The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Um, lame HD question ...

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by kamehame, Feb 28, 2008.

  1. kamehame

    kamehame Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    80
    Messages:
    513
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    This is going to be a silly question, but I have to ask it. I have a 200 Gb HD. But even after formating it I only have about 180 Gb showing. Where's the other 20 Gb? Or wuz I been robbed?!? :eek:
     
    kamehame, Feb 28, 2008
    #1
  2. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

    Reputations:
    3,867
    Messages:
    8,218
    Likes Received:
    72
    Trophy Points:
    216
    thats always how it is. I belive its your OS. But im not sure
     
    ahl395, Feb 28, 2008
    #2
  3. Bowlerguy92

    Bowlerguy92 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    50
    Messages:
    788
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Your operating system doesn't just save into thin air. Like your programs and everything else, IT also needs space.
     
    Bowlerguy92, Feb 28, 2008
    #3
  4. kamehame

    kamehame Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    80
    Messages:
    513
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Thanks!

    Now I'm sad.

    :(
     
    kamehame, Feb 28, 2008
    #4
  5. imar3l

    imar3l Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    35
    Messages:
    360
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    its always like that...i can only use 460 of 500 gig HDD..the manufacture use different conversion of bits and thats how we end up being robed..
     
    imar3l, Feb 28, 2008
    #5
  6. kamehame

    kamehame Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    80
    Messages:
    513
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    That's prior to OS installation. Sorry if I hadn't been clear.
     
    kamehame, Feb 28, 2008
    #6
  7. kamehame

    kamehame Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    80
    Messages:
    513
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Gotcha, guys, thanks. My main puzzlement was that as HDs get larger, I note larger chunks missing; 20 Gb is a lot! That's why I asked. But thanks!
     
    kamehame, Feb 28, 2008
    #7
  8. Eleison

    Eleison Thanatos Eleison

    Reputations:
    1,677
    Messages:
    1,462
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    @kamehame: imar3l has it right. The manufacturer is able to do some fuzzy math between bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes so that it sounds like you are getting more space than you actually get. This disparity adds up, which is why you notice more missing the larger your drive is.
     
    Eleison, Feb 28, 2008
    #8
  9. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,024
    Messages:
    7,755
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    i got 186 gb out of 200gb when i formatted my hdd on both
     
    dondadah88, Feb 28, 2008
    #9
  10. Bowlerguy92

    Bowlerguy92 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    50
    Messages:
    788
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Oh..........ya, it has to do with an uneven amount of bits going into bytes going into kilobytes or some jargon. It's kind of confusing. But it's totally normal.
     
    Bowlerguy92, Feb 28, 2008
    #10
  11. NAS Ghost

    NAS Ghost Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    297
    Messages:
    1,682
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Basically its cuz computers use base 2 while people use base 10, so when the sell, they use a rounded number.
     
    NAS Ghost, Feb 28, 2008
    #11
  12. jamezracer

    jamezracer Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    26
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    a gigabyte's real value is 1,073,741,824 bytes. Manufacturers round this to 1 billion. some of the space is also taken up with the formatting, and of course the operating system takes up some. dell is kind enough to make lots of partitions, I think a recovery partition and a media direct partition on top of the main partition which is partially filled with the operating system. it all adds up I'm afraid, we just have to deal with it.
     
    jamezracer, Feb 28, 2008
    #12
  13. D.A.

    D.A. Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    166
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The size the HD manufacturers give is about 7% less than the actual size of the harddrive. A 200 GB drive is actually only about 186 GB big. A 500 GB would only be about 465 GB.
     
    D.A., Feb 29, 2008
    #13
  14. benna

    benna Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    341
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Its always like that, you will not see the full size of the HDD. Its kept for security reasons hidden (incase of a hardware failure)
     
    benna, Feb 29, 2008
    #14