so i bought a t42 with a 40gb hdd

[wiredout46]

but it only shows 32gb in my computer. anyway i can get those extra 8gb back w/o formatting?

[K. Eng]

Welcome to the forums, wiredout46

ThinkPads have a hidden 'restore' partition that contains the default Operating System, driver, and applications that come with the ThinkPad. This takes place of CD-ROM restore media and makes it easier to restore the machine to factory settings if something goes really really wrong in Windows.

This hidden partition is what is consuming the missing space.

I'm not sure how to get rid of the partition without formatting though.

What I would do is make a set of restore CD's from the hidden partition. You can do this by pressing the blue 'Access IBM' button in the top left of your keyboard when the machine is booting up. This will take you to the predesktop area and there should be an option that allows you to make the install CDs.

[jhonyl]

Hi,

You can't get these 8Gb back because of the difference between the scientific G=1,000,000,000 and the binary G=2^30=1,073,741,824. The disk has 40 Scientific G Byte, where as the windows counts binary G's. In binary G's you have 40,000,000,000/1,073,741,824= 37.2529 GB. So the max you can get back is 5.2529 GB.

And that ~5GB is on the hidden partition which has some stuff which I too try to find out exactly what is there.

And there is a sticky on the Windows OS forum here which deals with deleting that partition, and installing fresh windows XP which you can make out of what you have on your laptop. They claim fresh install has advantages.

I have tried to inquire on that forum about the preload vs. the fresh install, if the operation is reversible, and if fresh install can have all the software of the preload, but I have got very little response.

Regards

[sugo]

It seems most OSes calculate storage in 1024 as 1K. It's beyond me why hdd makers have to tell that kind of cheap lies. Well I guess it's no better than the CRT monitor size measurement.

[wolfman]

Yes, we just replaced my wife's 15.7 inch viewable, um, I mean "17" inch diagonal Viewsonic CRT monitor....marketing....had in big red letters "17 inch display" on the box...such is life.

[Nomad-Man]

but it only shows 32gb in my computer. anyway i can get those extra 8gb back w/o formatting?

I just got my T this week and I got to wondering about this also. Im new to this restore/partition thing. So sorry if this is a stupid question.

I dont think I really want to delete the partition (at least at this point) but I was wondering if you could use a partitioning program to reduce the size of the restore partition.
If they use 8 gig for the restore partition and it only needs 5 then can you re-partition to get back the extra space without screwing up the restore stuff?

[EatMorGlue]

If they use 8 gig for the restore partition and it only needs 5 then can you re-partition to get back the extra space without screwing up the restore stuff?

I think that's what jhonyl was talking about in his post. A 40 GB HD is gonna max out around 37 GB in reality.

For example, my Aptiva desktop has a 40GB hard drive in it with no hidden partitions, and its capacity as listed under properties for the C drive is:
40,014,381,056 bytes - 37.2GB.

Take the 5GB restore partition off that 37GB upper limit of 40GB HD's, and you end up with the 32GB out of box. The restore partition isn't holding unused space. If it is, I don't think it's upwards of 1GB, although I could be wrong.