Dell laptop HDD space - are they lying?

seven stars · 04-10-2006 12:20PM #1

...or am I doing something wrong?

It's 80 GB according to the specs, but when it arrived the capacity (according to My Computer > Properties) is exactly 70 GB.

Any idea anyone?

Karoma · 04-10-2006 12:24PM

Apparent "loss" due to:
Gb <-> GB conversion, formatting (filesystem and cluster size),
Chances are, there's also a hidden partition which has a copy of Windows XP and all your other software on it.

Right-click on My Computer -> manage -> disk management --> This will show you more information (hidden partition). Post a screenshot if you're in doubt.

Noelie · 04-10-2006 12:29PM

They don't supply you with OS CD's anymore, instead they put all required files onto your laptop.

If you look at hidden files you'll see there are 3/4 which are all over a gig in size.
What i done was asked them to send me out the OS CD's, then i formatted my laptop and reclaimed all my space.

It was an issue for me as i bought a 40gig laptop and when it arrived took it out of the box and it only had 27gig left on it.

peepingtom · 04-10-2006 01:42PM

I dont think there is any brand of hard drive out there that will be the size it says on the tin .... i bought a 240 gig standalone, which has only 234gb or something, even my 10 gig ipod has only 9.2gb or there abouts

weemcd · 04-10-2006 07:14PM

Noelie wrote:

They don't supply you with OS CD's anymore, instead they put all required files onto your laptop.

If you look at hidden files you'll see there are 3/4 which are all over a gig in size.
What i done was asked them to send me out the OS CD's, then i formatted my laptop and reclaimed all my space.

It was an issue for me as i bought a 40gig laptop and when it arrived took it out of the box and it only had 27gig left on it.

Were you charged for the cd's?

Sponge Bob · 04-10-2006 07:40PM

bet it has a 10gb D Drive and teh drive name is Backup and the CD or DVD is the E drive

Capt'n Midnight · 04-10-2006 08:50PM

1,024x1,024x1,024=1,073,741,824 = one Giga in computer speak for RAM, Speed etc.

1,000x1,000x1,000= one Giga for hard drive manufacturers marketing gimps only , just so they can claim their drives are about 7% bigger than they are

also on every drive there is a partition table, on every partition there is a file index ( FAT, MST$ files etc.) that takes up space, directory entries take up space, long filenames take slightly more space, files are stored in one or more file allocation units, a one byte file still takes a full allocation unit.

do a defrag of you drive and view the report to see some sizes of NTFS files as well, system volume can take up to 12% of drive ( for system restore ) add in pagefile and hiberfile and you have a large chunk used

Noelie · 05-10-2006 12:16PM

weemcd wrote:

Were you charged for the cd's?

Nope, they tried telling me some crap of how to reinstall by pressing a combination of keys on start up. I told them i want the CD's as ther files were taking up too much of my hard drive space. He said something about having to clear it with his manager and i told him i didn't care i wan't the phyisical CD's
He told me then that they would be posted out to me, got about 6 CD all packaged individually.

And to tell you the truth my PC is working better now, they hadn't installed the correct Drivers for the screen so i couldn't get a good resolution, but once i re-installed the drivers i get great resolution, 1600xsomething.

I think it took over a week for them to arrive, oh yeah and they tried to tell me to do a system restore, if they do just say you have already tried and it isn't working.

TempestSabre · 09-10-2006 01:38AM

You have a choice of asking for the CD/DVD media when you buy it. Did you ask for it?

Calhoun · 09-10-2006 05:00AM

TempestSabre wrote:

You have a choice of asking for the CD/DVD media when you buy it. Did you ask for it?

you actually have to pay for it normally. I think it costs like 5 euros but it could be much more. It doenst come as standard

TempestSabre · 09-10-2006 10:18AM

Darkener wrote:

you actually have to pay for it normally. I think it costs like 5 euros but it could be much more. It doenst come as standard

Its still your choice to get them or not.

Incidentally all the machines I've bought from the Outlet have the CD's with them.

Calhoun · 10-10-2006 04:14AM

hmm yeah i checked this out. some options come with it as standard some do not. It also depends on the department you buy from .

Tony H · 10-10-2006 08:34AM

my 80 gig dell hard drive has 74881MB on it after formating, dell utilities take up 86 MB , and the hidden dell restore partition takes up 4,753 MB so that leaves me with around 70,000MB usable.You can do a fresh install of windows from scratch and you will recover around 5 gigs

TempestSabre · 10-10-2006 11:32AM

Darkener wrote:

hmm yeah i checked this out. some options come with it as standard some do not. It also depends on the department you buy from .

What do you mean, "department" ?

Calhoun · 11-10-2006 02:20AM

Homesales / corporate business sales / small/medium business sales / outlet sales

TempestSabre · 11-10-2006 11:14AM

Darkener wrote:

Homesales / corporate business sales / small/medium business sales / outlet sales

Regardless you still have the option of ordering it or not. You might already have an retail version, or a site licence so not everyone needs a new copy of the OS when you buy a machine.

Capt'n Midnight · 11-10-2006 07:53PM

TempestSabre wrote:

Regardless you still have the option of ordering it or not. You might already have an retail version, or a site licence so not everyone needs a new copy of the OS when you buy a machine.

Since we are talking about DELL people have found that in many cases getting desktops without the OS may mean you miss out on an "double memory offer" / Bundle that would be worth more than the discount.

TempestSabre · 12-10-2006 11:34AM

In all the years I've been buying Dells I've never seen that. Maybe it does happen, but I've never seen it. The special offers of memory or del are always seperate to ordering the media and are time based and not linked to other parts of the bundle. Ordering media is usually only an extra €5 or €6, I just think people don't realise they need it, and/or forget to click it when they order. Its generally always an option when you go customise/buy. Perhaps some people never take that route when ordering. Seems to be the same everywhere on the site except on the outlet.

Thats my experience anyways.

Lots of places have been doing this for years. Its old news.

Dell laptop HDD space - are they lying?

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