Hard Drive Space Missing

[Muff89]

I'm sure your answered this question before, I just cant find the topic, so here i'm asking:

My brother and I each got a Hardrive on 200GB, Seagate and Hitachi.
The problem is that it only shows around 120GB, means i'm missing 80GB :? . Am I doing anything wrong in BIOS Setup or anything els? I'm really confused, need help!

 

[The-Pizzaboy]

I am experiencing the same problem with my Hard Drive which has about 200 GB, except that I have only have lost 27,7 GB. 8O


I believe that it has something to do with the OS (Operating System) to do. One of my friends told me that it could be the OS that takes some of the space on the Hard Drive and then, (for some reason). the computer don't shows the space that the OS are using. :!:


Hope that I don't make a mistake, but I'm glad to help you anyway 8)

 

[hergieburbur]

I'm sure your answered this question before, I just cant find the topic, so here i'm asking:

My brother and I each got a Hardrive on 200GB, Seagate and Hitachi.
The problem is that it only shows around 120GB, means i'm missing 80GB :? . Am I doing anything wrong in BIOS Setup or anything els? I'm really confused, need help!

What OS and file system are you using? You need at least Windows XP SP1 or better to support partitions larger than 137 Gb or so. You probably need to obtain some software updates, though I can't remember the specifics. This Link should put you on the right track at least.

You could also use disk manager to create a second partition.

 

[hergieburbur]

I am experiencing the same problem with my Hard Drive which has about 200 GB, except that I have only have lost 27,7 GB. 8O


I believe that it has something to do with the OS (Operating System) to do. One of my friends told me that it could be the OS that takes some of the space on the Hard Drive and then, (for some reason). the computer don't shows the space that the OS are using. :!:


Hope that I don't make a mistake, but I'm glad to help you anyway 8)

You have a different problem, and your friend is (sorta) incorrect. The reason for your loss, (and everyone sees this), is because most HD manufacturers define a GB as 1000000000 bytes, while it is in fact 1073,741,824 bytes. Because of this, you will always lose some space on your HD. In the case of a 200 GB drive, at least 14 GB of space.

This is often compounded by the fact that Formatting the Disk usually results in the loss of some space as well, depending on the Format algorithm and settings used.

 

[asdasd123123]

I'm sure your answered this question before, I just cant find the topic, so here i'm asking:

My brother and I each got a Hardrive on 200GB, Seagate and Hitachi.
The problem is that it only shows around 120GB, means i'm missing 80GB :? . Am I doing anything wrong in BIOS Setup or anything els? I'm really confused, need help!

Although you would loose about 15-20gb with formatting, your problem most likely derives from an old BIOS, and little else.

Go to your mobos homepage and find a new bios, read the instructions and download the bios to at least 3 floppies, so that you have a working file in case one floppy goes bad.

Read the instructions well, some mobos can be a little more advanced to flash than others.
If you're lucky theres a bootloader wich will flash for you.




Edit; BTW; you would need to reformat it to gain access to the new addressing space after a bios flash, so don't put anything on it just yet..

 

[hergieburbur]

Just a note, if your mobo is farily modern, most likely you don't even need a floppy to flash your BIOS. Most decent newer mobos over a Windows based flash utility to update your BIOS.

You will most likely need to reformat your drive to get access unless you use two partitions. You can also use partition magic to dynamically resize your partition to the full size of the Hard Drive to have just one partition.

 

[asdasd123123]

I don't expect a card wich can't detect a drive over 120gb to be "newer"

 

[hergieburbur]

I don't expect a card wich can't detect a drive over 120gb to be "newer"

It is possibly an OS issue as as well, and I have seen windows flash utilities for at least 4 years (an eternity in computers), newer was a generalization since it is more common than it once was.

 

[Muff89]

I'm using Windows XP as all others with SP1 & 2 Installed.
It's just a bit weird that my HD only shows 120GB installed when I got a 200GB. But as mentioned, XP requires some GB to be installed that the HD wont show, I just wont hope its 80GB.

 

[hergieburbur]

I'm using Windows XP as all others with SP1 & 2 Installed.
It's just a bit weird that my HD only shows 120GB installed when I got a 200GB. But as mentioned, XP requires some GB to be installed that the HD wont show, I just wont hope its 80GB.

In that case, flash your BIOS to the latest version to enable large disk support. XP does NOT require hidden gigabytes on your disk to be installed that the HD won't show. It can ONLY address space in a partition, and all of that space can be accounted for using hidden files and folders.

You should be able to get around 180 GB out of your drive give or take.

Did you follow the link I posted earlier?

 

[The-Pizzaboy]

But, if you lose some HD space every time you are formatting your HD, does that mean that if you format your HD too many times, you wont have any space back at the end?? :!::?::!::?:

 

[losergamer04]

Before you any of this other stuff, see if your BIOS can tell you the size of your hard drive. There is no way that formatting is the cause of your problem. You will lose space, but no 80GB. You could be suffering from a feature of SMART. I am not too familiar with it, but from what I am able to read, it acts like the old check disk from back in the day. It can find errors on your hard drive and report them to the computer's BIOS and then to the OS so the computer does not try to use the bad sectors. With that many GB missing, I may think there is a whole side of a platter that is not working maybe.
So, my steps for trouble shooting would be get another HD, see if your mobo is the cause or the OS (Windows is bad, but not THAT bad). You could even try a self-booting hard drive testing utility to test the drive. Use google to find something like that, or the forums would work too. If you have SMART reporting, disable it. In the next post, put your mobo, HDD make and modle. We already know the OS you are using. Good luck with this.

 

[hartlw]

Before you any of this other stuff, see if your BIOS can tell you the size of your hard drive. There is no way that formatting is the cause of your problem. You will lose space, but no 80GB. You could be suffering from a feature of SMART. I am not too familiar with it, but from what I am able to read, it acts like the old check disk from back in the day. It can find errors on your hard drive and report them to the computer's BIOS and then to the OS so the computer does not try to use the bad sectors. With that many GB missing, I may think there is a whole side of a platter that is not working maybe.
So, my steps for trouble shooting would be get another HD, see if your mobo is the cause or the OS (Windows is bad, but not THAT bad). You could even try a self-booting hard drive testing utility to test the drive. Use google to find something like that, or the forums would work too. If you have SMART reporting, disable it. In the next post, put your mobo, HDD make and modle. We already know the OS you are using. Good luck with this.

 

[hartlw]

This is my experience with Gateway and Vista:

320gb nominal = 298gb actual (Standard round-off error for any drive)
10gb recovery partition d: (recover from crash)
43gb set aside for system restore (15% of c: drive .15x288=43gb)
6gb set aside for virtual memory

That accounts for all missing hard drive space (81gb) on my computer. Once you know it's not that painful.

To see size of virtual memory: Start-All programs-Accessories-System Tools-System Information.
To see info about system restore: Start-Help and Support-Security and Maintenance-Back-up and Restore- (Back up your files)-(see also)