A question about System usage of HDD

[Hero]

Hi all
I recently bought a 250GB SATA HDD,and decide to split it into only 2 drives one 120GB and other 130GB.
After Partioning,I noticed That I lost a huge space(about 20GB) from each drive(for example 130GB drive's total space is shown 111GB).
When I tried to defrag disk,I noticed that this space is reserved for system Use.What Is the usage of System from this space(My page file is not in these drives)?
Is it possible that I prevent this usage?

sincerely yours

[hosiminh]

If partitions are formated into NTFS , MTF might be eating to much space
Otherwise you might be using System restore (folder "System Volume Information" on root )
Run chkdsk disk with /R /F X: swithes where X: are your local drives:
start/run / cmd

chkdsk /R /F C:
and
chkdsk /R /F D:

I guess drives will be checked when next reboot occur.

If you use win xp , installing SP1 might be a good idea.

start/run / compmgmt.msc
and check storage/Disk managemet if there are any unallocated partitions left

[JMI]

I have 5 of the same Maxtor 250 Gig SATA HDD running in my three machines. 4 of them are not partitioned and they each show a maximum of 232 Gig when viewed in the windows explorer. My 120 Gig HDs never show more that 110 Gig. I believe a lot of this is taken up for potential mapping of the hard drive sectors. Finding where you put the pieces of a file on a 250 Gig HD takes alot of mapping.

Regards,

[Mkz]

The "system space" that the defrag tools refer to is typically the space taken by the MFT. Some of the defraggers will allow you to adjust this amount of the reserved space. You should take into account the number of files you expect to hold in the partition and set the MFT size accordingly. If you reduce it too much and later store more files on the disk than predicted, the MFT will grow but will be fragmented, which will delay file location on the disk.
On my system, each file entry takes about 1K on the MFT (includes file name, attributes, permissions, physicall location, etc) - 192M for 197.000 files, MFT almost full.

I find it odd that you have an MFT of 20G, that would mean space for about 20 million files. Are you sure that the "system space" is all of these 20G?


This is certainly what's happening:
When HDD manufacturers say 250GB drives, they really mean 250.000.000.000 bytes, not 250*1024*1024*1024. So, it's only 232 *proper* GB. That's where the extra 20G went
When you tell windows to create the first partition with 120GB, it uses 120 actual GB, which is 128.849.018.880 bytes. When you create the second partition with the rest, there are only 121.150.981.120 bytes left, which is 112GB.
So, you see, you haven't purchased a 250GB drive, but a 232GB one Still, you didn't have a choice since all of the HDD manufacturers use these "strange" GB unit, to say the least.

Now, the MFT (or "system space") does exist, and takes some of these 112GB from the second partition (and also the first), but is should be only 200 or 300M, not 20G.

JMI, for your 120.000.000.000-byte drive, the calculation is the same - 120 "GB" = 111 REAL GB

[JMI]

Now that you remind me, I do recall reading about the manufacturer's "method of counting" and reporting the HD size. But at 2:00 a.m. in my morning, I was too tired to recall it.

Regards,

[Hero]

Thanks for Info.
I think that Mkz is got the correct point and I make a mistake for GB in manufacturers and real one.

Originally Posted by JMI

I have 5 of the same Maxtor 250 Gig SATA HDD running in my three machines. 4 of them are not partitioned and they each show a maximum of 232 Gig when viewed in the windows explorer. My 120 Gig HDs never show more that 110 Gig. I believe a lot of this is taken up for potential mapping of the hard drive sectors. Finding where you put the pieces of a file on a 250 Gig HD takes alot of mapping.

Regards,

Can I ask you stored in these 5 x 250GB HDD???? porn?

sincerely yours

[JMI]

Actually, several of my HD's are still completely empty. I had originally intended to run them as RAID systems, for which you of course need two. But I download alot of cracking information to my HD, the trick is actually getting the time to read most of what I already have.

I also have a complete copy of everything that is on the Woodmann Server as a backup for our system amd I run several versions of vBulletin to test various things for the Woodmann Forum and am in charge of maintaining the Forum updates and have to run the old and "new" versions of the software to make sure our modifications work on the "new" versions before we open it to the public.

I also have a great deal of information related to my "real" job, which has nothing to do with computers, except as a tool to do some of the work.
But it helps to be able to buy large HD's if one can write them off for one's work and they have gotten comparatively cheap now days.

I once paid $900 for a 20 meg (yes, I said "meg") HD from Apple. This was back in 1984, just after the Mac first came out. All 5 of my 250 Gig. Maxtors didn't even cost $500 total and they hold more than a terabyte. Things have changed.

By the way, when one gets to be my age, one has already had opportunity to view as much "porn" as may be of interest and, other than the fact it is "everywhere," there is little "new" offered at such sites and a great many attempt to download "nasty" thing to one's HD which have nothing to do with "sex."

As you grow older, you may learn that having a meaningful relationship with a real "live" partner is actually more satisfying that "pretending" to have a vicarious relationship with something happening on your screen. But it generally takes time for that "truth" to sink in, expecially in the young and restless who have not yet had much of a taste of life or the freedom to wander around observing life in it's many variations.

Regards,

[Hero]

Hi
I know you are at least as old as twice mine and can be a godfather for about half of us here...
Thanks for your advise.But I should say sometimes I type exactly comes out of my mind withoutout thinking(a bad habbit...),and it sometimes make some misunderstandings.
Sorry if I told something bad,It was only strange for me,somebody using that much HDD except be a server,then I used that word.

In addtion,a question about what you mentioned:Is it possible to use RAID if you have 2 HDD with deferent sized for only one of them?
For example my Storage contains 2 HDDs: 80GB SATA+250GB SATA.
Is it possible for me to use RAID for 80GB drive?if yes,How I can enable it in Windows XP?

sincerely yours