I have only 44GB of storage on my new G2S which should have 160GB! HELP!!

Alright, I bought my Asus G2S-A1 from Canada Computers, and the hard-disk has been partitioned so I have 51.8GB of storage for the "DATA" section, and only 44.6GB of storage for Windows Vista OS! I thought I was recieving a notebook with 160GB of storage which I needed very much, but now I have just 44GB of storage! Why is it like this, and how can I fix this... PLEASE HELP!!

 

Just repartition the drive with something like partion magic, sounds like you may have some unpartitioned space, also there is a large amount hidded that is used for recovery if I am not mistaken.

 

Yeah Asus took the liberty to partition it, among loading up a bunch of useless crap that will slow down your machine. I just formatted my HD and reinstalled a clean copy of vista, works beautiful now, much much faster than it was at arrival state, and only one big partition. If you have the time and knowhow, i would recommend you just do that.

 

I agree mostly but I think multiple partitions is better than one big one. It wont slow anything down and offers abit more freedom and security vs just one. Say your OS gets fubared and you need to format and install it again. with 2 or more partitions you can keep you data on the data partition and just format the OS partition and not lose the data.

Its also the first building block to a multi boot system, I have 3 partitions and 3 operating systems on my notebook, and I have found it handy to use all 3 of them.

 

I do not have any idea how to "repartition" a hard-drive, and I am certainly unwilling to reinstall the OS after taking many hours to configue everything to my liking. Is there any alternatives?

Also, what is all of the 50GB of partitioned storage doing? Is it completely useless?

 

help??

 

I did help, a program like partition magic is as easy as 1, 2, 3. It has instructions but the program is so self explanitory that you shouldnt need it.

The reason I said use a program like partitoin magic instead of good ol fdisk and dos partioning is because it actully can repartiion the hard drive with NO loss in data.

Vista has some partition tools built into it also but they are much less powerfull, it can shrink or expand a partition. Just right click one of your drives and go into the partition tab and expand it. Problem is I dont know if vista will see the unpartitioned space, or the blocked partition with the recovery data on it so that you can use it.

 

You can also use your restore CDs to restore the OS as one whole partitioned HD.

160gb = 149gb real space

149 partitioned into:

35%/55%/10% for HD1/HD2/Restore

52 for d:
80 for c: (Vista, AV and other programs take at least 30gb)
10~gb for hidden restore partition

 

I (rather strongly) suggest to keep the setup as it is; if anything, make the data partition larger (unless you play many games). For reasons already mentioned: data safety. An OS partition should be available for formatting at any time without significant data loss.

What do you mean useless?!? You can store data on it just as well as on the OS partition. My point is, it's better to store it there because it's safe from Windows corruptions.

For my suggested partition setup, see the WinXP guide linked in my signature, section HDD Partitioning.

 

Can I actually utilize the storage I labelled useless?

 

Yes you can. Just install Programs on that partition

 

But everything installs by default into the Windows OS partition... How am I supposed to get things into the empty one?

 

The setup asks you......

 

In addition I do this:

C: Windows, system files, programs - 30gb
D: Media, Music, Videos, comics - 60gb
GG: Assignments, Labs, homework, Essays - 4gb

If, lets say, C: crashes and gets corrupt and is unaccesible, D: and GG: will be fine because they're on seperate partitions. Same goes for if D: gets a virus and is contained within D, I lose D: but I know C: and GG: are fine so I can back it up.

 

I have not seen any program that doesnt let you choose the install directory since maybe 1995 where it would always default to the C: and even then it was a rare thing to see.

 

I'm not exactly an advanced software user. Would it be possible for a kind and patient person to tell me how exactly I can utilize both partitions? ... It would be much appreciated.

 

When you install programs, Choose Drive D or D:\ instead of installing into Drive C or C:\

Most installation routines let you type in the path of installation and will typically have something like "C:\Program Files\Nvidia". Just change that to "D:\Program Files\Nvidia".

 

Personally, i'd rather have a 149GB C:\ drive and do backups. Having 3 partitions won't help in the event of nastier viruses or hard drive failure.

 

No but it will help in many other cases.

I'm sure that no matter how "not advanced" a user is, he/she's going to be able to move the music, document, and movie files to D: ?!?

I mean how difficult can that be...

I would not install programs on the second partition. I would leave them at the default and install on the first partition. Unless of course I'm running into space problems -- but then my first partition should've been bigger, and I'd resize it.

 

We're assuming J-Bytes has or can get a copy of repartitioning software. In this case, maybe it's worth the time to refresh the notebook with a single partition.

IMO, there's no real need for the recovery partition, since it only speeds up restoring to factory. We have the restore CD, might as well reclaim the space for other use.

I only install games or programs that constantly update large files (search engine indexes, databases, etc...) to a separate partition, since those files tend to fragment quite a bit.

 

That's up to him. Some people value more the space; others the time saved when recovering from HDD instead of CD.

That's not the point. The recovery partition is a 3rd that I did not talk about. Besides the recovery partition, I recommend at least 2 other partitions: 1 for OS, 1 for data. Do I really need to give examples when it will be extremely useful? OK, here they are.

1. Adware. That will typically only install itself in system folders.
2. Viruses that infect only executables that are actually running (and not all the files on the HDD).
3. OS corruptions triggered by bugs in the drivers or the OS itself.
4. Simply, just getting fed up with your old bloated windows and wanting to install a fresh copy.

In all these cases, you just pop in the CD (or press F9 whichever you prefer) and recover, without wasting 1 minute for copying valuable data. Because the data is already safe. No headaches. If using the HDD, you're done in 10 minutes, fresh Windows install, all the data is safe and untouched.

This is not a bad idea, but I think regularly defragmenting the OS partition will do just as well. It's recommended anyway.

 

I also strongly recommend partitioning. Partitioning will not help in case of HD failure but if you've ever needed to do a clean install because some software messed up your system (for me it was kaspersky), you'll be glad the data was on a different partition.