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Where is the rest of my new HD???

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by Kittie Cat, 2004/02/10.

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  1. 2004/02/10
    Kittie Cat

    Kittie Cat Inactive Thread Starter

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    I got a 80GB external HD and only 74.5GB is showing up..... I formatted it and it didn't help.... where is the rest??

    Totally confused, LOL!! :confused:
     
    Kittie Cat,
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  2. 2004/02/10
    markp62

    markp62 Geek Member Alumni

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    Perhaps the missing space is being taken up by your two FAT [File Allocation Table] files. The FAT file is the map to your hard drive, it is where the locations of your files are stored. There are two in case one gets corrupt, scandisk will use the backup if the original is corrupt. With a 80 gb drive, these two files must be of a large size, as it has about 2,500,000 clusters to keep track of if you have a FAT32, about 19,531,250 clusters if you have NTFS.
     
    markp62,
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  4. 2004/02/10
    Kittie Cat

    Kittie Cat Inactive Thread Starter

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    HUH? LOL!!:confused: :(
     
    Kittie Cat,
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  5. 2004/02/10
    markp62

    markp62 Geek Member Alumni

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    There are more technical anwers to this question. Such as when a drive is made, the manufacturer tests the drive, finds bad sectors and marks them as bad. This, of course, decreases drive space. Format will not see these sectors as they are hidden from it and will report no new bad sectors found.
    The manufacturer will not put a label on the drive and say although this is a new 80 gb drive, it already has bad sectors, who will buy it?
    It would be easier to say this is normal.
     
    markp62,
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  6. 2004/02/11
    Scott Smith

    Scott Smith Inactive Alumni

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    Just typical overhead.
    Don't feel bad I have a pair of 160 gig drives in RAID zero which should be a 320 gig partition.
    My partition shows up as 298 GB.
    That's 22 GB of storage sucked up for overhead!
     
    Scott Smith,
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  7. 2004/02/11
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Hi Kittie Cat,
    may I make a quess?

    Your HDD is a Seagate or a Western Digital!

    Different manufacturers label their HDDs from a marketing point of view.

    According to the Installation Guide, a 80 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 contains 156,301,488 sektors x 512 bytes = 80,026,361,856 bytes. Seagate takes the first two digits and goes to the marketing division telling them it´s a 80 GB HDD.

    However, 1 kB = 1024 bytes, 1 MB = 1024 kB, 1 GB = 1024 MB which equals 1 GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes. This means that the operating system sees a 74.53 GB HDD.

    Regarding the size of the File Allocation Table, I partitioned and formated a 120 GB Hitachi 7K250 in three partitions. The first value is unformated, the second is formated and the third is the difference occupied by the FAT:

    #1 - 11,782.01 MB - 11,770.89 MB - 10.12 MB = 0.086 %
    #2 - 88,341.78 MB - 88,320.19 MB - 21.59 MB = 0.024 %
    #3 - 17,673.03 MB - 17,664.39 MB - 8.64 MB = 0.049 %

    I have still not figured out why the percentage differ between the partitions but the "lost" space does not only pertain to the FAT but also to the Master Boot Record / Boot Records and they differ in size.

    My conclusion is that the FATs don´t consume much space and that the difference is due to the manufacturers wrongful opinion of the size of a GB!

    Hi ssmith10pn,
    if You divide Your 320 GB by 1.024^3 then You´ll find out how the 22 GB were "lost" and it´s not typical overhead, it´s cheating!

    Christer
     
    Last edited: 2004/02/11
    Christer,
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  8. 2004/02/11
    Kittie Cat

    Kittie Cat Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hi there!!

    No, it's not either one of those, it's a Claire or something??? I'm at work right now and don't have it... something like that..

    AND that is so messed up, that is FALSE ADVERTISING!! :(

    Poo on them!!!

    PS: sorry, cannot remember the name......
     
    Kittie Cat,
    #7
  9. 2004/02/11
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Well, my guess on which brand was a shot in the dark ...... :D ...... !
    I have recently been shopping for a HDD and checked those out that are available where I bring my business. The size You mentioned fit those two brands.

    You´re right that it is false advertising and I believe that it would be better if they agree with the operating systems on the size.

    Some of them have covered their backs though, in stating that for HDD sizes, 1 GB = 1000,000,000 bytes.

    By the way, the fact that the sizes for Seagate and Western Digital match exactly indicates something to me ...... :eek: ...... but it could be coincidence ...... :rolleyes: ...... !

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  10. 2004/02/11
    Scott Smith

    Scott Smith Inactive Alumni

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    Hey Christer, I have a head scratcher for ya.

    My Promise Raid card shows my array as 320 GB.
     
    Scott Smith,
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  11. 2004/02/12
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    ssmith10pn,
    I´ve never worked with any kind of RAID which brings me into guessing mode ...... :p ...... but it seems to me like Promise is as tricky as the HDD manufacturers!

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  12. 2004/02/12
    Kittie Cat

    Kittie Cat Inactive Thread Starter

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    It's a LACIE 80 GB HD (never heard of it, it was on sale through Dell)

    The description says "With a high storage capacity of up to 80 GB" Hmmmmmm.... shoulda read that a bit more carefully. But who would expect to get ripped off 5.5 GB!! :mad:

    That is such a pisser.
     
    Kittie Cat,
    #11
  13. 2004/02/17
    Argent

    Argent Inactive

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    Well, take it back and tell them you want your 5+ Gigs back!!!

    :D
     
    Argent,
    #12
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