System Volume Information' folder, usually hidden and locked, became unlocked. I went in and cleaned out a bunch of old crap (Kids: don't try this at home!
you gotta have big balls or know what you're doing to do this or be really stupid
I have no idea which one I am) At that time my free space didn't change much in size and I wondered why not cuz I thought it would--maybe something in the check disk today fixed the free space reading??
40 gigs is a lot to 'recover'......