40GB HardDisk Has 32GB Only ? Why ?

I just get a 40GB hard disk from my friend. And installed to my windows XP pc. Before I boot into windows xp, I just run fdisk command in win98 bootdisk (DOS mode). But it shows it has 32GB only, not 40GB.. After that, I run PartitionMagic in windows XP to make partition again. PartitionMagic also it has 32GB only. Where do that 8GB go?? I could not find any hidden partation. I have another 120GB hard disk installed in this PC. It works just fine. So I think the setting in BIOS is correct. the PC: P4 2.4G, 1G RAM，GF4MMX，Master HD 120G，Slave40G.

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Well i believe Windows XP has taken up most of that space. I think it takes around 5BGs or more, compared with Win 98 which uses only around 500 MBs. Nothing is as it says it is like on MP3 players, one that has memory of 256MBs really only allows about 246 or 248, you have to think about everything that XP has, it is extemely big.

i guess it might be a setting in the BIOS, but i don't know much about that.

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I've always considered hard drives storage to have a rounded up number by the Hard Drive Manufacturers, although 8GBs is definitely not a rounded up number. It's possible that the fdisk and partition magic program have a flaw in detecting the size, I know fdisk definitely has had this flaw because of it's reliance on it's 16bit code, this too can be related to the BIOS limitation as well.

If your BIOS supports LBA mode then you should be using that for your Hard Drive settings, however if your drive was not currently using this, you'll have to reinstall everything on that drive.

By the sounds of your specs, it should support this, however if the drive was not set as LBA then this could be a reason for it.

Also make sure that the hard drive does not have a shunt over the jumpers that set it to run at a smaller storage size.

This is about as much as I can think could be related to the problems, I am uncertain what else could cause these limitations.


Cheers,


MC

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I think that the problem is that those missing 8 GBs is unpartitioned space. I had a similar problem with my 30 GB harddrive showing up as a 2GB harddrive. The only problem is that I haven't used any method of repartitioning other than reinstalling the OS. Also, the discrepancy between the listed GB and actual GB (the round-up numbers) is because the companies list a KB as 1000 Bytes while in reality a KB is 1024 Bytes. As the harddrive size grows in size, the listed and actual capacity grows further and further apart because that 24 Byte difference adds up really, REALLY fast. I hope this helps somewhat.

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That sounds like a good theory.

This is what happend to the ram on my computer (HP) though.

It says on the sticker on the front that there is 128 MB ram, but when I go into system specs it says I only have 120 or so, so it couldbe something like that.

 

 

 

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Your missing 8MB is actually because you're sharing 8MB with your onboard graphics card.

The shared memory is locked to your graphics card, so the OS doesn't try to claim it for it's own use. If it had, you'd have some strange display activity going on.

Your BIOS settings would show that this is the case, as well as the POST test should display a string saying that the memory is shared, as long as it's not hidden behind some proprietor's display.

Cheers,


MC

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    The 8 Gigabytes are not there because Windows XP uses what is called an NTFS format for partitions. This stands for NT File System, this format was also used in Windows 2000 and you guessed it Windows NT. NTFS Partitions keep information about the directory structure, and what files are in which directories in what is called the MFT. The MFT or Master File Table, is not viewable, and it takes up space on your hard drive, thus the 8 GB you are missing. I have a 250 GB hard drive, and my computer says there is only 232 GB. So I am missing 18 GB. The larger the hard drive, the larger the MFT.

    Reformatting the hard drive into a FAT 32 file system won't work either. First, FAT 32's equivalent to the MFT is the FAT (File Allocation Table). Secondly, in Windows XP, a hard drive can't have a FAT 32 file system larger than 32 GB compared to NTFS's ability to be used on volumes larger than 2 Terabytes. (Outside of Windows XP, FAT 32 can be used on volumes up to 2 Terabytes) Finally, any file larger than 4 GB (like a disc image of a DVD) would be rejected by FAT 32 (the DVD image would have to be split into smaller files) , while in NTFS, file size is only limited by the amount of hard drive space!

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Thanks guys,
I totally agree with mastercomputers.
I don;t think that 8 Gigabytes just because of the storage has been rounded up by the Hard Drive Manufacturers.
you know, 8 Gigabyte is too much...

i have checked my Bios setting as well.
It supports LBA mode. and it is setted to LBA mode for both hard disk.
So, I belived my bios setting is ok.

Yes, the hard disk is in NTFS format.
But 8 Gigabyte for the MFT or Master File Table, isn't too bigger, since there is no data in this 40GB hard disk yet.
My 120GB hard disk is 11470MB show in partitionMagic.
I just want to make it clear, I am talking the total space for partition, not the space available after partiton.

Any idea???

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Finally, I figured out what problem is it.
It become 32GB only because the jumper setting.
It set to limits drive capacity to 32 gigabytes.
It just took my about 2 days to figure it out.

Howevery, why do they have this kind of setting??
what's the point to limit the drive capacity to 32 gagibytes??

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Jedi.. thats not it... if it actually has the capacity of 40 then you weren't able to partition the whole drive... What you want to do is split the drive so then you can partition it 50/50 (20 gigs) then it should work perfectly.

pm if you want to learn how to split

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