Win2k Pro does not read correct hard disk size

[rykyc]

Hi all,

i bought an 80GB drive last weekend and installed it this morning. Used the disk-setup utility that came with the box(WD800) to format and it worked fine Then i started to install Win2k Pro on that drive(my older drive has win98, thought i'd keep it separate until i was sure the win2k install works properly, since its the first time i'm installing it). Went through all the initial install screens, until it came to the screen asking me which partition(drive) to install it on. I selected D:, then selected to reformat it to NTFS. The re-format started, but it shows the disk size to be 76130MB, with 76080 MB available. My questions:

* I'm wondering where the remaining 4Gb is gone. or is this normal?
* would also appreciate if you could advice if its a good idea to keep the disk as one huge partition, or if i should break it up into smaller partitions? If i do partition it, can i re-format/mess around with one partition without affecting the others( so i can separate the OS stuff from data without affecting each other)?

thanks, much
rykyc

 

[Vadatajs]

That sadly is normal. Hard drives are marketed using a decimal measurement of size where one gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes when in reality (binary) it is 1024 megabytes, which are each 1024 kilobytes which are 1024 bytes. This comes out to 1,073,741,824 bytes. This would account for the discrepancy.

As for partitioning, it is really a matter of preference. Separating your programs from your operating system in case you have operating system difficulties is almost futile because of the registry, but on the other hand it would be beneficial to have another partition to back up other data to, such as word documents, other office files and anything you actually had to work on, as well as downloads, so in the case that you have to reinstall, you don't have to re-download everything. I have a separate hard drive for back up and downloads. If I didn't have the separate drive, I would have a small (5-10 gig out of 45) partition for backup. This is my own personal preference.

Yes you can play around with the partitions individually. Partition Magic is wonderful in this regard. I use version 6 and I have never had any problems with it. If you plan on playing with your partitions a lot, or if you just want to simplify the matter, it is worth it.

 

[rykyc]

Ah, that would explain why the disk mgmt utility that came with the HDD read it correctly as 80GB! its probably fixed to display that amount.

ryky