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Hard drive size vs what is seen by OS

post #1 of 4
2/26/05 at 6:51am
Thread Starter 
Hi all,
Not sure if my thread title is the best way of saying this but how much of my 60GB drive should be usable/"seen" by my OS. I know some amount of "non usable" is normal but mine states:

"Size": 55.88GB - but its a 60GB....?

Is the 4.12GB non-usable an excessive amount??

If so, suggestions?

Like I said, I know some is normal but on my 2X 40GB RAID setup they state ~ size: 78GB......
Inquiry minds want to know....

thanks
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post #2 of 4
2/26/05 at 6:55am
i forgot the exact difference, but i do know from asking this question in the past that hdd manufacturers use a different size GB than we consumers are typically used to, so the actual drive size is always a bit smaller than what you think your getting
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post #3 of 4
2/26/05 at 7:45am
There are 2 reasons that this happens:

(1) In computing reality, 1024MB = 1GB. However, in order to make their drives look bigger, HDD manufacturers have decided that 1000MB = 1GB. However, your operating system uses the former conversion. That results in some lost space.

(2) Also, when you format a drive to a file system format (most likely ntfs here), you lose some space due to file system overhead. That lost space is not reported by windows. The space lost here can actually be quite significant. (eg: my 160GB hdd is reported as only 152GB).

Can't really explain the situation w/RAID (since I don't have a RAID array lying around right now).

Regards,

zakaluka2.
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post #4 of 4
2/27/05 at 4:32am
Actually, the hard drive manufacturers are quite correct when they say that 1000MB = 1GB. It's the software manufacturers that are using the term Mega and Giga incorrectly, and it's a practice that really should be mended. In scientific measurement and notation, Giga means 10^9 and Mega means 10^6.

The reason for the power of two calculation of mega and giga in computer science is buried far in the past of computers, and I think that practice should be stopped to end confusion. In the end, your more than likely right that the hardware manufacturers are just bloating their hardware sizes by taking advantage of that loophole, but in the end they're more in the right.
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