Solved Hard drive space disappearing

[zigeroid]

Hello So my hard drive was originally like 200 GB or something, but of course the operating system took up about 25 gigs, so it says it's out of 174 GB. It currently says I have 102 GB free. However, I added up everything on my computer, and it says I've used only 45 gigs. That means I should have 129 gigs left. I know all about the system restore thing and I've deleted "all but the most recent" like 80 times in the past day lol, but it doesn't do anything. I've run CC Cleaner and Defraggler and everything. So I'm wondering where the 27 or so gigs I should have is and what I can do to get them back. Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Zigeroid, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Your missing hard drive space may be from this:

Here's a formula to convert retail size to actual size. This assumes that the manufacturer is using 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes (instead of 1GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes as they should). This formula is an approximation. Many times they will round the drive size somewhat, but this gives you a rough idea of the real world space.

1 B(bin)= 1B(dec) 
1 kB(bin)= 0.97656 kB(dec) 
1 MB(bin)= 0.953674316 MB(dec) 
1 GB(bin)= 0.9313226 GB(dec) 
1 TB(bin)= 0.909497 TB(dec) 
For GB(binary), multiply GB(decimal) by 0.9313226 
 
Example: 
Since with 200 GB, the units are still in GB, it can be expressed as 200 x 1 GB. 
200 x 1 GB(bin)= 200 x 0.9313226 GB(dec)= 186.26 GB(dec)

These are rounded to the nearest gigabyte for retail size to actual size.

• 36gb = 33.5gb
• 40gb = 37gb
• 60gb = 55gb
• 74gb = 69gb
• 80gb = 74gb
• 100gb = 93gb
• 120gb = 112gb
• 160gb = 149gb
• 200gb = 186gb
• 250gb = 233gb
• 300gb = 279gb
• 350gb = 326gb
• 400gb = 372gb
• 500gb = 465gb

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[The Cool Guy]

Hello Zigeroid, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Your missing hard drive space may be from this:

Here's a formula to convert retail size to actual size. This assumes that the manufacturer is using 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes (instead of 1GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes as they should). This formula is an approximation. Many times they will round the drive size somewhat, but this gives you a rough idea of the real world space.

1 B(bin)= 1B(dec) 
1 kB(bin)= 0.97656 kB(dec) 
1 MB(bin)= 0.953674316 MB(dec) 
1 GB(bin)= 0.9313226 GB(dec) 
1 TB(bin)= 0.909497 TB(dec) 
For GB(binary), multiply GB(decimal) by 0.9313226 
 
Example: 
Since with 200 GB, the units are still in GB, it can be expressed as 200 x 1 GB. 
200 x 1 GB(bin)= 200 x 0.9313226 GB(dec)= 186.26 GB(dec)

These are rounded to the nearest gigabyte for retail size to actual size.

• 36gb = 33.5gb
• 40gb = 37gb
• 60gb = 55gb
• 74gb = 69gb
• 80gb = 74gb
• 100gb = 93gb
• 120gb = 112gb
• 160gb = 149gb
• 200gb = 186gb
• 250gb = 233gb
• 300gb = 279gb
• 350gb = 326gb
• 400gb = 372gb
• 500gb = 465gb

Hope this helps,
Shawn

As Shawn said, it might be the case where the manufacturer is using up your 27 gb
or if not, then open up the start menu, right click on computer, click on manage.
Then under Storage, navigate to Disk Management. There check if your 27 gb is unallocated in your HDD.

Hope this helps,
Madhan

 

[archie123]

yeah mate IF its a shop bought pc it'll be your recovery partition , you dont get a Vista install disk when you buy a manufactured laptop/pc (although you have actually paid for one!!) what they do is put all this information on a seperate partition on your hard drive so in the event of any major catastrophe you can use it to revert your laptop/pc back to its factory state.

They shoul probably explain all this to you when you purchase your pc with its "200gb" hard drive........but they never do.

That along with the explanation from Brink is where your missing space may has gone :D

 

[zigeroid]

Ohh okay! Thanks so much for all of your help guys. Much appreciated.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Zigeroid.