Member Avatar for rotten69

Hi everyone,
I have got a mac book pro and it had initially an OSX before I partitioned the disk. When I did partitioned it, I could see a decrease in the size of the disk. I've only got two partitions that are one for Win7 and the other one for Mac OSX.

Could anyone please explain why the size of the disk keeps decreasing whenever I format the disk?

Is there a way of lettin not happen at all? How do I configure the mac keyboard on Win7 as I am actually using a Win keyboard ?


Thanks..

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Quick, practical context and fixes for the issues raised by (partitioned drive shrinking, slow Windows in Boot Camp, 4 GB showing as ~2.3 GB):

Partition / capacity surprises

  • Apparent capacity loss after partitioning/formatting usually comes from a few predictable places: the difference between decimal GB and binary GiB (a “500 GB” drive reports ~465 GiB), the partition map + small hidden partitions (EFI, Recovery), and filesystem metadata/block-allocation overhead. was right that space can be reserved, but that “10%” statement isn’t a universal macOS rule — ext-family filesystems commonly reserve ~5% for root, while HFS+/APFS don’t use a single fixed 10% reserve the same way.
  • Best practice: back everything up, use Disk Utility (Show All Devices) to inspect the full partition map, then use Boot Camp Assistant to create the Windows partition rather than mixing tools. Manually deleting and recreating partitions can help, but do it from Disk Utility + Boot Camp Assistant to avoid stray recovery or protective partitions.

Repair and diagnostics

  • Formatting won’t cure physical bad sectors. Check S.M.A.R.T. status in Disk Utility, run Apple Diagnostics/Hardware Test, or use the drive-maker’s utility for a long surface test. If the disk shows errors, replace it rather than rely on repeated reformatting.

Windows performance and RAM showing only 2.3 GB

  • Seeing ~2.3 GB usable from 4 GB usually means a 32‑bit Windows build plus hardware-reserved address space (graphics and devices). Installing a 64‑bit Windows (if the Mac model supports it) and installing Apple’s Boot Camp drivers fixes driver/graphics issues and lets Windows use more RAM. Also confirm the Windows install used native Boot Camp steps—virtual machines (as suggested) share host RAM and will be slower unless plenty of memory is given.
  • Quick checklist: confirm Windows is 64‑bit, install/update Boot Camp drivers, check Device Manager for missing drivers, disable unnecessary visual effects, and ensure enough physical RAM is installed for the intended workload.

Summary: back up first, inspect partitions with Disk Utility, use Boot Camp Assistant for Windows installs, run drive diagnostics if errors persist, and use 64‑bit Windows + Boot Camp drivers to resolve the low-usable-RAM and performance problems.

Recommended Answers

All 12 Replies

Member Avatar for dioioib

How much is the disk decreasing?

Did you change the filesystem type to HFS Journaled from something like HFS?

There is also the possibility of bad sectors on your disk.

I would need more information.

Member Avatar for rotten69

Obviously, I had to change the filesystem from the mac format to NTFS format for the windows partition. I do not exactly remember how much it was decreased by. I formatted the disk entirely. Wouldn't this get rid of anything bad?

Member Avatar for dioioib

When you partition a disk for any unix based system there is always a 10% super user space reserved on the disk.

If you know how to use terminal or even if you don't type the following:

diskutil list

This will show you all disks partitions.

You can check the status of your filesystem by running:

sudo df -k

This will give you similar output:

Filesystem    1024-blocks      Used Available Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2    278790144 267172676  11361468    96%    /
devfs                 109       109         0   100%    /dev
map -hosts              0         0         0   100%    /net
map auto_home           0         0         0   100%    /home
/dev/disk0s3     33427488  32062368   1365120    96%    /Volumes/BOOTCAMP

In some cases the capacity might exceed 100% which indicates there is space reserved in each volume.

Disks will behave in different ways based on the partitions and the file system used.

suggested reading:

http://www.nobius.org/~dbg/practical-file-system-design.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-System-Design-Dominic-Giampaolo/dp/1558604979

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Filesystems-Evolution-Design-Implementation/dp/0471164836/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333499925&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Operating-System-Prentice-Hall-Software/dp/0132017997/ref=pd_rhf_se_shvl4

http://www.amazon.com/HFS-Plus-Nethanel-Willy/dp/6200712727/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333500066&sr=1-1

Member Avatar for arezz09

i think, u should delete all partition n create all partition again...

Member Avatar for rotten69

I have done that in response to arezz09's reply. The other problem I am facing at the moment is that Win7 ultimate& home premium don't run smoothly in Bootcamp(Arggghhh!!, I'm disappointed). I want to use Win7 as a min OS on my mac book pro.

The problems are as follows:
1- Win is so slow and kills me badly.
2- When I log into my win OS, it takes more time than my Win7 starter notebook to boot!!
3- The thought that I came up with is that Mac hardware is not fully compatiable with windows? Maybe?

Member Avatar for dfxgrid12

It's quite easy, good sirs.

Member Avatar for rotten69

At dfxgrid12.... What is quite easy!!!??? If you were trying to participate in this Article, Please respond to the question was asked.

Member Avatar for rotten69

Any help from MAc Lovers?

Member Avatar for cuzintone

I haven't run Windows 7 in boot camp, rather in VMWare Fusion 4. Make sure you have the max amount of memory installed (8GB); I would not start with the Aero interface on initially, I would set the Swap file to 1.5 x System RAM, then gradually introduce Aero, if necessary (I still run the Windows Classic UI).ß

Member Avatar for rotten69

.. my macbook pro laptop has got about 4.0 GB ram and when I run win7, it says only 2.3. or 2.4 is usable.... it is killing me. I can not get simple tasks done within a short amount of time, whereas I can get a lot of things done on my LG laptop that runs windows starter.

Please help

Member Avatar for dioioib

I have run Windows 7 with no issues using bootcamp and VMware, using the 64x version. 4gb ram, Core 2 duo and on my Mac Pro but booting using "Option key" boot from another internal disk worked better for me.

Member Avatar for rotten69

I have used 64 bit version then it did not work too well on my machine then I had to cheange it to 32 bit version. I'd love to use a win7 on my macbook pro without any issues but this is not working for me !!! I think it is happening because of hardware compatability? maybe? Do I just go ahead with installing VMware?

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