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    Why does Win 7 show my HDD as smaller than actual size?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by C E Jones, Jun 4, 2009.

  1. C E Jones

    C E Jones Notebook Consultant

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    I have the Western Digital 640 GB Caviar Blue. When I installed Ubuntu, it showed my HDD space as 640 GB, but in Windows 7 it shows up as about 600. Why is this?
     
    C E Jones, Jun 4, 2009
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  2. 0.0

    0.0 Notebook Consultant

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    Because the manufacturer uses the metric Giga whereas windows uses the binary Giga but didn't use the proper GiB designator.

    1KB =1000 bytes
    1KiB=1024 bytes

    1MB=1,000,000 bytes
    1MiB=1,048,576 bytes (1024 x 1024)

    1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes
    1GiB=1,073,741,824 bytes (1024 x 1024 x 1024)

    so the manufacturer quotes 640GB which is 640,000,000,000 bytes but Windows uses binary so 640,000,000,000 divided by 1,073,741,824 = ~596GiB which Windows technically shows incorrectly as GB. Some time ago it was taken for granted that 1K = 1024 bytes.

    If that explanation has confused you try this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibibyte
     
    0.0, Jun 4, 2009
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  3. C E Jones

    C E Jones Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks, that explains it. :D
     
    C E Jones, Jun 4, 2009
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