Disc space lost after using Ubuntu - is it permanent damage?

Can anyone explain what is happening here.

I have an 8Gb Linpus One. I tried loading Ubuntu. The install did not go well, as I never could get the wireless to work.

I reverted back to Windows, deleted the SSD partition and formatted the whole drive. Now the drive size is shown as 7.5Gb. When I used Norton Ghost, it showed one partition and spare space. This was not revealed when I installed Windows.

I have now tried reinstalling Linpus, but it still shows 7.5Gb.

How can I reconfigure the hard drive to partition and format the lost space?

Your advice will be much appreciated.

Stoker

 

you haven't really lost anything 8000 Mb is not 8 Gb its about 7.51.Gb

If you want to adjust partition sizes and really you don't the easiest way is to use an ubuntu live Cd or similar (or usb converted iso) and run sudo gparted, you can't resize a mounted partition you see which is why you need to boot off something else.

gparted is pretty much like partition magic..

 

That sounds like a useful tip. Thanks very much. I will try using Ubuntu to do this.

Are you saying that 8.2Gb is the unpartitioned size of the SSD, and that the partitioned size under Windows is 7.5Gb ?

Meanwhile, using File Manager under Linpus, My Disk is shown as 6.4Gb. Does that sound right? I suppose there must be another Linpus Partition using up the extra?

The problem is that I didn't note anything down about disc sizes when using the other operating systems. I do remember that under Ubuntu the disc size was shown as 8.2. But then I imagine that Ubuntu must have given the unpartitioned size. Does this sound right to you? I am a windows person really, so Linux is currently like a foreign country.

Its great to have had an answer so quickly, so thank you very much.

S.

 

It's a binary vs. decimal thing. Back in ancient times, computer folks started referring to 1024 bytes as a kilobyte because it was close to 1000 bytes. When disk drive manufacturers started using kilo-, mega-, and giga- as they are supposed to be used, massive confusion arose among microcomputer uses, leading to the invention of iB's to refer to binary bytes. No doubt I've horribly corrupted the actual story, but the bottom line is:

1KiB = 2^10 = 1024 bytes 1MB = 2^20 = 1048576 bytes 1 GiB = 2^30 = 1073741824 bytes
so 8 GB ~ 7.5 GiB

 

Thanks very much for that explanation. I thought for a horrible half day that partitioning the SDD using Ubuntu has left me with unused space that could no longer be seen or accessed by the Windows start-up disc.