Help Please

Just got my new notebook a couple of days ago and installed all of my programs and saw that i had about 74 GB out of 160 left and. This is where i start becoming an idiot i think... Bare with me... I Decided to reinstall windows to clear my harddrive and free up some space. Some had said that when you reinstall it takes about 10GB to format the HD. Well i am very inexperienced with computers and now I am looking for some answers from the experts. After reinstalling windows I find a folder on the HD call "windows old" and i threw it away thinking that would put me at my 150GB of free space on my computer but come to find out that the total space free now is 112GB. Where did my 40GB go... And after all of this i look and see that my fingerprint reader no longer is recognized by the computer. O man please give me some answers i really hope you can help me cause i really love this computer and i hope a didnt just accidently lose 40GB and a fingerprint reader!

 

the drive is not "really" 160 to begin with.. more like around 130 or so.. what you have is prob about right... just lke my 320gb hdd is only 298 really

 

112GB is Right? thats 48less than what its supposed to be... it wasnt like that when i got it... it was like 123 when recieved. Anyone got a link the the finger print reader?

 

I have roughly 154GB after formatting, and maybe 148-150GB after windows installed. 112GB just doesn't seems right even with vista. have you delete the previous partition while installing?

 

The fingerprint reader is not an issue, just get the drivers from here : http://64.208.175.44/pages/notebooks/download.cfm?ProductType=5792
About your issue,maybe that disk space is not partitioned.
Since it`s a recent install, I sugest you do a full system reinstal, meaning that you have to get the Vista or Xp disk, and when booting up from it and installing ,choose formatting the disk.
After the OS is set up, start installing drivers from the CD that came with the laptop.

 

It never had an option for that... I dont understand how this is possible...

 

i just did that i dont understand what i did wrong i booted from the disk provided by Xotic PC its says its a recovery DVD-ROM for vistA 64x is that the same as the official copy from windows? thats it along with the driver CD

 

An option for what?
If the system came from Sager or a reseller, the OS was already installed.
Whenever installing an OS, it will ask if you want to format the partition where you are installing it.
I would post a pic, but don`t have any at the moment.
Insert the OS cd, or recovery,whichever , and follow the instructions.
At one point it will have to ask if you want to format the drives.Choose yes,and that should make the problem go away.
Also, as I said, maybe part of it is not partitioned. The installer will show you if it`s not, just use the available options for it.

The disk you got is specific FOR YOUR LAPTOP , but it`s Vista nonetheless, so it has the same options.

 

wait so you only have vista installed.. ???? i thought you had other programs as well.. ??? if you only have vista than no thats not right

 

PIctuers would help like i said im very laptop illiterate

 

okay so what EXACTLY is installed right now?? only vista??

 

@ Zfactor
I DID have programs installed then decided to reinstall Vista just to clean up the harddrive (i had done it previously to computers before with XP no problem) after reinstall i had 112GB free...

 

I prolly just dont know how to install it all correctly Vista is very new to me

 

i am pretty sure that you installed it on top of your old vista. when re-insalling, you need to delete the old one first in order to install a new one.

 

yes but did you format the drive while re-installing the new windows?? if you didnt tell it to format then everything you have will still be on there. you may need to reinstall again.

 

Nirvana im sure you are right im just not sure how to correct it... casue if I do it wrong again ill have a vista on a vista on a vista... thats just to much vista for me

 

no you dont.. when you install the new one it asks whether you want to do a upgrade or a new install. if you pick new then it moves the old windows to the windows.old folder which can be deleted. if you do upgrade it will simply overwrite files already there.

i think what he did is did a new install but didnt delete the partition and make a new one or didnt choose to format during the install

 

So when it asks i need to choose upgrade or new install? Thanks for all your quick replies you are all being of great help!

 

ok showtime.. put the disc in the drive... restart... hit any key to boot from the disk.... now go through the install choices... when it says upgrade or new or "custom" choose to install a new fresh copy... now you will see desk options. click on the hard drive in the box if its not already highlighted. choose the format option and wait a minute. once this is done then proceed with the rest of the install. you will have to reinstall the drivers on the disc you got with it when you get to the new windows screen since you formated the drive. its really easy to do..

 

choose only new install..see above post for al the info

 

isn't that what I just said? why'd you quote me?

 

sorry i didnt think it meant that.. i though you meant he did the install from inside windows which normally will either do a upgrade or do a double boot with 2 copies of vista

 

Thanks for all you help zfactor +1 rep for explaining this all to me very nicely and to let you know i got it all figured out. Thanks again for all your quick responses