Lost hard drive space

[NoelS]

Hi all,

Crazy problem - is there a good answer?

I just sent my laptop back to the manufacturer's facility to have the hard drive re-imaged because I screwed up the recovery sector when I partitioned the hard drive. The manufacturer could not provide me with a Restore disk (legal issue, they say), so the only way I could get Windows back on the HDD after I had a problem was to have the machine re-imaged by them - a 2 month process from MD to CA and back.

Well, my 80GB hard drive (Toshiba 8025GAS) came back to me as a 30GB hard drive! Seriously! There was absolutely no way I could see or access the last 50GB of the drive because of the way they imaged it! I tried installing Partition Magic to see if I could recover the "lost" 50GB and all it could see was a 28GB C:\ partition plus a 2GB Restore partition, no other space anywhere. I also tried the Windows Disk Management app and all it could see was the same 30GB total space... I also tried a hard drive manufacturer's CD to check it out with their install app and it could only see the same 30GB!

When I called the manufacturer's facility. they couldn't tell me what happened, just "Send it back." OK, so they pay the shipping, I pay the lost time for another month or so...

I told them that if they sent me a recovery CD, I could FDisk the drive and fix it easily, but they wouldn't bite - still a legal issue with recovery CDs for that specific laptop...

Any thoughts out there?

Thanks, Noel

 

[Jax Omen]

My thought is they're full of baloney on the legal issue... or they have a pirated windows on your laptop.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
My thought is they're full of baloney on the legal issue... or they have a pirated windows on your laptop.

Actually, only the largest System Builders are allowed to make their own System Recovery disks with images of Windows on them. They can only:

a) Provide an OEM or Retail Install CD, manufactured by Microsoft
or
b) Put a recovery image on the hard drive

The largest System Builders (like Dell and HP) have special arrangements with Microsoft to make their own system recovery disks.

 

[JackMDS]

A good thing to have for such problem and many others, http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16832200002

 

[0roo0roo]

odd, even partition magic should be able to see the drives full capacity and add extended/logical partitions to the drive.
you sure they didn't just slap a 30gb in there?

 

[BladeVenom]

2 months, that's crazy.

 

[NoelS]

Hi all,

Thanks all for you replies. Crazy, huh?

First thing I thought was that they had swapped HDDs on me, so I checked the Device Manager, where I ascertained the hard drive was a Toshiba 8025GAS, which is an 80GB drive.

This is a 3 year old Averatec laptop. It didn't come with a Recovery CD when I bought it retail but it did have a recovery sector for that purpose. From the beginning I called Averatec Tech Support and tried to buy a recovery CD but was told Averatec didn't have one for THAT model. As for a legal Windows installation, there is a valid MS certification sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Latest story was that it was an Averatec/MS legal issue that Averatec couldn't sell customers a recovery CD for THAT model... hmmmm!

Jack, I don't even think Acronis Disk Director would be able to do anything that Partition Magic couldn't do with that disc...

I think they just imaged a bare drive without formatting the whole thing first and that's why the last 50GB isn't visible...

But I've packaged it up for UPS pickup this afternoon. Sigh... EDIT: They have assured me a quick turnaround this time, including overnight UPS both ways...

Noel

 

[Raduque]

I think there's something wrong with the drive. Partition Magic should still be able to see the remaining 50gb of space as simply "unallocated". I know you boxed it up already, but did you ever check in the BIOS to see the space the drive was reporting?