I've noticed that this question seems to have been asked a lot, but I haven't been able to find a solid answer for it.  I've tried using the Advanced Search option as well, but all that reveals is more posts direction people to the advanced search.

 

Anyway, here's my issue.  Just bought and received a Dimension E510, got it hooked up and started running last night.  I noticed that I only have around 162 GB of my 250 GB (w/ DataSafe) drive available for use.  My call to the Dell Support revealed that this is common and due to all of the PC restore utilities and backup stuff, but since he spoke poor English and talked rather quickly it was difficult to understand for sure.

 

I understand the usual discrepencies between stated and actual hard drive space, but losing over 35% of my space seems quite extreme.  I've read some of the other posts explaining the ghosting/backing up of files on to the second hard drive, but I have to admit to being more than a little confused.

 

In the end, how much storage space do I have on this drive for my own use?  162?  I've seen some references of needing to limit use to 30-40GB in order for the ghosting to work properly, is this true? 

 

If anyone can help illuminate this subject for me a little I would greatly appreciate it.  Right now I am pretty disappointed with what I consider false advertising by Dell, the 250 GB hard drive I thought I was getting is turning out to be around half of that.