Missing 50GB of Disk Space

logicearth · 20 Feb 2011

It doesn't matter if you are using Grub or Windows as the boot loader. A hard drive setup using Master Boot Record (MBR) can only support 4 Primary Partitions. Anymore then 4 must be Logical Partitions which are encased in an Extended Partition. So you gave have 3 Primary Partitions and 1 Extended Partitions with almost unlimited Logical Partitions. MBR is not from Microsoft, it is its own standard.

Trying to go beyond this limit will cause problems for those systems not tuned to these special circumstances.

mjf · 20 Feb 2011

You can see that windows disk management is totally lost with this disk layout and Partition wizard doesn't recognize the file format on the 2 linux partitions.
Windows likes to see the boot sequence described here (Post 24) for operation and repair purposes. I believe some linux installs can change the MBR code.
Although not absolutely essential I think it's safer to have linux installs on a separate disk using whatever boot manager you like.

TheCarlisle · 20 Feb 2011

Okay, this is how I fixed the issue. I resized the Windows partition from Ubuntu with Gparted and rebooted into Windows to find that it's showing the missing 50GB. Thanks for the inspiration guys!

mjf · 20 Feb 2011

TheCarlisle said:

Hi, when I go to My Computer, it says that the C: drive is only 122GB. When I right click on the my computer shortcut and click on manage, the disk analyser thing says the C: drive is 170GB (roughly). That's a lot of unused space on a 250GB hard drive.

I just recently resized the C: partition from 122GB to 170GB to add a game or two to WIndows using a Linux program that never failed me before, Gparted. How can I fix this???

Your HDD was 320GB not 250GB. The program that failed you (Gparted) has now rescued you.
Your windows OS partition is close to full and windows thinks you have 5 primary partitions.
Hope it works out for you.