Harddrive less than purchased?

I ordered a Z with 3200 GB HDD (7200 rpm), but my computer shows there's only ~286GB worth of capacity. Why is this? Where did the other GBs go?

Also, why are there two hard disks? I have a C: with 285GB and a S: with 1.46GB. Why are they split and what are their purposes?

Thanks. Not really knowledgeable with computers, as you can probably tell.

P.S. Final question. I received a backup DVD with my laptop, but am unsure whether I should use it. The back label of the disk saids that the use of the DVD would degrade my OS from Vista to XP. I don't want this, but need to backup my materials eventually. What does the DVD's warning mean? Is there a way to use it without downgrading?

 

hard drive manufacters count their hard drives space by 1000's
example:
1000 Bytes == 1 KiloByte (1 KB)
1000 KiloBytes == 1 MegaByte (1 MB)
1000 MegaBytes == 1 GigaByte (1 GB)

"true" count would be by 1024
1024 Bytes == 1 KibiByte (1 KiB)
1024 KibiBytes == 1 MibiByte (1 MiB)
1024 MibiBytes == 1 GibiByte (1 GiB)

This means if u do the math
you have
320 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000
=320000000000
Once the computer reads this by 1024 standard
(((320000000000/1024)/1024)/1024)
=298.02gb

then you include recovery partition and you land at your 285. yea it's pretty lame but once you know how it works your get used to it.

As for the extra DVD sounds like you got a xp downgrade cd to reinstall your vista you need to burn the recovery dvd. Should have a program called recovery center or something to burn a vista recovery cd.

 

Hard drive manufacturers calculate hard disk size in 'base 10' notation while Windows does the calculation in 'base 2' (binary) format. Both the manufacturer and Windows are giving you the "correct" number.

1 Gigabyte as defined by a manufacturer is 1,000,000,000,000 Bytes. This makes sense in the metric base 10 sense as we define kilo as 1000, mega as 1,000,000 and giga as 1,000,000,000,000.

Windows, however, calculates the disk size in a base 2 system. Base 2 does not convert into base 10 exactly in most cases but back in the day it was close enough so that a kilobyte was defined as 2^10 or 1024.

2^10 is 1024 is 1 kilobyte
2^20 is 1048576 or 1 megabyte
2^30 is 1073741824 or 1 gigabyte

When the hard disk manufacturer sold you a 120 Gig hard drive, they were selling you 120,000,000,000 bytes. Windows divides this number by what it considers a GB (1073741824) and reports the hard disk size as:

120000000000 (bytes) / 1073741824 (bytes per GB) = 111.8 GB

This accounts for the 'missing' 8.2 GB in the hard disk's size. You still have 120,000,000,000 bytes to use but because of inconsistent definitions of what kilo, mega and giga really represent, there is an inconsistency in the measurement of size.

I'm not particularly certain as to what the S:drive is for. But the usual purpose is to provide a partition for OS installation files to be kept. Your S: Drive seems smaller than the usual recovery drive though.

As for your recovery DVDs, it sounds like you were given XP DVDs. Did you purchase your laptop with XP? The phrase downgrading to XP is used as MS views the choice of XP over Vista as being downgrading, a definition that users do not always agree with.

 

The size difference is because people selling drives count 320gb based on the idea a mb is 1000 bytes, but an engineer knows a mb is 1024 bytes. So, that extra 24 bytes per megabyte adds up.

Second, you 320gb is partitioned in two with some for you and some for a system recovery disk.

Third, no, don't use that unless you want to downgrade.

If you need to restore your system to factory settings (vista) you use a special key sequence at boot up and your computer will restore your machine (wiping out data) to factory condition using the aforementioned second partition.

You should back up your data to an external drive.

You may also be able to make up back up media using a shortcut in your start menu.

 

Thanks for all of your help everyone. Great answers.

As for the DVD: I purchased my Z just last week and came with the 64-bit Vista Ultimate. It would be unfortunate to downgrade to XP, IMO. The DVD that came with the laptop is for backup purposes. However, the label saids the use of the DVD would result in a downgrade, or something along those lines.

I really want to backup my files, but do not want to purchase an external harddrive.

Going back to the S: drive. So I should save anything into this disk? When used the backup feature for my Norton Antivirus, I went ahead an backed-up everything to this small S: drive. Should I undo this?

Finally, what is the 'SD / MMC (D '? My Windows backup wants to backup to this disk and demands a disk inserted. Is this the DVD drive? The reason I ask is because there is already an F: drive that is the DVD RW drive!

All these components are so confusing...

 

not to rehash what was already stated but this site explains it pretty well.

"for each Gigabyte that a drive manufacturer claims, they are over reporting the amount of disk space by 73,741,824 Bytes or roughly 70.3 MB of disk space."

your 320gb drive would actually be about 297.5gb. I just checked the size of my hidden partiton by booting a ubuntu live cd and using GParted and its 10.37gb, 9.61 used.

so my 320gb drive:
297.5 actual
- 10.4 hidden recovery
= 287.1gb

 

Like others said, that's pretty normal. Take a look at my 500GB HD.

 

That DVD you have is an XP recovery disc. Do make sure that you burn yourself your Vista recovery discs in case you need it from the "Sony Recovery Section" in Vista.

 

Or, to use their own terminology, 74 MB.

 

S: is quite possibly the SD/MMC card slot with a card in it.

While the Z comes with two partitions on the main drive, the restore partition is hidden (you can see it in Disk Manager, but can't assign it a letter or open it). And it's also around 5.5 GB, not just 1.46 GB.

 

Your Z has two ports, one to insert Memory Stick cards and one for SD/MMC cards, these are cards used for instance in digital cameras and so you can just take out the card from the camera and place it into the Z to transfer the data.

I have no idea why Windows is asking you to backup there. Do you have a card inserted there?