Question:
7GB missing from 100GB HD
I just recieved my brand new M1210. It's specs are in my sig, but basically 7 gigs of a 100GB 7200RPM HD don't show in Windows, OR the WinXP setup partition screen. I know Dell has the system restore stuff, but shouldn't the space show up on the partitioning area as a third partition?
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
a GB on paper isn't exactly a GB once formatted.
Take the 74GB Raptor drive, it's actually 69.23 GB.
So your 100GB drive will come out to about 93.5 GB.
i forget the whole hi-tech explanation about 1024MB in a GB, blah blah blah.
Someone help me out here.
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
I know that. It's in powers of two. 1024 = 2 to the 10th power.
I just didn't know that approximatly 5% - 10% of a drive's actual space isn't usable...
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
My 60gig drive is missing 10 gig, so 7 out 100 isn't to bad..
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
To figure out if this is an issue with the BIOS or WinXP, it may be useful to download a Linux LiveCD and use the Fdisk command to see all the parititions.
Knoppix is the most popular livecd: http://www.knoppix.net/
Type in fdisk once the CD boots and follow the instructions from there. A google search on the "fdisk" command may help.
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
Where did you view the partitioning area? It should show up in Disk Management, but I won't swear to it.
You should have anywhere from 2 to 4 partitions. XPS is weird so that is why I'm putting a range on it.
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
mine hd is 100gb but i only have 88gb :( unless i have hidden partitions
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
Yes, you have hidden partitions. All of the Inspirons have at least 3 possibly 4 partitions. Check out the format guide (link in sig) and it will give informat on each of the partition.
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
you lose 7% of what the drive really is. like it was said above, they define a gigabyte as 1 billion bytes on the box, but a real gigabyte is 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes since memory uses base 2 mathematics. you are essentially gyped out of 70.3 megabytes for every 1 pseudo-gigabyte these days. manufacturers are liars, nothing you can do. also note that you lose about 8 MB for a windows xp installation for the allocation table and system info.
Answer:
Re: 7GB missing from 100GB HD
Wikipedia gives a pretty good explaination of the difference between the two measurements of a GB here for those who don't know/understand.