hdd reformatting concern

[bloodthirst]

hi guys, ive built my new computer finally, and when i did i fresh reformat and 20gb of space is already taken up, im confused whats going on here? surely windows proffesional isnt 20gb?

 

[Eguy]

hmm no, what size HD is it?

 

[bloodthirst]

hmm no, what size HD is it?

maxtor 60gb

 

[FragTek]

Are you sure it's 20 and not 2? If you've just done a format and Windows shows that you've used 20gb's already I'd try formatting again, but don't do a quick format. Do a long format, make it dig deep and thoroughly erase every sector

 

[JN]

When you installed Windows it would have asked you to enter what size you wanted the partitons to be. I'm guessing that you missed off a 0 and instead of asking it to do a 20gb partition you made a 2gb partition

 

[FragTek]

Wirelessly posted (Nextel. Done. |: BlackBerry7520/4.0.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

When you installed Windows it would have asked you to enter what size you wanted the partitons to be. I'm guessing that you missed off a 0 and instead of asking it to do a 20gb partition you made a 2gb partition

Wait if he did that I still don't get why it would show that he's physically filled 20gb of space on hos drive with only windows.

Are you sure ur reading it right mate? Post up a screenie of your os partition free space dialog so we can have a looksy. Taa!

 

[Dav0s]

u may have 20gb unpartioned space?

did u actualy mess with the partitions when setting up windows?

 

[catch22]

Suffink aint kosher! Its worth reformating I assume you are using XP Prof. In the initial stages you will be given all info on size of your disk. Lets hope they have not sold you an incorrectly maked HD!

 

[Phnom_Penh]

u may have 20gb unpartioned space?

did u actualy mess with the partitions when setting up windows?

Sounds like that, maybe theres a phantom partition on the disk already, probably best to fdisk the drive or slave it on another machine and then use XPs local storage management to check the drive out.

Edit : - Also, if that still doesn't work, downloading Maxtor's low level formatting utillity and using it to low level format the drive should fix it.

 

[jm7162]

Sounds like that, maybe theres a phantom partition on the disk already, probably best to fdisk the drive or slave it on another machine and then use XPs local storage management to check the drive out.

couldnt agree more... defo use fdisk and make sure u select the whole drive for partition or delete any existing.. i've had problems before i prefer only using 1 partition.. but it all depends on the user

 

[clive r]

Hmm, well if your 60gb drive is only reporting 40gb then your partitioning's gone wrong somewhere.

If as I read it 20gb is actually reported as being used then you should be able to look in My Computer to find out what's using the space. Remember to enable viewing of hidden and system files.

I always use eraser boot and nuke disk before reformatting. This strips out everything and leaves you with a squeaky clean hard drive.