HDD capacity

[Jimmy]

Just bought a lapdog with a 60Gb HDD. Gone into my computer and right clicked on the C:\ drive to get the properties and it says capacity: 52.8 Gb !!!

Have I been ripped off for 7.2 Gb??

[philc]

Nope, you lose a lump when you format the drive. Disk headers etc, and some "rounding up" on disk space figures.

Phil

[SteVRs]

Also, 1Mb is 1024Kb so there's a loss there too :thumbdwn:

Look for 'MiB' as a measurement of capacity as this is a true value (before partitioning).

[steviec]

Also' date=' 1Mb is 1024Kb so there's a loss there too :thumbdwn:

Look for 'MiB' as a measurement of capacity as this is a true value (before partitioning).[/quote']

Surely 1,024KB is more than 1MB, and what has Will Smith and Men in Black got to do with anything is there strange Alien forces at work :confused:

[heresmo]

It might also have a hidden partition on there with an image of the factory spec software install on it.

Just thinking out loud, but I read about this re hard drives - i.e. that part of the drive might be commandeered and so is not accessible by independent repairers if the computer goes wrong. Thus it's important to ensure that set-up discs or recovery software is provided. I guess it doesn't relate to all; that was regarding a Dell computer.

Just thought I'd mention that.

Mo

[ScoobyChris]

Just thinking out loud, but I read about this re hard drives - i.e. that part of the drive might be commandeered and so is not accessible by independent repairers if the computer goes wrong. Thus it's important to ensure that set-up discs or recovery software is provided. I guess it doesn't relate to all; that was regarding a Dell computer.

Some PC's are shipped with a recovery partition which is a bit of the disk hidden from Windows, I know our IBM ThinkPads are delivered like this. Most competent repairers should be able to access it, but it is much easier just to have the CD's/floppy disks to do it yourself. I usually delete the hidden partition when I get a new machine as I'd rather have the disk space

Chris

[Jimmy]

Oh right ok thanks for that.... Stopped me looking a tit anyway. Was just about to get on the blower and demand an extra 7.2Gb.... It's a dell machine btw.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Windows displays gigabytes as 1024*1024*1024 bytes.

HD manufactures quote gigabytes as 1000*1000*1000 bytes

Thats a 7.4% difference between the two measurements , so a 60GB decimally counted drive is actually 55.9 GB as far as the operating system is concerned.

Then when you format the drive you lose a bit more space so your available space is lower , and there may be a hidden partition on the drive as other people have said.

[cheezemonkhai]

1024x1024x1024 bytes = 1 True GByte

1000x1000x1000 bytes = 1Gig according to the HDD manufacturers.

You lose a bit of every gig due to the difference in what people call a gig and what is a true Gig. On top of that there is the formating which also eats up a certain proportion of the hdd depending on the file system used.

As far as I am aware, dell put a very small fat partition to use their testing and diagnostic tools into, however last i saw this was easily under the 100MB mark

[cheezemonkhai]

Amazing Alex your post wasn't there when i put mine up. Great minds etc :P

[robmawer]

Was just about to get on the blower and demand an extra 7.2Gb.... It's a dell machine btw.

I think you still should - just to see how they explain it...

Rob.

[ric04vrs]

my 40gb hard drive is only about 35gb on my laptop so i've lost a similar percentage , but i'm not bothered as theres an unused 300gb (272gb) usb hard drive sat next to it

[abriggsy]

Hi folks,

Just a quick thought.. (about as long as i can hold onto a thought these days)... if you're concerned about disk space get a USB2 external HDD and dump all the stuff you don't access regularly onto it.

Maplin/PC World etc do 250Gb for about

[Johnnyc]

There are various utilities out there that will enable you to do a low level format of the drive. For example, those programmes that erase all data completely from a drive for security purposes do this by filling the drive with 1's and 0's.

First stop would be the manufacturer's website. Many have utilities available for download.

[abriggsy]

There are various utilities out there that will enable you to do a low level format of the drive. For example' date=' those programmes that erase all data completely from a drive for security purposes do this by filling the drive with 1's and 0's.

First stop would be the manufacturer's website. Many have utilities available for download.[/quote']

Are you really sure you want to do that? Wipes the disk but doesn't truly erase the contents. They can still be recovered by surface scanning. And if you want to use the drive again you have to reload an operating system and all the software you need. NOT a fun way to spend a day!:confused:

[Johnnyc]

Are you really sure you want to do that? Wipes the disk but doesn't truly erase the contents. They can still be recovered by surface scanning. And if you want to use the drive again you have to reload an operating system and all the software you need. NOT a fun way to spend a day!:confused:

Not something i've had to do often for a pc but if you muck up the upgrade of a Sky+ hard drive by interupting a reset for example then you have to do it.

[cheezemonkhai]

Low level software formats are not much of a low level format these days if truth be known.

If you want a secure wipe the best thing to do is to download something like knoppix and run wipe over the drive rather than a partition. There are special considerations when using a journaled file system, but if you apply wipe to the device it just writes to it raw and so overwrites the FS. You can get it to write random data many many times

[Wardy]

Going slightly OT here, but the only guaranteed way of totally removing all traces of previous data is to incinerate the drive and reduce the drive to dust

There are some advanced 8-stage wiping programs available, like the top version of KillDisk, but even then....

Steve