operating system does not read full hord drive capacity

sounds like the drive is formatted in Fat 32 so the cluster sizes will be larger. The amount of disk space is about correct for a Fat 32 format.

Yes you can delete all the files and such on the 20 gig drive. Just hook it up as a secondary drive. Then right click on the my computer icon select mange. In the management window select disk management. another window will pop up showing all your drives. Right click on the 20 gig drive and select format. This will wipe it out.

If you are referring to a pin on the connector it is generally non repairable.

EDIT:  Bev beat me to it again.....

however the computer only register 465.76 gb; I like to know why the difference..

I think this is the old decimal/binary problem.    In a nutshell, what the OS calls a GB is about 7.4% less than the hard drive manufacturer does, because they use different math (OS is binary, hard drive is in decimal).   7.4% of 500GB is about 35 GB, so what's reported (465GB) is correct.

For gory details, this article is pretty good:

http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/binary_v_decimal_measurement.htm

That same 7.4% was missing from the 20GB drive, too, but probably didn't notice it..  Missing 1.4 GB just isn't as noticeable as missing 35 GB.

Hi, I have a 4300 dell dimension with XP operating system and 4 or 5 months ago I replaced my original 20 gb hord drive with a new western digital 500 gb hord drive- and yes in case you want to know, I did replace the original bios with the new version A6 !- however the computer only register 465.76 gb; I like to know why the difference. The second question is that I want to use the original 20 gb hord drive as a secondary hord drive for extra storage space therefore I want to delete all the data-including the operating  system that came with it- I would be glad if somebody could explain me how to wipe out all the data from the old hord drive. The third question is originally I did have a 120 gb seagate as a secondary hord drive for extra storage space, but unfortunately one of the pin broke off as I was pulling it off the computer. Is it  feasible to fix it? And who fixes these things? Please reply. Thank you.

f1954aracri

Go HERE for the explanation.

Bev.