MSI GL73 8rd specs storage space pawn

[Allmightyballs]

I just picked up a msi Gl73 8rd from a pawn shop.  It reset it using the msi factory settings way (youtube tutorial) & updated fine after but it seems slow starting up & I feel space is missing.
What type of storage comes factory?  Ive got 558 on C drive & 349 on "data". Also dragon center shows 1T HD but this PC shows 558 & 465 free on C & 349 on "data".

 

The OS loads from the C drive(HD) instead of what seems to be the SSD.  Does this sound normal &or could something be taking up space? 

Can I just add another 8 gig stick or should I replace that with 32?(what I thought this should have)

 

I feel like parts are missing or changed & MSI website doesn't state size of said drives. 

Note- I have it in my head its a 1T HD & the data is an ssd & the OS should boot from the ssd

Any advice on the subject is or laptop itself is greatly appreciated( its replacing a HP stream13 nightmare for daily use)

 

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Allmightyballs
Updated information and photos

[TotallyNotGigabit]

Check in Device Manager to see if there are drives there too. Those two could be just partitions and Windows is seeing them as two different drives.

[Allmightyballs]

@TotallyNotGigabit I checked but I didnt see anything that stood out, perhaps I was looking in the wrong spot. I did find this(1st pic) that made me curious of the space/storage issues. I found a 1T HD but didnt see any ssd, just an empty m2 slot.

 

Right now until I can figure the factory specs of this particular model Im not sure if the previous owner pulled out anything. Im also not sure if it erased everything during the reset though it said it would erase all previous partitions.

 

Im not sure if this is the correct wording - I was thinking somehow they combined or split a drive for some sort of raid set up if the space isn't taken up by something else

[TotallyNotGigabit]

@Allmightyballs Looks like one drive with two partitions then. Not sure if MSI has a serial number lookup so you can see the configuration but just searching for the model GL73 8RD gave me results for a laptop with a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HDD.

 

In the config its in now, it's partitioned the drive as some for the OS and the rest for data storage, which wouldn't be touched if you were to reformat/reinstall Windows.

 

32 minutes ago, Allmightyballs said:

Im not sure if this is the correct wording - I was thinking somehow they combined or split a drive for some sort of raid set up if the space isn't taken up by something else

Only thing the recovery appeared to have done was split the drive to have the rest of the space from Windows as a data partition. The numbers add up to 908GB though, and it's probably from Windows 10's partitioning and the remaining recovery partition.

 

But since there's a free M.2 slot, you can install a nice SSD, and definitely upgrade the RAM. The original config also states 16GB. So, maybe the person who pawned it off pulled the original 128GB for something else, and took the other 8GB RAM for his new system. Bit sad that may be the case here.

[Allmightyballs]

@TotallyNotGigabit Thanks! I really appreciate the help & confirmation of what I thought. I had a feeling parts were missing but msi's website didnt give size specs and I'm new to laptops/PC building.  I checked amazon which gave a better idea but I wasn't sure if there were "upgraded" models & perhaps this one was a lower end of the series.

I plan on ordering the parts now. I prefer to have a 500g-1T ssd & then have the HD for storage only. Would you have any suggestions on upgrade parts? I feel like Ill order the wrong ram & m2 and run into compatibility issues. Ram has to match sticks I know but isn't there something else that has to match? I thought the same had to be done with the sata port as well
I dont want to overkill it with upgrades but I dont want to limit the budget. Its mainly a work computer replacement but if I can play games like WOW & others on it, wouldn't be the worst thing

My thinking is put in upgrades, move OS to the SSD, format the HD so its fresh & ram upgrade so though its used, all previous owner data or worse is wiped & Ive got a rig that will be more then enough for daily use & most of all safe. I dont know why but Ive felt like theres something hidden on this PC hence the great deal I got on it.

[TotallyNotGigabit]

@Allmightyballs It may have been lower end. But there are probably more than one GL73-8RD, some with 8GB and with the SSD and HDD and some with 16GB, SSD and HDD.

9 hours ago, Allmightyballs said:

but isn't there something else that has to match?

By the looks of what it says on the M.2 slot, "PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA 3.0 SSD" means NVMe or SATA M.2. I'd go NVMe M.2 for storage there. Samsung's 970 EVO is worth a look at. If I was you I'd have upgraded RAM to the max, meaning you'll get matching sticks and not worry too much about matching what's in there now.