Hardware·19,052 discussions

Shrinking Hard Drive

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I have a Compaq Presario 2100 with a 2.1 gig HD. (don’t laugh) All of a sudden, the HD has shrunk to 1.96 gigs. None of my troubleshooting software has been able to find anything wrong. Anybody ever heard of this problem?

Topic

Swap Files

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

Have you recently changed your swap file config. Doing this will take up your hard drive space.

Nope

In reply to Swap Files

I haven’t messed with the swap files. I can understand how that would take up space but not how it would affect the physical size of the drive.

Shrinkin’ HD ???

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

Have you installed any of Compaq’s updates or diagnostic util? I have several Presarios (1995-1998 model yrs.)that have approx 200MB in a hidden partition on the HD. This contains the Compaq Diagnostics and, in some cases, a compressed Back-up of original installation files.

-Good Luck!

Yup

In reply to Shrinkin’ HD ???

I did install all updates that were available from Compaq a couple of years ago… also the Compaq Diagnostics. Comp Diag
doesn’t find anything wrong with the drive. I’ll check back with Compaq to see if there’s anything new. Thanks.

HD size calculations

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

The advertised hard drive size and the size reported by the operating system can sometimes differ. I think the different versions of OS can also be affected by the following facts. Sizes of computer storage are not based on a 1000 system like metricmeasurements. All increments in the computer industry are based upon 1024. 1024 bytes = 1Kb; 1024Kb = 1Mb; 1024Mb = 1Gb So it follows that a 1.96 Gb hard drive will contain 1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 1.96 = 2,104,533,975.04 bytes. Some system makers wouldbe tempted to claim 2.1 billion bytes is equal to 2.1 gigabytes, not exactly true. Some older operating systems default to show the number of Kb on a hard drive and this same size would show up as 2055208.96 Kb. I don’t think you have lost anything.Hope this helps.

same problems

In reply to HD size calculations

I used to have a 4gig.. but only 2.91 of it was “there” So I called up Maxtor and talked to them a while.. and they had no idea what was going on. I eventually got a new hard drive out of the deal.. good luck

No such luck

In reply to same problems

I doubt I could talk Compaq into giving me a new HD after so many years but thanks for the input.

finding hidden space

In reply to same problems

If you are running WinNT or 2k, you can see from Disk Administrator whether there is some hidden unformatted drivespace that is not being used. That is one way to check. If you are running Win9x, I don’t know how you could see what (if anything) is missing unless you run fdisk from a DOS session.
As far as what OEM’s specify about Hard disk space and what you actually get, I bought a HP Pavilion with a reported “9.6 GB” hard drive, when in reality it’s only about 8.95 GB. They take the total number of bytes (in this case, 9,600,000,000 about)and call that 9.6 GB instead of what it really is, 8.95…

Hmmm…

In reply to HD size calculations

I had to break out the calculator on that one. While I did upgrade the OS from Win 95 to Win 98 a few years ago, the size change didn’t occur until about a month ago. SCANDISK shows 2,105,622,528 bytes on the disk. That gives me 1.96 gigs and change. Windows System Info shows 1.97 gigs but everything else shows 1.96. Still puzzled.

Try This

In reply to Hmmm…

Check the actual capacity of the harddrive using the manufacturer utility .You may find it at their website.
If the utility shows it’s 2.1G . Then maybe you have a hidden partition .
If you want the space and does not need any bootup feature fromthe vendor , use any harddisk utility like partition magic to move the space back to the original . This will not require any formatting on the original C: drive.

not me

In reply to Try This

I would highly discourage this action. The diagnostic partition is needed. I have even seen some computers that will not run if it is removed.

not me

In reply to Try This

I would highly discourage this action. The diagnostic partition is needed. I have even seen some computers that will not run if it is removed.

Last resort, but you might try this

In reply to Hmmm…

If u can, try creating an image of your HD
onto another HD or if u have a burner, then
try to put the image on a CD. Next, format
your HD and see what it tells u when the
format is complete. If the size stays the
same as u reported, then u might have some
bad clusters. If that space is not a big
issue for u, I wouldn’t worry about it or
buy a new HD.

