formatting does not free all capacity

[gregmacca]

hello

i had to reinstall windows xp professional on my dell. this works fine and i booted up from the cd so i could format the c drive before i install xp. When it came out of the factory it had a number of items on it - just a few small pieces of software. The capacity of the c drives shows as 37.2 GB and that was the amount of space free when i first got the machine. However after I reinstalled windows the free space shows as 35.4 GB. What is making it do this? How can the drive be formatted but not free up the total capacity available as it was when it came out of the factory and had more programs on it? what could be taking up this space?

Thanks

 

[Enkrypted]

It all depends on what format utility that is used on the system that will determine the amount of space a drive will contain after a format is ran. The capacity of a drive can be read in two formats: Binary and Decimal. Manufacturers have a tight format utility which will allow them to utilize the most out of the format command, hence giving you as much free space as possible. Did you use the restore disc that came with your system or did you use Windows XP boot disks? Enkrypted
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[Enkrypted]

You can also refer to this article for more information:

http://www.harddiskinfo.com/Sections/FAQ/Answer.asp?ID=221&CategoryName=Drive Capacities

Enkrypted
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