Different HD Question

Didn't see this anywhere but if I'm asking something that's already been addressed here, I apologize.

Problem: Installed a Maxtor 120gig as a slave. Using XP Home (SP1) and MaxBlast Software, For some reason Windows only sees 114 gigs on the drive.

What do I need to do?

 

That's normal; manufacturers lie about the size.

 

No kidding?

Well 6 gigs is a pretty good chunk of lying...........

 

A gigabyte is an expression of a binary number. So are the terms, kilobyte, Megabyte, Terabyte, etc. Here are the REAL numbers:

• Kilobyte=1,024 bytes
  Megabyte=1,048,576
  Gigabyte= 1,073,741,824

Here's what the hard disk manufacturers will have you believe:

• Kilobyte=1,000 bytes
  Megabyte=1,000,000
  Gigabyte=1,000,000,000 bytes

They're taking advantage of their customer's ignorance and essentially telling them something they know is not true--which is the classic definition of a lie.

 

Hi Will.

Well, both the 120 and the 114 figures are correct. It is a 120Gig drive and Windows is telling you that you have 114Gigs usable user space available.

When the drive is setup for use there is space set aside to number the sectors, space for check codes, etc. Out of 120Gigs there is 114 left for the user after the drive is setup by the format program.

These "dead" to the user codes are necessary for Windows to locate the sectors and verify that the data was written and read correctly by generating checksum coding which is written on the hard disk along with the data. The larger the drive the more space you lose. Be glad those codes are there. Saves a lot of problems.

Hope this helps.

 

From Seagate:

The Seagate article says "The storage industry standard is to display capacity in decimal." Well, this became the defacto standard (varying from the binary standard which applies in all cases of digital data) when one drive manufacturer decided to ignore the binary standard and the other manufacturers decided it was easier to do the same rather than try to educate the public. That's when they all decided to vary from the true numbers.

You can read the article here:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/bytes.html

Digital data storage was measured in binary numbers for about 40 years that I know of--until the drive manufacturers decided to pervert the meaning. When one applies the prefix Kilo, Mega or Giga, those prefixes applied to any number make it, by definition, binary--not decimal.

Excerpt of the definition of Kilobyte:

You can read the entire definition of Kilobyte here: http://www.tekmom.com/buzzwords/zdkilo.html

 

You can use the following multipliers to convert binary terms to decimal:

KiloBinary X 1.024 = decimal 1,000.

MegaBinary X 1.049 = decimal 1,000,000.

GigaBinary X 1.074 = decimal 1,000,000,000.

With that in mind, your 120 Gigabyte drive would equal 120 X .931 = 111.72 Gigs on the decimal system so you actually got a more than fair shake. They gave you a full 114 Gigs! Then as Giles points out, there is a space reserved for maintenance which usually runs about 7 megs or there abouts. Peanuts, to be sure and worth the burden.

Cheers.

 

Thanks

I appreciate everyone's input. As it Turns out, someone else I know installed the exact same drive and only shows 109gigs. Apparently I am doing better than I thought. I was just thinking that I had done something wrong. Thanks again.