# Missing Hard drive space
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 9, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794 "2009-03-09T01:45:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Shai\_tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shai_tan)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/1 "2009-03-09T01:45:08Z")
First of all, I’m aware of the disparity between advertised hard drive size and actual size, and also that most files take up more space on the drive than their “size” would suggest.
I’m missing significantly more. I have a 160 GB hard drive. I recently reformatted the drive and reinstalled Win XP. When looking at the properties of drive C, it shows only a 74.5 GB capacity. I’m missing more than half.
Now, I hadn’t looked at the properties before the format, so I don’t know if it was showing similiar stats before hand. Any thoughts?
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/2 "2009-03-09T01:52:55Z")
Which file system are you using, FAT32 or NTSF?
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### Author:  [@Shai\_tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shai_tan)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/3 "2009-03-09T02:04:28Z")
NTSF. Don’t think I’ve had a computer running FAT32 for ten years.
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### Author:  [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/4 "2009-03-09T02:26:49Z")
74.5 is the exact\* number I get if I take 80 GB (1 GB = 1 billion bytes) and convert it into GiB (1 GiB = 2^30 bytes, or about 1.073 billion bytes). Windows reports things using GiB but calls it a GB, so you’re dealing with an 80 GB partition. Which means that you are, in fact, missing _exactly_ half of your stated capacity.
- Okay, it’s not quite exact, but 74.505806 is close enough.
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### Author:  [@Shai\_tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shai_tan)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/5 "2009-03-09T03:21:28Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#):
>
> so you’re dealing with an 80 GB partition. Which means that you are, in fact, missing _exactly_ half of your stated capacity.
I don’t recall being asked if I wanted a partition of said size when reformatting the drive. Is there a way to reclaim the whole drive to make it all accessible to my current OS?
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### Author:  [@Shai\_tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shai_tan)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/6 "2009-03-09T03:59:40Z")
Nevermind. I’m a moron. The original harddrive was corrupted a few years back and I bought a temporary smaller replacement (80gb) and recovered as much info from the old drive as I could. I intended on DBANing the old drive and reinstalling it, but never got around to it, though of course I’ve been thinking I did…
Of course the wife pointed this out to me. I hate looking stupid.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/7 "2009-03-09T05:34:29Z")
> [@Shai\_tan](#):
>
> I hate looking stupid.
Then don’t be stupid! 🙂
Seriously, you’re not the only one who’s gone off half-cocked, so don’t feel bad. I can think of myself doing something like this once or twice.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/8 "2009-03-09T05:40:14Z")
Why didn’t you post the OP in the pit. Then we could have told you what we really think of your error, with certain restrictions of course.
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### Author:  [@Shai\_tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shai_tan)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/9 "2009-03-09T14:31:29Z")
Who needs the Pit? My wife doesn’t have ANY restrictions. And that’s about as much as my bruised ego can take.
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/10 "2009-03-09T22:17:01Z")
> [@squeegee](#):
>
> Then don’t be stupid! 🙂
> Seriously, you’re not the only one who’s gone off half-cocked, so don’t feel bad. I can think of myself doing something like this once or twice.
Half-cocked? It was half a hard _drive_…
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### Author:  [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-hard-drive-space/488794/11 "2009-03-09T22:21:09Z")
> [@Nametag](#):
>
> Half-cocked? It was half a **hard** _drive_…
Wouldn’t that be _full_-cocked then?