Basically i just got a new laptop and installed some small programs.. Put on some images and installed some games but im not seeing as much space on my hard drive as i should. I know that my harddrive isn't going to be the 120 gig it was advertized as ( its about 111 split into 2 partitions, main and recovery ) but have a look at the picture below.. I have highlighted the parts of intrest. For a start. The two red boxes don't add up to 100gb.. the blue box adds up to about 44 gig.. Not the 48gig that it's meant to be. I know there is a difference between the 'file size' and the 'size it takes up on the disc', but surely it shouldn't add up to 10 gig difference.

What do you guys think?

Did you make the partitions your self and if not u checked to see if there is any unallocated space on the drive?

[KM]OurManFromRushia wrote:
What do you guys think?

I think somebody told you that vista is the best OS to date and great for running on a laptop.

The space is probably being used by NTFS to store the MFT (http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs-mft.htm) and other bloat you cant normally see when running windows... I'm guessing vista is as bloated here as it is everywhere else.. my "hidden data" on XP clocks in at around 4gb on a drive the same size as yours with a tweaked file system (tweaks that would cause this hidden data to increase).

Try using something else to view disk stats.. i.e. a non-microsoft product. My defragger can pull info up about my disk and it shows the true size.

Solution for more space:

1) Move to an OS that lets you use all the hard drive (e.g. Linux)

2) move to XP for less bloat & crap to install (resulting in more space and a much faster laptop)

3) drop the 20gb recovery partition and merge it with your main one (if you dare)

Jack wrote:
Did you make the partitions your self and if not u checked to see if there is any unallocated space on the drive?

Na came pre done as it wasn't supplied with a windows disc.


[KM] + FROG + wrote:
[KM]OurManFromRushia wrote:
What do you guys think?

I think somebody told you that vista is the best OS to date and great for running on a laptop.

Na i came to that conclusion on my own, as the laptop came with and runs vista and is faster than my pc with xp.

Thanks for the ideas but none of those 3 are options i'm able or willing to do.

sorted. Was a 14gig system restore point.

[KM]OurManFromRushia wrote:
sorted. Was a 14gig system restore point.

rofl 14gigs!