Loy, I recently formated a new drive using Win XP.  Win XP, for reasons of it's own reserves 8 Mb (a puny amount on a 40 Gig drive).  I believe it generically said why, but I don't remember.  In any event it is apparently the price you pay for progress.

----- Original Message -----
From: Loy Pressley <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, September 12, 2005 2:29 pm
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Change Hard Drive

> Hi Mark,
>
> I do have Partition Magic 8.0.  It shows that I have only one
> partitionon Drive C: and the following information:
>
> type:  FAT32
> size MB:  38,262.2
> Used MB:  15,992.8
> Unused MB:  14,246.7
> Status:  Active
> Pri/Log:  Primary
>
> If you will notice, the used and unused MB reported by Partition Magic
> add up to a total of 30,239.5 MB.  That means that there is a
> differenceof 8,022.7 MB between the total of the used and unused
> MB and the size
> of the drive (38,262.2 minus 30,239.5 = 8,022.7 MB).  What
> happened to
> the 8,022.7 MB?
>
> Partition Magic does not show any problem with the disk.  It does not
> show any hidden partition.  The 30,239.5 total of the used and
> unused MB
> is what is reported by WinXP as the capacity of Drive C:
>
> If I could somehow recover the missing 8+ gigs of space on Drive
> C:, I
> could, perhaps, add another partition with Partion Magic and store
> onlydata in that partition so that it could be backed up easily
> and I would
> not have to purchase a larger hard drive anytime soon.
>
> Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Loy
>
> Mark Tretter wrote:
>
> > Since it is a Dell, it may have a hidden partition that accounts
> for the
> > missing space.  If you use a partition program like "Partition
> Magic" it
> > should show all partitions.  Then you should be able to carry
> out your
> > plan
> > as described below.  I have done this and have also transferred the
> > hidden
> > partition as well and it has worked.  I have also tried it without
> > transferring the hidden partition and it worked ok too.  YMMV
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Loy Pressley" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 6:33 PM
> > Subject: [PCBUILD] Change Hard Drive
> >
> >
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> Since I got no answers to my previous query, I'll try to phrase
> this a
> >> different way.
> >>
> >> I have a 40 gig hard drive on this system.  Windows XP
> recognizes only
> >> 31.7 gig as usable.  Why this is, I do not know.  16.2 gig is
> in use
> >> with 15.5 gig free space.  I need more hard drive space so I
> want to go
> >> to an 80 gig or larger IDE hard drive.  I have only one drive
> bay in
> >> this system (Dell L800r running at 800 MHz, WinXP SR2 operating
> system,>> FAT32 file system).  My plan to change out the hard
> drive is:
> >>
> >>    - using Norton Ghost, make an image of Drive C:
> >>
> >>    - physically remove the old hard drive and install the new
> drive.>>
> >>    - using the Windows XP System Setup Disk that I just
> downloaded from
> >> the good folks at Free PC Tech Support,
> >> http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml, I will format and
> partition>> the new hard drive.
> >>
> >>    - then, I will restore the image of Drive C: I made earlier with
> >> Norton Ghost, to the new hard drive and I should be ready to
> go.  Right?
> >>
> >> Will this work?  What kind of pitfalls am I likely to
> encounter?  Any
> >> help and/or guidance would be greatly appreciated.  I am
> certainly no
> >> expert on computers.
> >>
> >> Thanks...
> >>
> >>        The NOSPIN Group has added a new feature on our website,
> >>           web based bulletinboard for questions and answers:
> >>              Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com
> >
> >
> >        The NOSPIN Group has added a new feature on our website,
> >           web based bulletinboard for questions and answers:
> >              Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com
> >
> >
>
>         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
>                     visit our download web page at:
>                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml
>

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml