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| Thread ID: 98025 | 2009-03-08 07:14:00 | Hard drive question, please? | ianhnz (4263) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 754712 | 2009-03-08 07:14:00 | I purchased a preloved Maxtor 40 GB hard drive off Trade Me. It is formatted as NTFS. can someone please tell me why Windows says it's 38.2 GB's and not 40? Thanks, Ian. | ianhnz (4263) | ||
| 754713 | 2009-03-08 07:30:00 | Basically, in simple terms, Your operating system usually sees a binary representation of hard drive space whilst a hard drive manufacturer uses the decimal representation. i.e Decimal Representation of 1kb=1000bytes Binary Representation of 1kib=1024bytes The slight difference adds up to a bit more when you get to bigger stuff, such as 40-1000gb HDs Personally I think its just a scam from HD manufacturers to make their drives look bigger. But the whole picture is incredibly complicating... HTH Blam |
Blam (54) | ||
| 754714 | 2009-03-08 07:41:00 | And you'll never use all of a hdd. No matter how big it is | Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 754715 | 2009-03-08 07:51:00 | Ok, thanks. So it's more of a math program than am issue with the drive? Wasn't sure if it was something to do with a "mirror file" after formating. I think that "quick' formating produces a mirror image, of some sort.:thumbs: | ianhnz (4263) | ||
| 754716 | 2009-03-08 07:57:00 | It's a marketing problem really - hard drive manufacturers making their drives sound bigger than they actually are, by using a different measurement. | somebody (208) | ||
| 754717 | 2009-03-08 08:06:00 | Ok, thanks. So it's more of a math program than am issue with the drive? Wasn't sure if it was something to do with a "mirror file" after formating. I think that "quick' formating produces a mirror image, of some sort.:thumbs: What do you mean by "Mirror image"? It's a marketing problem really - hard drive manufacturers making their drives sound bigger than they actually are, by using a different measurement. Thats arguable actually-If you use the decimal system you know exactly how many bytes your HD will be able to hold, while with a binary system you will have to calculate how many bytes your HD can hold.... |
Blam (54) | ||
| 754718 | 2009-03-08 08:10:00 | Thinking back to my dos days, if you did a 'quick' formate you could run 'unformat' to restore. Don't know if Windows does that too.:confused: | ianhnz (4263) | ||
| 754719 | 2009-03-08 08:15:00 | Would be good if it could-but sadly it can't:( But-IIRC a quick format only deletes the files in the partitions, so if you don't use the space, you can probably recovery everything to its original state using a file recovery program. |
Blam (54) | ||
| 754720 | 2009-03-08 08:16:00 | A bit OT, but anyway... There is a way to calculate how much space you actually get, based on the marketed capacity: Marketed capacity / 1.024 / 1.024 / 1.024 = Actual Usable Capacity |
jwil1 (65) | ||
| 754721 | 2009-03-08 08:20:00 | I forgot where-but I read somewhere that the easiest way to do it, without a calculator is 0.93 x capacity of HDD from manufacturer for Hds less than a terabyte and 0.91x capacity of Hds 1 terabyte and beyond. Its usually quite accurate |
Blam (54) | ||
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