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    Wheres my 15gb gone ? :-(

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by KaiConfuzzled, Dec 6, 2008.

  1. KaiConfuzzled

    KaiConfuzzled Notebook Guru

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    Hello everyone,
    I've recently done a full re-install, minus bloatware and everything is great, the mavchine is noticably faster, and this is before I do the tweaks.

    One thing I've noticed: My laptop (s15) shipped with a 120GB HDD. When it was factory build I never really paid any attention, but I am assuming in win explorer, C would have shown as roughly 120.

    When I installed windows, it would only ever recognise 300gb. There were no partitions, not even a recovery one as I'd formatted the drive using another tool, from the ultimate boot disk.

    My C drive is now 300gb. When I browse the partions using FDisk, there is 1 NTFS partition of 305GB, 100% usage.

    The BIOS says my drive is 120GB.

    Any ideas anyone? OK, its no big deal as the machine runs great but I'd be interested to know where the rest of the space is.

    Any ideas welcome

    Many thanks

    Kai
     
    KaiConfuzzled, Dec 6, 2008
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  2. Alex

    Alex Super Moderator

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    Thats not unusual or a problem
    I have installed 160gb drives where the bios only recognizes aprox 130gb
    In windows the full drive size is recognized

    Alex
     
    Alex, Dec 6, 2008
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  3. frazell

    frazell Notebook Deity

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    I am confused here. Are you saying Windows is saying you have 300GB and the BIOS and the Driver are saying it is a 120GB drive?

    I'm not sure where the 15GB in the title is from or what exactly that is all about.
     
    frazell, Dec 6, 2008
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  4. KaiConfuzzled

    KaiConfuzzled Notebook Guru

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    Sorry - typo


    BIOS - sees 320

    FDISK - sees 305

    Windows - see 300

    Sorry about the confusion.
     
    KaiConfuzzled, Dec 6, 2008
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  5. Alex

    Alex Super Moderator

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    296gb is shown in windows for my 320gb drive
    So you are OK

    Alex
     
    Alex, Dec 6, 2008
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  6. frazell

    frazell Notebook Deity

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    Ah, thanks for the clarification.

    The numbers in Windows sounds about right by me eyeballing it. The problem is HD makers report 1GB as 1,000 megabytes and Windows (and all software) see 1GB as 1,024 megabytes. So the number shown in Windows will be smaller.

    The best way to see if your drive is the right size is to bring up its Properties in My Computer and look at the "Capacity" line. It will show the long number as what the HD makers report and the number software reports to the right.
     
    frazell, Dec 6, 2008
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  7. KaiConfuzzled

    KaiConfuzzled Notebook Guru

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    Thanks everyone - thats great.

    Yes, in the 'capacity' line, its reporting as 320GB. I hadn't spotted that, I'd just looked at the pie chart.

    I'm just pleased I hadn't messed something up during the re-install, as the machine is working so much better.

    Thanks again, my mind is at rest now.

    Time to quickly back it up now before i break it :)
     
    KaiConfuzzled, Dec 6, 2008
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