Mystery Solved - HD / "Free Space" Mystery

[Torquemada]

The Mystery is solved.

"Torquemada" > wrote in message
...
> I have a pretty sound system. PIII running at 1Ghz on Win XP with 512 RAM.
>
> I have 2 HDs on the PC.
>
> One is 10 GB, divided into 2 virtual drives (c: and e:)
>
> The other is 80 GB, divided in 2 virtual drives (d: and f:)
>
> Both HDs are NTFS partitioned with no compression.
>
> The root system files are on the c:\ drive, small disk (the 10 GB drive.)
>
> Now, on the 80 GB drive something very strange happens. According to the
> defrag program, the d: drive has a large clump of "free space for system
> use" at the beginning of the d:\ drive.
>
> No such thing appears on any of the other drives or partitions, not even
on
> the c: drive where the root directory and Windows files are located.
>
> In trying to figure out why this large clump of unusable space is on the
HD,
> I changed the partition from NTFS to FAT 32 and the mystery "free space"
> vanished, only to reappear when I changed back to NTFS.
>
> Can someone please tell me why the mystery "free space" and if there is a
> way to minimize this wasted space on the HD or get rid of it altogether?
>
> Thanks in advance...
>
> E
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