Its about time...

J

jay2472000

Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2008
Messages
590
..the hard drive manufacturers started labeling drives as actual capacity.

I was sitting on my porch the other day thinking about buying a 1.5 Tb drive to use as a backup and it dawned on me that I would have an actual 1.4 Tb usable. 100 gigs lost, or not, depending on which side of the argument. So I was thinking, yeah, when you bought an 80 gig and lost some it wasnt as bad. Percent wise its all the same I am sure, but lets face it, losing 5.5 gigs versus 100 gigs is a bit different. Luckily I hang out and lurk on the forums, etc so I understand why theres a difference, but to most people, when they buy that drive and get home to realize they mysteriously lost 100 gigs has go to be pretty disheartening.

I just wanted to throw this out there and see what others thought. I honestly doubt the drive manufacturers are going to change the way they label the drives, they use that to their advantage to market them, but still, its kind of shady. I think until I can buy a 1 Tb HD and have my pc actually see 1 Tb, they should practice more "truth in advertising"


/rant off
 
The drives are labeled correctly.. your computer is the one that "mislabels" it when you get right down to it.

when you buy a 1.5tb drive there are 1.5 actual tb on it. But your computer counts in a different base than humans do. If you have taken any college level math, you'd understand counting in base 2 or base 8 or as humans do in base 10.

The drives are marketed as humans count in base 10.. your computer counts in base 2 so it comes up with a "different" number, even though it isn't a different number at all.
 
What pisses me off, among other things, is when people talk about false advertising and this issue. If I ever meet the the guy who sued over the size of his hard drive...

Just realized that sounds a bit odd...
 
Ok, Sabregen, youre correct, its just lack of information. ( and correct that I know and understand it)

Lazn_work, what if tomorrow ALL gas stations started selling fuel by the Liter, and we paid by the gallon. And, well, the numbers didnt quite end up matching correctly and instead of paying 2.56 a gallon you paid 2.59 if you did the conversion, but since they use litres, you the consumer has to make up the difference ( and yeah, I didnt do the math, just throwing that out there) In short, when computers count by base 10, or theres an OS ( just one) or any logical reason ( Im not buying the base 10 bullshit, I know its because 1.5 Tb HD looks better in advertising than 1.4 Tb)

Epi- Haha yeah, it sounds really strange when you say it out loud ~.^


Edit : Also, guys, now that were losing more space, it seems like more of a big deal than before. Does any one else feel that way? Like I said, I didnt mind losing 5.5 gigs on the 80, but to lose 100 gigs is kinda hurtful. It just seems that with the bigger drives were losing a lot more, but then again, the price/gig is always falling so maybe I should shutup....
 
jay2472000 said:
... Luckily I hang out and lurk on the forums, etc so I understand why theres a difference, .....
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Seems that was missed. Honestly I really dont care one way or another, but just wish the namings were standard is all, its just a minor irk. Just wondered if anyone else felt the same way.
 
Well, they are advertising it properly.
 
In a deceiving manner.....

I guess it wouldnt be so bothersome, but they use the word byte, a word derived from computer lingo. It almost seems out of context.

And bet your ass if the lates windows somehow doesnt recognize drives that counted using 10 base, wed have a whole new HD system in place overnight. Its strictly a business decision made by manufacturers, probably goaded into by their ad dept to make the drives appear bigger than they are. ( and FWIW it also pisses me off to pay for a fountain drink thats 90% ics in the cup so this may just be a me thing)


Anyway, this discussion is leading to nowhere really fast. I really just wanted opinions on the matter. Kind of like if a car drives by and I say "Wow I like that blue color" You can agree, or disagree, but lets not discuss the minute details of paint manufacturing as to why. I should have definately been more clear, a poll perhaps would have been better suited.

And.......for those that are still here, read this http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/feature/horseshoes-and-hand-grenades-joel-johnson-returnsto-spank-us-all-for-supporting-crap-236310.php Its definately an article that makes you think, its what got me thinking about this issue.
 
jay2472000 said:
In a deceiving manner.....

I guess it wouldnt be so bothersome, but they use the word byte, a word derived from computer lingo. It almost seems out of context. .
Click to expand...

Hard drive makers hasn't changed, but the software sure has. Makes you wonder who's really wrong here... a maker who have been for decades producing as bytes or a software vendor with a new piece of software every few years?
 
meh, you're making too much of this. Quit yer whinin, I say. If you know what you're getting, a big-ass hard drive is a big-ass hard drive. If it don't have enough space on it, buy another one. If the "decimal/binary gap" is just too much for you to take, then do what I do... take a nice long sip of single malt and ponder your next project.
 
jay2472000 said:
Lazn_work, what if tomorrow ALL gas stations started selling fuel by the Liter, and we paid by the gallon. And, well, the numbers didnt quite end up matching correctly and instead of paying 2.56 a gallon you paid 2.59 if you did the conversion, but since they use litres, you the consumer has to make up the difference ( and yeah, I didnt do the math, just throwing that out there)
Click to expand...

No, not at all. This would be false and stealing. The HD companies are not doing that at all.

It's more like someone with 11 fingers expecting to get 11 hot dogs in a package that says 10 hot dogs because he has 11 fingers.
 
coo-coo-clocker said:
meh, you're making too much of this. Quit yer whinin, I say. If you know what you're getting, a big-ass hard drive is a big-ass hard drive. If it don't have enough space on it, buy another one. If the "decimal/binary gap" is just too much for you to take, then do what I do... take a nice long sip of single malt and ponder your next project.
Click to expand...
good advice
 
jay2472000 said:
[/COLOR]


Seems that was missed. Honestly I really dont care one way or another, but just wish the namings were standard is all, its just a minor irk. Just wondered if anyone else felt the same way.
Click to expand...

I don't think that you really understand. HDD manufacturers are right with their advertising and they did nothing wrong because they are selling terabytes of storage not tebibytes.

Windows on the other hand is wrong because it counts the size in tebibytes and reports the size as terabytes.
 
alg7_munif said:
I don't think that you really understand. HDD manufacturers are right with their advertising and they did nothing wrong because they are selling terabytes of storage not tebibytes.

Windows on the other hand is wrong because it counts the size in tebibytes and reports the size as terabytes.
Click to expand...

there we go, that's a cleaner, simpler way to explain it.
 
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