Me Too, (Shrinkin HDD)

In reply to Hmmm…

I recently got ahold of the funlove virus, and my external (used to be 17gig) usb hard drive lost a whole gig??

Funny thing is that before I cleaned it up, it read 17 gig. Could there be some dark sinister forces at work here, or is this justa case of the antivirus software playing with memory settings??

it’s a compaq

In reply to HD size calculations

Remember also that compaq takes part to the drive and makes a diagnostic partion. this takes away some of your storage.

more info

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

What OS, partition type, and what are you basing your question from? Diagnostics, BIOS info, OS? Please give a few more details. Thanks….

Re Hard Drive Problem

In reply to more info

The problem is that your Hard Drive is Not really a 2.1 gig but it is a 1.96 Gb because the hard drive companies count a GB at 1000 Mb instead of what it really is which is 1024 MB. I have a Maxtor 30.0 GB and it really is a 28.6 GB hard drive. Hopeit helps.

re: more info

In reply to more info

I’m running Win 98 with FAT32 file system. I’ve had this machine for years and any program that has ever checked the disk size has reported 2.1 gigs until a month or so ago.

Answer

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

You have always had 1.96 gigs but never noticed.
Lets do some math.. there are 4096 bytes in each allocation unit, you have 514573 total allocation units, multiply = 2107691008 bytes total disk space (2.1gigs).
Now this is the total disk space. When you fdisk and format, this takes up the missing space.(Even one pri dos partition)Leaving you with 1.96.
Just as a floppy has 1457664 bytes available, but you can only use 1.38 because fat table needs to go on the disk.

different numbers

In reply to Answer

Right now I’m showing 2,105,622,528 bytes total disk space and 514,068 allocation units. I can’t make make the numbers match up with any known specs.

thorough scandisk

In reply to different numbers

Can you run scandisk and do a surface check, and see what pops up , it will take a long time and we will check out all the numbers ,please

re: scandisk

In reply to thorough scandisk

Actually I did that earlier this evening. That’s where I got the numbers I gave you. Same numbers from Norton Disk Doctor. Neither
one found any bad sectors nor do they notice any discrepancy in drive size. I downloaded a hard drive utility that I’ll try out tomorrow. The literature says it’ll solve all my problems…. yeah sure.

re:shrinking hdd

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

When viewing the space left and total size of a drive,using the drive properties look at the actual number of bytes next to “capacity” as opposed to the rounded figure windows calculates,that is far more acurate

Shrinking Hard Drive

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

Did you recently install a new OS on the PC or format it with FAT-32? It may report 1.96 gigs, but in reality you have 2.1 gigs. Because, don’t forget when you format, it takes up a little space on the hard drive to do the partions and FAT tables and all of that other good stuff, so it reports it as 1.96 gigs. Hope that helps.

— Michael

re: shrinking HDDs

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

Can i ask how many Mb are there in a Gb?

A formatted drive never lives up to its manufacturer labelled potential.
to the extent that both my 20.4Gb HDDs appear
in windows to have a capacity of exactly 19Gb, or 20’401’094’656 Kb.
the difference in size, arrives as a result of the file alocation table (FAT).
The FAT takes up a proportionate size relative to that of the HDD in question. 1.4Gb (approx) on a 20.4Gb HDD, and 140Mb on a 2.1Gb HDD. If this is wrong,please please tell me as i’d love to know any other viable explanations. :)))

Reply to Shrinking HDD’s

In reply to re: shrinking HDDs

I know that the computers are based upon 1024. 1024 bytes = 1Kb; 1024Kb = 1Mb; 1024Mb = 1Gb So it follows that a 1.96 Gb hard drive will contain 1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 1.96 = 2,104,533,975.04 bytes

New numbers and stuff

In reply to Shrinking Hard Drive

First of all, thanks to everyone for responding to my query… I really appreciate all the info. I downloaded a nifty free utility called Data Advisor from http://www.ontrack.com. It told me that the manufacturer’s specs showed 2112Mb for the drive and it found 2109Mb. Windows reports 2105Mb. I’m still missing a few megs in Windows but it looks like I’ll have to live with it until I get disgusted and FDISK the thing. Thanks again.

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