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yea its the ntfs rule, it takes away some of your space for the file format system. its a fraction system i just don't know what it is.
Zlash said:Not really. It's the HD manufactuers measuring KBs/MBs/GBs different than everyone else.
if it was unsupported it would only show like 127gb, its the way the manufacturer measures the space, i think its in 1000 and not 1024 or something, anyways i did calcs and it didnt match on my drive, shows 180~gb (a 200gb) so there my theory on the way the measure it must be wrong and they measure it another way, cause im missing 10gb4keatimj said:How does that work? Doesn't the lack of support for huge drives in Windows effect it?
Funny thing that. One would figure 250GB drives would have... you know... 250 GB. Alas that has never been so. Funny how drive makers love to confuse people. Its should be marked a 233 GB drive, not 250, so as to avoid the less savvy users. Wouldnt you agree?Zlash said:Not really. It's the HD manufactuers measuring KBs/MBs/GBs different than everyone else.
Snugglebear said:The rule of thumb is that you're going to lose ~7-10% of a drive's capacity after installation and formatting. This varies based on manufacturer and filesystem, but not too terribly much most of the time. Realize that drive manufacturers count in base 10, so 1GB to them is literally 1 billion bytes (1,000,000,000). Computers operate in binary, and so count in base 2. That 1GB turns into 2^30 bytes (1,073,741,824). There went a good chunk, now subtract another few percent for the filesystem (file metadata, filesystem structures like master file tables, various indices, etc.).
Official publication
These prefixes for binary multiples, which were developed by IEC Technical Committee (TC) 25, Quantities and units, and their letter symbols, with the strong support of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), were first adopted by the IEC as Amendment 2 to IEC International Standard IEC 60027-2: Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology - Part 2: Telecommunications and electronics. The full content of Amendment 2, which has a publication date of 1999-01, is reflected in the tables above and the suggestion regarding pronunciation. Subsequently the contents of this Amendment were incorportated in the second edition of IEC 60027-2, which has a publication date of 2000-11 (the first edition was published in 1972). The complete citation for this revised standard is IEC 60027-2, Second edition, 2000-11, Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology - Part 2: Telecommunications and electronics.
Historical context*
Once upon a time, computer professionals noticed that 2 to the tenth power was very nearly equal to 1000 and started using the SI prefix "kilo" to mean 1024. That worked well enough for a decade or two because everybody who talked kilobytes knew that the term implied 1024 bytes. But, almost overnight a much more numerous "everybody" bought computers, and the trade computer professionals needed to talk to physicists and engineers and even to ordinary people, most of whom know that a kilometer is 1000 meters and a kilogram is 1000 grams.
Then data storage for gigabytes, and even terabytes, became practical, and the storage devices were not constructed on binary trees, which meant that, for many practical purposes, binary arithmetic was less convenient than decimal arithmetic. The result is that today "everybody" does not "know" what a megabyte is. When discussing computer memory, most manufacturers use megabyte to mean 220 = 1 048 576 bytes, but the manufacturers of computer storage devices usually use the term to mean 1 000 000 bytes. Some designers of local area networks have used megabit per second to mean 1 048 576 bit/s, but all telecommunications engineers use it to mean 106 bit/s. And if two definitions of the megabyte are not enough, a third megabyte of 1 024 000 bytes is the megabyte used to format the familiar 90 mm (3 1/2 inch), "1.44 MB" diskette. The confusion is real, as is the potential for incompatibility in standards and in implemented systems.
Faced with this reality, the IEEE Standards Board decided that IEEE standards will use the conventional, internationally adopted, definitions of the SI prefixes. Mega will mean 1 000 000, except that the base-two definition may be used (if such usage is explicitly pointed out on a case-by-case basis) until such time that prefixes for binary multiples are adopted by an appropriate standards body.
4keatimj said:How does that work? Doesn't the lack of support for huge drives in Windows effect it?
Snugglebear said:SI can go shove it. Computers don't count in base 10; changing addressing systems to use base 10 would be inefficient & error prone, changing only the end-user display would be overly confusing. Moving to an unfamiliar notation like GiB would be similarly confusing. Metric week starts October 10th, be sure to raise a pint to the US Metric Association.
Why is my drive displaying a smaller than expected capacity in Windows or Mac?
Question
Why is my drive displaying a slightly less than expected capacity in Windows or Mac?
Answer
Determining drive capacity can be confusing at times because of the different measurement standards that are often used. When dealing with Windows and Mac based systems, you will commonly see both decimal measurements and binary measurements of a drive's capacity. In either case, a drive's capacity is measured by using the total number of bytes available on the drive. As long as the drive displays the correct number of bytes (approximate), you are getting the drive's full capacity.
Decimal vs. Binary:
For simplicity and consistency, hard drive manufacturers define a megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes. This is a decimal (base 10) measurement and is the industry standard. However, certain system BIOSs, FDISK and Windows define a megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes. Mac systems also use these values. These are binary (base 2) measurements.
To Determine Decimal Capacity:
A decimal capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,000,000,000 using base 10).
To Determine Binary Capacity:
A binary capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,073,741,824 using base 2).
This is why different utilities will report different capacities for the same drive. The number of bytes is the same, but a different number of bytes is used to make a megabyte and a gigabyte. This is similar to the difference between 0 degrees Celsius and 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It is the same temperature, but will be reported differently depending on the scale you are using.
Ineveitably many will think a computer is somehow broken or better because one says GiB and another GB.
Might as well move to metric time as well
XP Pro measured my WD 120GB at 114 and change.pirateface said:120GB = 120,000,000,000 bytes Actual Size: 111.76 GB