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10 gb of hard disk memory missing


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#1
ripperdon

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>I originally had windows xp-sp2 installed on volume d of my laptop.
>I reinstalled windows using a usb stick on drive c after formatting it.
>When i logged on to windows,I formatted(quick format) drive d in order to 'remove' my previously installed windows.
>When i checked disk management after this I found only a tally of 150 gb of hard disk space; not 160 gb as it was originally.

Can someone please help me out?
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#2
diabillic

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Formatted vs unformatted space will always be different. Took this quote from another site, think it sums it up nicely

[codebox]Formatting really doesn't take up any space. The "perceived" space loss is a result of the conversion from base-10 (how HDD manufactures list space) to base-2 (how the computer writes/reads data).

If you want to know how much space you'll be able to use, just multiply the HDD specified space by a value of 0.93 (or to be entirely accurate, 0.93132257462). The formatting method (FAT/FAT32/NTFS/HFS etc.) doesn't really matter. Just multiply by 0.93.

Technically, GB (gigabyte) stands for base-10 and GiB (gigibyte) stands for the base-2. When you click on My Computer and view your space, while it says GB, it's actually GiB. No one really uses GiB though, and so GB ends up standing for both, and that's where the confusion is.

1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes (how HDDs are manufactured)
1GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes (how software actually sees and uses HDD space)

40GB = 37GiB
80GB = 74GiB
100GB = 93GiB
120GB = 111GiB
160GB = 148GiB
200GB = 186GiB
250GB = 232GiB
300GB = 279GiB
320GB = 297GiB
400GB = 372GiB
500GB = 465GiB
750GB = 697GiB
1000GB = 930GiB [/codebox]
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#3
ripperdon

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But I was able to use the entire 160 gb earlier,the previous time i had reinstalled my OS...
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#4
diabillic

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Is it a 160GB drive?
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#5
ripperdon

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thanks for the quick responses mr.diabillic

yes it is a 160 gb drive... have been using the laptop for over a year now

Edited by ripperdon, 02 July 2009 - 12:51 PM.

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#6
Broni

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Re-read diabillic's reply.
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#7
ripperdon

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@ mr. broni

Yeah i got it the first time I read it,but my question being,if everything is the same including the OS installation cd , how can it tally to 160 gb prior to reinstallation and 150gb after reinstallation. What diabillic says is a very plausible answer but I hope am able to pt forward my doubt clearly...

Could it be possible that a recovery partition was made? If so how can i determine it?
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#8
diabillic

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Are there 2 local disks? You can check Disk Management as well, it will verify if more then 1 partition exists on the same disk.
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#9
ripperdon

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have uploaded the screenshot of the disk management ...

Attached Thumbnails

  • disk_mgmt.JPG

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#10
diabillic

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You have 4 40GB partitions. Not really sure why it was setup that way, but your disk space is there.

4 * 40GB = 160GB

Your total disk size is 149.05GB formatted, which is exactly what its supposed to be.

Edited by diabillic, 05 July 2009 - 02:47 PM.

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#11
ripperdon

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mr.diabilic, doesnt it read as 3 40gb partitions and one 30 gb? i dont quite follow how there are 4 40gb partitions.. could you please explain it? thanks :)
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#12
wjsim

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Please pardon me, I'm just bored.

29.29 + 39.06 + 40.04 + 40.65 = 149.04 GB

The manufacturer claims it's a 160GB harddisk. Let's do some maths.

160GB (manufacturer's label) = 160,000,000,000 Bytes (read diabillic's post)
160,000,000,000 Bytes = 156,250,000 Kilobytes
156,250,000 Kilobytes = 152,587 Megabytes
152,587 Megabytes = 149.01 Gigabytes

There's nothing wrong with your harddrive. If there's any issue, it should be that you're getting more space than you're supposed to.

Edit: Instead of multiplying by 0.93, I divided the number at each stage by 1024.

Edited by wjsim, 07 July 2009 - 12:19 AM.

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#13
ripperdon

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Well i did this math already.
My only doubt being this should hold good right from the day i bought my laptop...

Prior to xp reinstallation, the sum of all partition sizes tallied to the 160 gb.

now it does to around 150 gb.. my concern is not the loss of 10 gb, but more into how it could have happened.

If its only because of the conversion,well and good...or is there any other possibility :)
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#14
rshaffer61

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Here are my HD's and they all show that after partition and format that you never have the full amount of the drive available.
I have two 80 gig drives and a 250 gig drive.

You can see they show as 76.69 gigs and 232.88 gigs

Edited by rshaffer61, 07 July 2009 - 07:06 AM.

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#15
123Runner

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And the larger the hard drive you have, the more you lose.
I have a 500gb drive partitioned 3 times and only have 465.75gb available. So I am missing 34.25gb. That's the way the numbers work and convert!
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