Sizes of 40Gb hard drive when received?

[Guest]

Hey guys I am most likely ordering T41 or T42 throuh school. The 40GB one are the ones i can afford. My questions what is the average size of the hard drive when you got. Some people have said 37,35, another person recently said in a thread 26.5!!!. I am alread disappointed that I cannot get a 60gb hd so i would like to know how much of my 40 will be used up when I get it?

[K. Eng]

I have a 40 GB drive in my desktop (says 38,145 MB total). When you get your machine, I'd say 3-4 GB for the hidden restore partition. So you can expect 35 GB free.

Don't worry so much. 35 GB is a lot of space. I can't even fill up the 30 GB drive on my T40 (17 GB free).

[AssPenny]

No one ever gets 40gb out of a 40gb drive. A 40gb drive formated w/ ntfs will be about 37.5gb. After IBM puts the restore partition on, that chews up another 1gb. My t40 w/ a 40gb drive came out about 36gb plus some change.

[Guest]

I have a 40 GB drive in my desktop (says 38,145 MB total). When you get your machine, I'd say 3-4 GB for the hidden restore partition. So you can expect 35 GB free.

Don't worry so much. 35 GB is a lot of space. I can't even fill up the 30 GB drive on my T40 (17 GB free).

Well I am a college student and I probably won't use the 40 GB hard drive but one never knows. I plan on having this computer for as longs as I had my Toshiba which is four years. So for the ThinkPad 4-6 (I plan on going to grad school). I guess I will only be download music and movies but movies can be 1GB or more. Does anyone see anything in the future that would take up hard drive space? I mean four years ago- five years ago burning music still wasn't all that popular. But now it is and I can't see anything in the future that would cause a need for alot of hard drive space for the average person.

[AtmosMan]

One way to give yourself a small increase in hard drive space (~1GB) is by decreasing the amount of space that your system restore and recycle bin take up.

To decrease the space system restore uses (the one windows gives you in XP) go to Control Panel > System > System Restore > Settings and move the slider to a lower partition.

To decrease the amount of space that the recycle bin takes up right click the recycle bin, go to properties and move the slider down to a lower percentage of drive usage (by lowering the partition, you can't leave stuff in the bin for too long a time as you will reach the limit sooner. So just empty your bin more often. )

[cooljw]

Yes, 26.5gig free on receipt of my new T42 (2378-FVU). I saw another poster somewhere mention he got the same.

After the hidden partition, WinXP, and all those crazy IBM utilities this is what's left.

[kjor76]

HI,

Anybody else found only 26.5gig free on receipt of the T42 2378-FVU; or any other 2378 40GB HDD models?

Frankly this is disturbing. I want the 14.1'' model with dothan and ATI9600; but dont want to pay rediculous prices for it to get the larger HDD option.

K...

[Nabeel]

When I got my FVU, I had about 32 free. I deleted the recovery partition and merged it into the main partition, and deleted the IBM recovery stuff on the C drive, so I have about 37gb avail, which seems to be the max.

I don't think you really need the recovery partition, that was a few gb, don't remember exactly how much but probably 3-4gb, I just ordered the recovery cds if I need them. They also store a copy of all the apps on the C drive which is about 1gb, I burned those onto two CDs incase I need them.

[akerman]

I don't see the problem.. just reformat the drive and kill the recovery partition, if you need the space.

I have a reformatted 60gb on mine, which is filled to the breaking point.. and my desktop hds are filled too (370gb).. you can never have enough space

[cooljw]

When I got my FVU, I had about 32 free. I deleted the recovery partition and merged it into the main partition, and deleted the IBM recovery stuff on the C drive, so I have about 37gb avail, which seems to be the max.

To clarify, naturally you end up with 37.2gb "capacity" for the formatted "40gb" drive if you whack the service partition and make your HD have just one partition. This is the physical size of the drive. (see http://iamnotageek.com/articles.php?aid ... drive_size). But Win XP and the drivers you need take up space, so you will have less "free" space on the drive than 37.2gig.

