Laptop hard drive question?

Question

i have a 80GB HDD in my laptop. now Vista Basic was already pre-installed on my laptop along with Acer Empowering Technology. the hard drive was already partitioned into 2 hard drives. but the two hard drive only have 32.5GB each. so that adds up to 65GB not 80!! what happened to my other 15GB?!? any ideas??? i can't figure it out!!

and i don't have 32.5 left on both, that's the max capasity on both of them. in other words, if i just erased everything on both hard drives. i would only have 65gb not 80!! please help!!

Answer 1

all computers are like that... the rest of the gigs went to holding the windows software/recovery stuff... the things you need.

Answer 2

formatting space and a back up copy of windows. my 500 gb hard drive has usable space of 480 gb that's the space the partitioner set up just in case. for that matter my old Toshiba came with a factory reinstalled extra copy of windows to fix the main partition.

btw did you use a program to look at the partition like Norton ghost or vcom copy commander or did you just look in my computer?

Answer 3

Are you sure you don't have a recovery partition?

They are usually hidden partitions that contain the software needed to restore your HD to factory condition.

When you start your computer it will usually have "strike ___ key to begin recovery, etc.

It is normal for the actual HD space to differ from the HD size but not by that much.

Answer 4

it just wasnt partitioned means that whoever did it didnt format the other space

Answer 5

You might have another partition.  

Answer 6

Vista is taking up those 15gbs.. Thats why I put xp on my laptop to save memory and speed.

Answer 7

i have an acer and it comes with a invisible backup on the hardirve. it is 80 gigs but the rest is being used by backup. so if your computer crashes you can back it up.

Answer 8

might be unpartioned or hidden system restore partition get a partition program to view hd details (Acronis disk director or something)