I just bought my new computer 2 days ago, downloaded only necessary updates, anti virus, and mozilla Firefox for browser. Never messed with any of the system files except just browsing around there...

So, it came new with 180GB of hard drive, see? Then, just a minute ago, I check my C drive and found out that it was only 75GB now! It said 75GB on the capacity. I don't know what is going on, this is a brand new computer and it worries me that something might be wrong. So 180GB hard drive suddenly disappears and turned to 75GB... if I downloaded a lot of things, I would have understand, but I surely didn't download any significant files. Not at all.

Please tell me what I should do, and, if nothing, would a total backup work? Because if I had use up a lot of space, the C drive would still say 180GB, but the free space would just be less, not the WHOLE drive... It's like half of my hard drive just died off or disappeared...

Did you properly format the hard drive before loading the OS?

You must not be connected to the net when loading the OS or any other programs. Only after you've loaded your programs do you connect to the net.

You did probably the same thing I did months ago when I had to totally redo my computer due to a virus. I had the net connected through my broadband and somehow my disk was not properly formatted and I had to totally redo the whole thing. Now I have downloaded a bazillion movies and my disk capacity has hardly gone done more than 10G.

I don't know of any easy fix for you. Maybe someone else does, but my "fix" was to just reformat and reload everything with the net disconnected.

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Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

Did you properly format the hard drive before loading the OS?

You must not be connected to the net when loading the OS or any other programs. Only after you've loaded your programs do you connect to the net.

You did probably the same thing I did months ago when I had to totally redo my computer due to a virus. I had the net connected thru my broadband and somehow my disk was not properly formatted and I had to totally redo the whole thing. Now I have downloaded a bazillion movies and my disk capacity has hardly gone done more than 10G.

I don't know of any easy fix for you. Maybe someone else does, but my "fix" was to just reformat and reload everything with the net disconnected.

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Will you tell me how to do that? I can't just format my C drive, can I? I don't have any rescue CD's or anything in case something goes wrong. I'm not sure if I format the hard drive, I just turned it on, went through all the window xp questions (it was brand new) to set xp up. Then I just logs on and start downloading updates... Where did it asks me to format anything?

Go back into properties of the drive and what is listed there?

Free space, Used space, Capicity and type of file system (FAT32 or NTFS)

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Originally Posted by seahwk83

go back into properties of the drive and what is listed there?

Free space, Used space, Capicity and type of file system (FAT32 or NTFS)

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Used Space 16.5GB, free space 57GB, capacity 74GB. It's NTFS.
I still have 74GB of unallocated space when I went to manage and disk management. I want to know how do I partition that space and put it straight onto my C drive, not make another drive, but put it right into my current C drive, is that possible? When I tried to do that, it always asks me to chose a name like F, etc for the drive.

Vista or XP?

What options do you have when you right click on unallocated space?

You may have to create the drive as NTFS and then after created, see if you have the option to Merge

Your best bet if plausible would be to get hold of a partition application.

I personally suggest Paragon Partition Manager as it works in XP and Vista (partition magic only works for XP)

With partiton manger you would choose the option Redistribute Free Space and you would be all set.

If this ends up to be your option, as with any other software like this, be careful of when you click Next and go through each screen carefully (Just to be Safe)

So it's really just to see if option is avail to merge in comp. mgmt or get hold of a partition application.

After that, all space is where should be and prefer

Hope all works out

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Originally Posted by seahwk83

Vista or XP?

what options do you have when you right click on unallocated space?

You may have to create the drive as NTFS and then after created, see if you have the option to Merge

Your best bet if plausible would be to get hold of a partition application.

I personally suggest Paragon Partition Manager as it works in XP and Vista (partition magic only works for XP)

With partiton manger you would choose the option Redistribute Free Space and you would be all set.

If this ends up to be your option, as with any other software like this, be careful of when you click Next and go through each screen carefully (Just to be Safe)

So it's really just to see if option is avail to merge in comp. mgmt or get hold of a partition application.

After that, all space is where should be and prefer

Hope all works out

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XP


Options are partitition, the other is all grey, and you can't click the any of them other than partition. When you click on partition they attempt to format your drive... I want to put it straight onto my C drive but they always ask me to chose another name for this drive.

You will need to get 3rd party software for this as the OS does not give you the option

Here is a free one, as mentioned, just be careful when using such software
EASEUS Partition Master is a magic partition manager software for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2003/2008 Server. Free for home users.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by seahwk83

you will need to get 3rd party software for this as the OS does not give you the option

here is a free one, as mentioned, just be careful when using such software
EASEUS Partition Master is a magic partition manager software for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2003/2008 Server. Free for home users.

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What could happen?

Can wipe out original drive space and have to start from scratch as far as create a partition, format the partition created, reinstall OS
-all as if the drive was blank from factory

At this point, this is what you need to do to do something with that space you need to get back as it is just sitting there empty and unused

If uncomfortable or unsure, is there anyone you may know that would be able to give you a hand in this, it does not take long

Partition needs to be created and merged with your C drive

Just say better to be safe, Nothing will happen to computer, it is just a matter of getting the full size of your partition the way that it should be and this software will be able to do that for you

Hold the phone!

Okay before you touch the partition which should be a last resort, please tell me that you have checked the label on the disk drive first. If you haven't, open up your machine and pull out the drive, you won't mess anything up and it's probably a SATA II disc so the plugs are easy to pull out and push back in.

Is it really 180GB or did you get swindled and it's actually 75GB?

If it is 180GB, then you may be dealing with unallocated space or a partition unreadable by NTFS. I know for a fact Dell places their diag tools on a FAT32 partition on the hard disk and depending on the machine it can be huge, (4GB). If you have XP, use the partition tool which is somewhere in Administrative Tools to investigate how your drive is partitioned. The details panel in Explorer doesn't cut it, and if your on Vista, use the Vista install disc that should have come with your machine. You don't need to reformat healthy partitions, that is completely uncessary.

Another possibility is the Windows kernel could be somehow reporting the incorrect information. This is unlikely but possible.

The worst case scenario is you have bad sectors in your disk and then it's junk.

First thing's first, check the label to be 100% sure.

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Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

You must not be connected to the net when loading the OS or any other programs. Only after you've loaded your programs do you connect to the net.

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This isn't true at all and would have no affect on his hard drive capacity.

Please read through whole post about space and what is listed in the drive properties