Out of the box, the FVU has 26.5gig of "free" space because of all the stuff that's installed, and 32gig "capacity" showing (because of all the hidden stuff).

You can reclaim the space by starting from scratch by doing a clean install (what I did), or by doing what Nabeel did and undoing things. Personally I'd rather start with a clean slate.

[Guest]

Yeah I was thinking about doing the clean install. See for the last four years I have had a great Toshiba. It came with windows 98 SE and then at college I learned that it would be better to have windows 2000. So in March I reformatted for the first time then did an upgrade. The notebooks had a 4 GB hard drive. I went from fat 32 to ntfs. However all the current notebooks and desktops come with 40 GB or more. I don't understand the whole two partitions and all that quite yet. Also I am not used to working with XP that much yet. I have an XP pro from the school and I have a copy of Microsoft office which is the most important thing. However I would not want to remove the cd recording software and things as soon as I get it. I will be buying the computer at college and I don't want to spend my time formatting as soon as I get there. Also I remember that when I formatted I just installed windows 2000 and did all the updates at school online. But I understand there are IBM utilities that will take more time.

So I guess my real questions and statements are should I format as soon as I get it so I won't have to do it a year from now or just wait? What is the difference between two partitions and a hidden partition? With IBM's rescue and recovery. system restore I am confused. From the posts it seems that there is a 3-4 GB partition that is untouchable. And then anther 4 of more IBM stuff?

I taught myself how to partition but that was with a 4 GB hard drive and windows 98- 2000. Partitioning may be just as easy with XP but I don't know all about XP yet. Also again there is a time factor. Me going online and downloading those little extras that came with the computer and not XP. Like realone, and recording devices. I have an up to date desktop but my father bought it when I was at school and so I have not gotten acquainted with it since I have gotten back from school. Also don't want to go messing around with it since it has 160 Gab hard drive and all his business files on it.

Any sites on how to partition double hard drives and XP for the person used to one partition and wndows 2000?

[cooljw]

So I guess my real questions and statements are should I format as soon as I get it so I won't have to do it a year from now or just wait?

IMHO, it is *always* easier to take care of this before you start using your PC. Because you won't have installed apps, personal files, and the like to worry about backing up and reinstalling after you wipe your HD.

What is the difference between two partitions and a hidden partition? With IBM's rescue and recovery. system restore I am confused. From the posts it seems that there is a 3-4 GB partition that is untouchable. And then another 4 of more IBM stuff?

IBM's new Rapid Restore program essentially backs up your HD to the hidden partition area. This could be good for some people. But you can also use a utility like Norton Ghost and accomplish the same thing, and store the back files somewhere else, like on CD, and not take up the space on your HD. (after I clean installed I did not reinstall Rapid Restore). Then of course there are the things that comes installed on your Thinkpad (like Rapid Restore), which take up disk space on the non-hidden partition.

Also again there is a time factor. Me going online and downloading those little extras that came with the computer and not XP. Like realone, and recording devices.

Yes there is a time factor, especially if you're starting college. But trust me, you'll be *much* busier if you try this later on, and then will be kicking yourself for not doing it to begin with. Also, there are no little extras like Realone that come installed on the Thinkpad. So you have to install them yourself anyway. All the install files for everything that comes with your Thinkpad are on the C: (see other thread that talks about how to clean install). So you already have everything, and don't need to go downloading stuff off IBM's website.

Any sites on how to partition double hard drives and XP for the person used to one partition and wndows 2000?

When you clean install Win XP it lets you set up whatever partitions you like. The process could not be simpler. It asks you before you begin installation. You probably don't need to set up any partitions though. This seems to be a matter of personal preference. Some people like setting up a separate partition for the OS.

[Guest]

Thanks I hope so I will try to read up on what is going on? You know my computer that I partitioned maybe had restore cds too but who know where those were. I just saved the word files I had and reformatted there was nothing else. I deleted the music since I had no cd-rw because of the age of the computer no biggie. Now all the computers come with all these system restore cds and all this. Also system restore is different from reformatting because nothings is deleted right?? Probably my answer to this question is in the clean install post that I was told to look up. Thanks.