HDD size different than advertised

Hi,

The studio 1555 I purchased this month was advertised as having a 320Gig HDD, my invoice says that the laptop included a 320Gig HDD, but the C: drive only advertises that it is 283Gig.

My quesion is, where has 37Gig gone? Has anyone else noticed the same thing? Is it just an odd way Dell have set up the initial partitions and if I were to do a complete format and reinstall I would be able to see, and use, 320Gig?

Thanks in advance,

Dan

 

The missing 37gb is used for the file allocation table, basically an index of the location of all the files and other system stuff.

 

Thanks Tinderbox,

Does this mean that even if I format and reinstall win 7 cleanly (setting up all the partitions myself) I will still only have 283gb to play with?

 

You could check to see if your hdd is partitioned to it`s full size and there is no space left over unused, but if it is brand new it should have only have one full size partition.

 

The allocation table does not use 37gb. The propblem is the interpretation of the prefix Giga/Mega etc. Usually (scientifically correct) Giga defines 10^9 and that's how the HD manufacturer defines it. Windows interprets Giga as 2^30 which leads to the difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibi

Ram manufacturers interpret Giga as 2^30 that's why there is nor difference when installing Ram.

 

The missing space is used up by the installation of your Operating system as well as the programs installed. It mostly likely also has a recovery partion in the event that there is a problem with your computer.

 

I thought about it maybe being a recovery partition but if that is the case how can I find that partition and see what is on it? It certainly isn't being exposed to Windows.

 

You can see it in the disk manager - if you assign the partition a drive letter it should appear in Windows explorer.

 

Thanks brookeheather, I will check on that when I get home from work.

 

This, and the recovery partition.

From my brand new WD3200 (Note the total drive capacity on the left)(I have no recovery partition):

 

The total drive capacity is 298.1GB what is exaclty the value you get with the following calculation:

320 * 10^9/2^30

The capacity of C: is 298.1-(all other partitions)

 

Thanks for the response, that makes complete sense.