Hi,
I have an 82.4gb HDD, but When I enter FDISK to partition it, it tells me that it is 76GB (before partitioning or formatting)
Is something amis with the drive?
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Hi,
I have an 82.4gb HDD, but When I enter FDISK to partition it, it tells me that it is 76GB (before partitioning or formatting)
Is something amis with the drive?
You have an 82400000000 byte drive.
This is 82.4Gb if there are 1000 bytes in a kilobyte and 1000 kilobytes in a megabyte etc, which is what the manufacturers stupidly claim...:rolleyes:
Therefore 82400000000 B / 1000 /1000 /1000 = 82.4GB
Since there are actually 1024 bytes in a kilobyte etc, and this is what the computer will use:
82400000000 B / 1024 /1024 / 1024 = 76.7GB
Simple... :D
ah.....thank you :)
Just remember mate. Computers use binery numbers. which is why we always see the figures 2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024.......time and again.
binary numbers :)
seems stupid how manufacturers use the kinda base10 system to advertise their products... cant really see it changing tho :(
Yes the bigger drives get the greater the discrepancy - so I don't know why they don't just use actual GB sizes instead now ... I think originally they were probably using 1000 bytes to represent a KB (and 1000KB to represent a MB ...) to make the drives seem bigger - as a marketing tool - but there's little point now.Quote:
Originally Posted by streetster
which also explain why my 40Gb hd is actually only 37.2GB
That's been bothering me for 2 years.
This 1000 bytes to the k "rule" that drive manufacturers use really gets on my nerves.
It's getting to the stage where disk sizes are growing further apart from the claimed size. I know they state what methodology they use to size the drive, but that doesn't make it any less confusing for somebody who doesn't know that there are actulaly 1024 bytes in a kilobyte. Then of course there's the formatted size on top of that.
Things need to change IMO, but I can't see it happening.
yer it would have to be a consensus between manufacturers - as the first brave manufacturer would probably be rewarded by a drop in sales owing to the n00bs thinking they are getting a raw deal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kez
hard drive manufacturers get it right, they sell drives in gigabytes. windows is wrong, it confuses gibibytes with gigabytes, mebibytes with megabytes etc.
more information on binary prefixes here.
Which ever way you paint it there shouldn't be a discrepancy with what is, and always has been (as far as I can remember), the universal measurement of disk storage - which works on binary numbering and not base10 ... if nothing else to avoid confusion for consumers.
... it's just another example of how common-misusage eventually becomes common-usage and then the definition changes forever ;)