NTFS Disk Formatting

[Hearaoi]

Is there a rule of thumb to estimate the NTFS formatted
size of a hard disk as a percentage of its nominal size?
If you can tell me that, Great; If you can expand your
answer to include FAT32, so much the better.
Thanks,
Hearaoi

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Is there a rule of thumb to estimate the NTFS formatted
size of a hard disk as a percentage of its nominal size?
If you can tell me that, Great; If you can expand your
answer to include FAT32, so much the better.

Yes, the rule of thumb is the same in both cases: it's 100%.

If you're seeing a discrepancy between the size the drive
manufacturer claims for it and what Windows reports (for example
80GB vs 74.5GB), it has nothing to do with formatted vs
unformatted size.

All hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes,
while the rest of the computer world, including Windows, defines
it as 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. So an 80 billion
byte drive is actually a bout 74.5GB.



Some people point out that the official international standard
defines the "G" of GB as one billion, not 1,073,741,824. Correct
though they are, using the binary value of GB is so well
established in the computer world that I consider using the
decimal value of a billion to be deceptive marketing.

 

[Hearaoi]

-----Original Message-----
In



Yes, the rule of thumb is the same in both cases: it's 100%.

If you're seeing a discrepancy between the size the drive
manufacturer claims for it and what Windows reports (for example
80GB vs 74.5GB), it has nothing to do with formatted vs
unformatted size.

All hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes,
while the rest of the computer world, including Windows, defines
it as 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. So an 80 billion
byte drive is actually a bout 74.5GB.



Some people point out that the official international standard
defines the "G" of GB as one billion, not 1,073,741,824. Correct
though they are, using the binary value of GB is so well
established in the computer world that I consider using the
decimal value of a billion to be deceptive marketing.

Ken,
Thanks. I ordered a 60GB drive in my laptop. Windows calls
it 52.8 GB. The calculation that you present yields a
manufacturer's size of 56.7GB. There's a 3.3GB difference
that I thought might be explained by the loss due to
formatting. I know the 60GB is nominal, but I expected
actuality to be very close to 60GB, maybe even a smidgeon
above. Thanks,
Hearaoi