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    HDD Space dissapearing from now where?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by 133794m3r, Apr 18, 2009.

  1. 133794m3r

    133794m3r Notebook Consultant

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    Ok can someone explain to me where my extra HDD space went. Now i understand about the differences between the 1k for the manufacturers and the 1024 for the OSes. But why is it when i make an HDD Partition, i automatically lose space? 2GB on a 140GB Partition is alot of space for someone to lose.
     
    133794m3r, Apr 18, 2009
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  2. baibaiman

    baibaiman Notebook Guru

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    I think it is normal.
    I have 500 gb and only show for 465gb. Lost about 35gb for partition.
     
    baibaiman, Apr 18, 2009
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  3. xor01

    xor01 Notebook Deity

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    You're not losing 35GB for partition.
    Your HDD labeled 500GB in decimal format, 1KB = 1000 bytes.
    OS see your HDD capacity in binary format, 1KB = 1024 bytes.
     
    xor01, Apr 18, 2009
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  4. xor01

    xor01 Notebook Deity

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    What file system you use? NTFS?
    NTFS reserve space in the partition for storing file system metadata to avoid defragmentation of the file system metadata.
    The bigger the partition size, the bigger reservation made by NTFS. Smaller cluster size also make the reserve space bigger.

    For example, default NTFS cluster size for 140GB partition is 32KB. But using Acronis Disk Director, you change the cluster size to 512 bytes. It will make the reservation space bigger.

    PS: if you have lots of small files, smaller cluster size will make less wasted space.
     
    xor01, Apr 18, 2009
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  5. 133794m3r

    133794m3r Notebook Consultant

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    ah ok the last post finally explained it. I know all about the decimal vs. Byte size thing. I understand that but the partitions' size is what was confusing me.
     
    133794m3r, Apr 20, 2009
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  6. Jzskill

    Jzskill Newbie

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    I agree with Xor01--some space are reserved for partition information.
     
    Jzskill, Apr 20, 2009
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