Dell Hard Drive Problem .:Read:.

Hi guyz;

Ok i reiceved my Dell Inspiron 9300 and with 100 gig hardrive ... now when i look in my computer for the properties of the hardrive it says it has a total capacity of 89 gigs !!!

but My hardrive is 100 gig i mean wats going on ?

sorry i really dunt know much about computers ....[:I]

can i make the space back to 100 gigs?

thankx guyz[ ]

** Dell Inspiron 9300 ... Centrino 2 ghz ... 1 Gig Ram ... 256 Nvidia Geforce 6800 Go ... 100 Gig Hardrive ... 17 inch WUXGA screen with Truelife ... 8 x Dual DVD Burner ... Wifi **

 

It's due to 2 things one is the difference between 1000 and 1024 and the computation of gigabytes and the other is the fact that dell has placed a 4.6gb partition on there where I assume they have diagnostics or something like that.

Go into the control panel, admin , computer management, disk and see the disk drive partitions. Don't change anything though.

I9300 2.0ghz 1.0gb ram 100gb disk 256MB NVIDIA 6800 dvd rw UXGA

 

Can i increase the size back to 100 gig Hardrive size/capacity ?

if so how ......

thankx[:I]

** Dell Inspiron 9300 ... Centrino 2 ghz ... 1 Gig Ram ... 256 Nvidia Geforce 6800 Go ... 100 Gig Hardrive ... 17 inch WUXGA screen with Truelife ... 8 x Dual DVD Burner ... Wifi **

 

well lke I said before one problem is the difference between 1000000 and 10024*1024 and which you think is a megabyte. The other is the almost 5gb used up by dell. You could blast that and get it back if you reinstall everything or use something like partition magic. Personally I am not sure it is worth the work for that.

The 1000000 vs 1024*1024 thing is simply numbers and what actually is a gigabyte. It only affects the numbers NOT the actual size of the disk. Like yards and meters the physical length is still the same the only real difference is how you talk about it. Computers deal in 1024s cause it is a binary number so they tend to display things in multiples of this. Advertiseing execs like large numbers so they tend to talk about thngs in terms of 1000s cause thet makes the numbers bigger. Either way the size of the thing has not changed. There is nothing to "recover".

I9300 2.0ghz 1.0gb ram 100gb disk 256MB NVIDIA 6800 dvd rw UXGA

 

You can erase Dell's partition...I find it not usefull....it's the partition that will bring back your comp to factory settings....

 

so does this mean i actually can use up to 100 gig even though it says 90 gig is limit? i excluded the dell stuff from it ....

thankx[:I]

** Dell Inspiron 9300 ... Centrino 2 ghz ... 1 Gig Ram ... 256 Nvidia Geforce 6800 Go ... 100 Gig Hardrive ... 17 inch WUXGA screen with Truelife ... 8 x Dual DVD Burner ... Wifi **

 

One other thing to consider is if space really counts, 100gb is a big space, would be to compress folders which contain big compressable things. A word of warning here, some big things don't compress as the files are already compressed. I haven't really tried but I would assume mp3 files, zip files for sure, mpeg movies don't compress. Database, text stuff like that do.

Also I would probably only compress stuff that is 1) really large or 2) hardly used.

to try this right click on a folder to compress it and follow the menus. You eventually see 2 numbers I think one is the size of the data and one is the size of the disk space used to hold it. An example you compress something which is 1000 bytes and it compresses to 80% (SAVE 20%) OF ITS size. you will see 1000 / 800.
good luck.

I9300 2.0ghz 1.0gb ram 100gb disk 256MB NVIDIA 6800 dvd rw UXGA

 

When you say you excluded the dell stuff there are 2 other partitions I saw when I looked at the disk administrator. Did you delete any of these? Personally I don't think this is a very good idea. In any case you would have to add the new space into the primary partition somehow. A complete blast of the disk or Partition Magic are the only 2 ways which come to mind.

As far as the size itself. I think you may be getting confused by the units of measure used. 1) computers use 1024*1024*1024... to display sizes which is a larger unit than if you use 1000*1000*1000..., So in advertiseing talk a 100gb drive where million means 1000000 displays as a smaller number like 90gb in the computer real world. There is no space "lost" really it is just how it is described. A simple example using mb:

1000000 is one mb in decimal and typically as read on the side of boxes but 1024*1024 (1025048576) is the number typically used in computer software so lets say you buy a disk which has 10000000 bytes typically it displays as 9.5 sort of megabytes but the 10000000 bytes are still there for use. This kind of calculations go on for gigabytes there are just more 1000 / 1024 and confusion so I picked simple numbers. The idea is the same. It is an example of companies attempting to make you think you are getting more than is actually there or computers displaying things in units which you don't understand at least instantly. This goes back a long way and isn't a Dell thing or anything like that.

this has to di with binary numbers which are probably not meaningful in this discussion. In short nothing is actually missing other than the 5gb dell took for the restore stuff and diagnostics or whatever is in there.

I9300 2.0ghz 1.0gb ram 100gb disk 256MB NVIDIA 6800 dvd rw UXGA

 

OMG thankx so muxh for ur help ! really appreciate it mate[:I]thankx so much ! [:I]

** Dell Inspiron 9300 ... Centrino 2 ghz ... 1 Gig Ram ... 256 Nvidia Geforce 6800 Go ... 100 Gig Hardrive ... 17 inch WUXGA screen with Truelife ... 8 x Dual DVD Burner ... Wifi **

 

Doeas it matter that much to have an extra 11gb for YOUR secret stash of Paris Hilton and Pam/Tommy home video? hehe j/k

Well this is kind of like cars-when you look at a car spec it say 160hp but in reality its 148hp at the wheel. The car engine itself is 160hp at the cranks(Internal parts.)