possible problem with hd

[SPEEDemon1]

I just received my new dell xps m1710 with windows vista premium on monday. I've been spending some of my time cleaning out the crap that dell put on my computer. I got tired of it so I just did a fresh install of everything. The problem i'm having is that the main partition of the hard drive on my computer has 58.3 gb of free space remaining on the hd out of 81.1, but that can't be true because there's maybe 5 or 6 gb of stuff of there, nowhere near 20 something. Could this be a problem with a driver or something where its reading the free space incorrectly?

*note: this problem was also occuring before i did a fresh install

thx for your help, i just hope this isn't a serious problem

 

[SPEEDemon1]

weird, my computer was idle for about 45 min and now my free space went up to 59.9 gb, very strange indeed

 

[Istonian]

I wonder if your partition was to small. Maybe you aren't using all of your hard drive.

 

[mammikoura]

Those dells might have a hidden recovery partition there.

 

[Raffaz]

Have a look in disk management and see what it says there. Are there extra partitions or unallocated space?

 

[lord of the vie]

Yeah. The recent Dells tend to have a partition listed "Recovery". Use Disk Management to remove it.

 

[Istonian]

Did add the partition to the current partition. If not there is software to do that.

 

[SPEEDemon1]

Grr, I'm still having this problem. I did diagnostic tests, everything, the whole shpeel, and nothing. I did go into disk management and found 2 gb of unallocated space so I added that to my main drive. I think though that I have discovered the problem, I just don't know how to go about fixing it. I first installed bf2 sf and the free space decreased the amount it should have(about 3.5 gb), then I restarted my computer and checked it and it it went down like another 2-3 something gb. Then I downloaded AA and the amount of free space decreased as it should have, about 2.5 gb. Then I restarted my comp and the free space when down another 2 something gb. It sounds like my hd is automatically backed up everything I save on it, but i can't be sure. Any suggestions would be great, because I've never heard of this problem and neither have my buddies. This is getting a little ridiculous and frustrating because the drive says I have 35+ gb of stuff on it, when I barely have anything on it!

 

[SPEEDemon1]

Yay!!!!!!!!!!! I fixed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently as a new feature vista creates a new restore point every time you download something. Since my system was running stable, I just deleted all the unneeded restore points and i got 10+ gb of space back, woooooo hooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mammikoura]

^ go vista!