250 gb HD

[thomas]

I have a 250 gb hd (pata ide) but xp only recognizes 232 gb, where is the
other 18 gb?

 

[Rich Barry]

Thomas, check here
http://weblogs.asp.net/owscott/archive/2007/02/27/1000mb-is-not-1gb.aspx

 

[Peter Foldes]

Used by system resources. This is normal and by default. My 500 gig drive read only
455 gigs when installed and my 160 gig read 148 when installed

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have a 250 gb hd (pata ide) but xp only recognizes 232 gb, where
is the other 18 gb?

Never existed. You have discovered the difference between actual and
advertised.

Advertised --- Actual Capacity
10GB --- ~9.31 GB
20GB --- ~18.63 GB
30GB --- ~27.94 GB
40GB --- ~37.25 GB
60GB --- ~55.88 GB
80GB --- ~74.51 GB
100GB --- ~93.13 GB
120GB --- ~111.76 GB
160GB --- ~149.01 GB
180GB --- ~167.64 GB
200GB --- ~186.26 GB
250GB --- ~232.83 GB
320GB --- ~298.02 GB
400GB --- ~372.53 GB
500GB --- ~465.66 GB
750GB --- ~698.49 GB
1TB --- ~931.32GB

Has to do with the math used.

 

[thomas]

1024mb=1gb and 1000mb=1gib

Am I correct?

 

[thomas]

Informative. Thanks

 

[thomas]

Coldn't that be considered false advertisement, because nowhere on the box,
in the manual does it stat that the hd is actually 232.9gb.

 

[thomas]

I think this may be more accurate.

Never existed. You have discovered the difference between actual and
advertised.

Advertised --- Actual Capacity
10GB --- ~9.31 GB
20GB --- ~18.63 GB
30GB --- ~27.94 GB
40GB --- ~37.25 GB
60GB --- ~55.88 GB
80GB --- ~74.51 GB
100GB --- ~93.13 GB
120GB --- ~111.76 GB
160GB --- ~149.01 GB
180GB --- ~167.64 GB
200GB --- ~186.26 GB
250GB --- ~232.83 GB
320GB --- ~298.02 GB
400GB --- ~372.53 GB
500GB --- ~465.66 GB
750GB --- ~698.49 GB
1TB --- ~931.32GB

Has to do with the math used.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP



--
Compaq Proliant ML 330 | 733MHz Intel Pentium III w/ 2GB | Seagate 250 gb
SATA IDE HDD | Pioneer SATA IDE DVD\CD R-RW | Windows XP sp3| Nvidia GeForce
6200 OC | D-Link DWA-552 Wireless Card |

Used by system resources. This is normal and by default. My 500 gig drive read only
455 gigs when installed and my 160 gig read 148 when installed

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have a 250 gb hd (pata ide) but xp only recognizes 232 gb, where
is the other 18 gb?

Never existed. You have discovered the difference between actual
and advertised.

Advertised --- Actual Capacity
10GB --- ~9.31 GB
20GB --- ~18.63 GB
30GB --- ~27.94 GB
40GB --- ~37.25 GB
60GB --- ~55.88 GB
80GB --- ~74.51 GB
100GB --- ~93.13 GB
120GB --- ~111.76 GB
160GB --- ~149.01 GB
180GB --- ~167.64 GB
200GB --- ~186.26 GB
250GB --- ~232.83 GB
320GB --- ~298.02 GB
400GB --- ~372.53 GB
500GB --- ~465.66 GB
750GB --- ~698.49 GB
1TB --- ~931.32GB

Has to do with the math used.

Coldn't that be considered false advertisement, because nowhere on
the box, in the manual does it stat that the hd is actually 232.9gb.

Western Digital was sued in 2006 and they chose to settle for the size
difference in their 80GB drives. However - it is a consumer
misunderstanding, I believe.

Two different mathematical systems are used to define how much information
can be stored on the hard disk drive of your computer: binary or base-2
mathematics and base-10 mathematics.

- In the binary or base-2 system used by the operating system, 1 gigabyte
(GB) is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes.
- In the base-10 system used by hard disk drive manufacturers, 1 gigabyte
(GB) is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes (rather than the 1,073,741,824 bytes,
as listed above).

This discrepancy in reporting drive sizes (base-2 vs. base-10) may lead you
to believe that you have a hard disk drive of less than expected capacity if
you compare the figure reported by the operating system with the figure
reported by your documentation, although the actual hard drive size is
identical. Microsoft Windows, for example, counts the size using base-2
math.

 

[Rich Barry]

Shenan, thanks for going the extra 5280 ft or 6076 ft Nautical to
explain the math. I always need a refresher on that.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I have a 250 gb hd (pata ide) but xp only recognizes 232 gb, where is the
other 18 gb?
--

It was never there.

Hard drives are sold where 1 Gigabyte is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes. This
differs from most people's view where 1 Megabyte equals 1,073,741,824 bytes.
Thus a 250 Gb (advertised) is in reality a 232 Gb (real) drive. It has been
proposed that since the term 'Gigabytes' strictly does mean 1,000,000,000
bytes, that the term 'Gibibytes' be adopted to represent 1,073,741,824
bytes. There has not been a lot of enthusiasm expressed.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Coldn't that be considered false advertisement, because nowhere on the
box,
in the manual does it stat that the hd is actually 232.9gb.

No because technically the term 'Giga' means multiplied by 1,000,000,000.
Thus 250 Gigabytes is technically 1,000,000,000 bytes which is more or less
what you got.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giga

 

[Bob I]

There is likely something like below(example from a Seagate HD)

*One Gbyte equals one billion bytes when referring to hard drive
capacity. Accessible capacity may vary depending on operating
environment and formatting.