Hard Drive size

Horizon81

Just bought a new laptop with 750 GB hard drive.

When looking at the capacity of the hard drive in My Computer, I know the calcualtions used for a GB are different to the manufacturers calculations, so you end up with near as dammit 93% of the advertised space. This would equate to 698 GB.

However, my hard drive shows as 680 GB, with 40 GB used, so 640 GB free capacity.

I know the 40 GB will be the OS and some of the bundled software, but why is total capacity 680 GB, not the 698 GB I'd expect? Where have the 18 GB gone?

JJ_Egan

Formatted takes up xx space for the file allocation tables etc .

jje

fenlander_uk

Plus manufacturer's partition(s) used to store the OS factory restore files, etc. My Lenovo came with no less than 3 partitions linked to its one-key restore feature. Typically, these don't have drive letters so you don't see them in Windows Explorer. If you look via Disk Management in the Control Panel you will see the hidden partitions.

Horizon81

I've had a look in Device Manager in Control Panel but can't see any reference to Disk Management. I'm using Windows 7 - could it be called something else?

Oh, and it's been years and years since I bought new equipment and there's no OS disks with it. So... if it ever goes pear shaped and I need to re-install Windows, how would I?

Toxteth_OGrady

Horizon81 wrote: »

I've had a look in Device Manager in Control Panel but can't see any reference to Disk Management. I'm using Windows 7 - could it be called something else?

Click on Start button and type disk management into Search programs and files and then select Create and format disk partitions

fenlander_uk

Sorry, full path is
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management

but Toxteth_OGrady's method is quicker.

You might find these two articles useful:
How to get a free legal copy of W7 installation disk

and
How to repair W7 with an installation disk

John_Gray

You have come across the usual problem with specifying disk sizes.

Disk manufacturers work in millions and trillions of bytes because it gives a bigger number; Your 750 GB is 750,000,000,000 bytes.

Operating systems work in powers of two, not ten, so 750 GB is in fact
750 * (1000/1024) * (1000/1024) * (1000/1024) or just about 698.5 GB in operating-system terms.

To amuse yourself, look up the Wikipedia article about Gigabytes and Gibibytes, which goes into this matter in much greater detail...

By the time you've installed an operating system on the partition, you use space for the Master File table and probably some System Restore files, which you will see under System Volume Information if you've turned on the option to see all files, even operating system and hidden ones.

Run TreeSize Free in Administrator mode to see what's being used and where.