HDD problems... I can only use half of it

I

ir0n_ma1den

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
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I have an HP OEM PC with a 300GB HDD with 289GB Primary partition ( C:\) and a logical or extended partition of ~9GB (D:\) called the HP_RECOVERY that was pre-installed when I bought it.

The problem is that I only have 9GB (and dwindling) of free space on my C:\, but when I looked at my 2 largest folders (documents/settings and Program files) they only added up to ~100GB. All the other folders are negligible. If my math is correct, 289 - 100 = 189 not 9GB, right?

The only explanations I can think of is that I have 189GB of magical data that I have never come across of, or that the D:\ partition is duplicating all my data.

I don't really know what to do. If it is the D:\ partition that is duplicating the data I could remove it, but I am unaware of the consequences since it is called the recovery partition.

here is a screenshot of my D:\ partition:

hprecshitdirve.jpg



thanks
 
Are you running just Windows XP with no service packs at all? If so then yes that is the reason why, what does the hard drive say you go in to Computer Manger?
 
Go to the Control Panel, click on "Administrative Tools", Select "Computer Management" and a new window should popup. Look under the Storage section for "Disk Management". Post a screenshot of that.
 
Google, download, and run CCleaner. It may be some temp files, logs, compressed file, etc, that didn't get picked up in WinDirStat.
 
I have used CCleaner before and I just used it again. It only cleaned up ~2mb of data. I think there is a bigger problem than cleaning up files.

I have defragged it using windows defrag and Paragon hardisk manager defrag (which did a great job), but still to no avail.
 
Hmm, Go to Start => Run => type in "cleanmgr" without the quotes, select your C drive, and clean it through there.
 
Login as Administrator and change the view folders / file options to show all hidden and system files.
Check to see if there are folders you cannot access. If so, add the administrator or the administrators group to the folder permissions. Verify you now have access.

Select everything on drive C: now and select properties.
This should tell you the size they have occupied.
If it is still short, something else is hiding files, maybe a rootkit?
 
How did trying to do some of the things to break the barrier problem work out? I think you were right about that assessment..
 
tgrimley said:
How did trying to do some of the things to break the barrier problem work out? I think you were right about that assessment..
Click to expand...

Not good at all... :(

I used a registery tool , tool, but i passed its test...

I don't know what to do, but i have a feeling that there is some sort of barrier in the way...
 
Contact HP and see what they have to say.
Failing that...

I would verify the drive in another (newish) machine to make sure there isnt a BIOS restriction preventing you from seeing the whole drive.
Take care to either boot a windows drive you can erase (in case you do have a virus that can transfer) or try to boot in safe mode with the problem hard drive only plugged in.

If that fails to reveal any helpful clues, I would get another drive and copy all the data off.
Delete, recreate and format the partition and see how much can now fit on it.

This is made trickier by that 9GB boot partition which could be holding a virus or loading software which handles the hard drives in a limited fashion.
Personally, I would get rid of that partition entirely and have a 40GB windows partition and use the rest for another partition for data and never let HPs 9GB partition see the light of day again.
Thats not my advice to you though as I dont know your skill level.
 
I was also thinking about totally getting rid of the HP partition as I really don't think it is needed b/c the OS is on the C:\ drive not the D:\.
 
Just got off the phone with HP and their support sucks. Once you're out of warranty they won't help you and just want to sell you stuff... ughh...
 
The HP Partition is going to contain all of your installation files, ie your OS and the drivers needed for a reinstallation. If you have a cd though then yeah, just format the whole hard drive and see if you get that space back.
 
Well, I deleted the HP_RECOVERY partition and nothing bad happed. Now my C:\ drive has 298GB on it so i have ~18GB of free space, but I still haven't gained the ~175GB of free space I should have.
 
any pc manufacturer will only sell u stuff once ur out of warrenty.

first off how old is the windows install?
 
Well, thats what happens when you were born into the world of OEM computers...

I don't think 80% of OEM consumers bother to do this either.

So I should be wiping my HDD and reinstalling XP every 6-12 months?
 
I made an image of everything installed.
When needed, I back up my data, restore the image and put my data back.
Takes me about 1/2hr to 1hr, a bit longer if windows isnt functional to copy data off.

I dont just re-install Windows for the hell of it, I wait until things start to break or if things are acting odd and cant be fixed without major aggravation.
Its a good idea to browse in Sandbox so any browser hacks can simply be erased, this will lengthen how long the Windows install lasts.
 
Today I preformed a great purge. I got rid of ~100Gigs of data and then created a logical partition of 100.8Gigs.

I call this partition my Z:\ Media partition. In order to clear up more space I moved all my pictures, music, and media related programs to the Z drive.

Things still don't match up... I would like to create another 100Gig partition, but I don't even have 100Gigs of data to erase from my C:\!!!

25spwy1.jpg


dg2a92.jpg


winstat4.jpg


things just dont add up...
 
The quickest way to see if you can indeed access the whole drive is to copy everything off that you want to keep.
Delete all partitions.
Create new partitions and do a full format on each one.

Hopefully by now if there are any problems they will have surfaced.
Copy data on until you are satisfied you no longer have the same restriction.
 
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