New laptop w/ a 256GB SSD, showing only 170GB "free"?!

Hey guys, I've just been playing around with my Sony Vaio Flip with a 256GB SSD and noticed a lot of space was missing. It is my understanding that Windows 8 & 8.1 uses space for recovery files and upgrade files. I guess my concern is whether the space I'm seeing is actually normal or not.

Upon viewing File Explorer, I show my C:\ drive to have 170GB out of 204GB free (available) for space. This is after I remove MOST (about 90%) of the bloatware that Sony came with. I also have Indexing and System Restore disabled/turned off. What happened to my ~34GB of space?

I then checked Disk Management and realized I had recovery partitions (see attached picture). My questions are as follows:

1) While the Disk Management adds up to 238GB of space, I am curious whether having 5 Partitions is normal with 2 of them being 31.59GB and 1.44GB. Is this common? If so, what are they? Should I or can I even remove them if I do not plan on using System Restore or restoring my laptop back to its original state?

2) With 34GB of space used for partitions, I have another ~34GB space gone as well. Remember that I only had about 170GB FREE space to use after uninstalling unnecessary programs and disabling System Restore and such. I haven't messed around with any other settings (I've heard things like PageFile, Hibernation, SuperFetch, etc. can take up lots of space). How can I check WHAT is exactly taking up another 34GB of usable space and to determine if I can GAIN that space back (by deleting or uninstalling other files/features?) Is the Windows 9 install THAT big?

3) I also want to add that I did upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1 on the 1st day I got my laptop. Would this only add to the problem of disappearing ANOTHER 34GB of space?

All in all, I've lost 68GB total space it seems. Any suggestions or recommendations? :huh:

Those partitions do appear to be "normal" for an OEM system, due to the Dual drive set-up available on your system (EFI & Lagacy) there are more partitions that used to be the norm.

Apart from the system partitions used to actually boot (EFI & OEM), you should be able to recover the other used space using a third party application (I find these more reliable that windows own, though it may be possible to use the windows disk management).

However Be aware that the removal of this data will mean that you use the manufacturer's recovery options should you wish to return the system to out of box condition, either at resale time or to recover form a major system crash. you should ensure that you have a set of recovery disks that came with the system or that you have followed the manufacturer's instructions to create them

Hope this helps

Are you saying the 2nd 34GB space would be recoverable (170GB out of 204GB free one)? If so, how do I go about removing the space? What other consequences would there be aside from not being able to have a "recovery disk" ?

Remember I have two 34GB missing. There's one located on the image which is a recovery partition, then there's another 34GB that I'm not sure where it went.

The breakdown:

238GB total SSD capacity subtract ~34GB = 204GB.

However, after uninstalling most Sony programs and bloatware, I now have about 170GB FREE out of 204GB, which I have lost 68GB. I understand where my first 34GB came from (it's the partitions you guys mention). Where is the 2nd 34GB? It can't be the Windows install, can it?

Xpred said:

). Where is the 2nd 34GB? It can't be the Windows install, can it?

Click to expand...

yes it can ,and likely is, i only have a 128, non oem computer .partitioned small amount for storage ,and rest for win8.1 enterprise ,and very few 3rd party software installed