Re: Wasted 8 megs?

On 7/20/2007 6:02 PM On a whim, Nepatsfan pounded out on the keyboard

In news:edAMLUxyHHA.3564@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Terry R. <F1ComNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 7/20/2007 11:20 AM On a whim, Nepatsfan pounded out on the keyboard

In news:1184953750.618693.207540@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Edward <Edward.Nuxters@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Not that I care on a 200 gig drive. But I'm just curious as
to why
this happens. Does it have to do with the size of the drive
not being
evenly divisible by the calculated cluster size?

http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00854mediumgj6.jpg

Also, what is a good FREE Windows newsreader?
Windows leaves that space on a hard drive which has only one
partition in case you ever want to convert the drive from a
basic disk to a dynamic disk. The following article while
written for Windows 2000 also applies to XP.

Unpartitioned Space Remains When Creating a Partition During
Setup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293281

As for your second question, what constitutes a "good"
newsreader depends on who you ask. I've found Outlook Express
to be more than adequate for my needs. I've also used Mozilla
Firefox and found it to be just as good.

Good luck

Nepatsfan


I've built or setup countless new installations and have never run
across that before. How is that possible?

--
Terry R.

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I can't speak for why you've never seen that behavior, but it's been my experience that it happens if you elect to create a single partition which uses all available hard drive space. This happens when installing Home or Professional, OEM or Retail.

From this web site, take note of figures 6 through 8.

Clean Install Procedure with Illustrative Screen Captures
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm

If you're installing to a clean hard drive, you should see a screen similar to this right after you accept the EULA. Note; If any existing partitions are displayed on this screen, hit the D key. You have to start with an unpartitioned drive.

Figure 6
http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/XP%20Home%20Setup%20Graphic/FF.gif

Note the disk size is 4095 MB.

If you press the C key to create a partition, you'll arrive at a screen similar to this. Keep in mind that if you press Enter here to begin the installation you'll go right to the screen to select how you want to format the drive, Figure 9. You'll miss the following screens.

Figure 7
http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/XP%20Home%20Setup%20Graphic/GG.gif

Notice the maximum size of the partition you can create is 4087 MB, 8 MB less than the size displayed earlier. If you were to enter a number larger than the maximum allowed it will be rejected. The amount will be reset to the maximum.

When you hit Enter, you're taken to this screen.

Figure 8
http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/XP%20Home%20Setup%20Graphic/HH.gif

Note the second entry, Unpartitioned Space equal to 8 MB.

Note: If you elect to use less than the maximum amount when you create your partition during installation, the rest of the hard drive will be available in Disk Management as unallocated space. Should you create a second partition in Disk Management, the entire unallocated space will be available. You won't have the 8 MB set aside.

Here are a couple of MS articles with additional information.

Applies to XP as well as W2K
Setup Reserves Disk Space for Upgrading to Dynamic Disk
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225822

How To Convert to Basic and Dynamic Disks in Windows XP Professional
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044

Note this comment under General Notes.

"You must have at least 1 megabyte (MB) of free space on any master boot record (MBR) disk that you want to convert. This space is automatically reserved when the partition or volume is created in Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional."

Good luck

Nepatsfan



Thanks for listing the links, but it doesn't explain why I've never run across it. Doesn't really matter, unless it's supposed to leave that space on "all" systems, "all" the time.

Take care,

--
Terry R.

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