not getting all my memory

[iam_not_2fast4u]

i just got a new hd its a western digital 250 gig sata. iam only getting 230 gigs!!!! how can i get the most out of this? thanks

 

[mike4realz]

u can't cuz the other 20gb is reserved for the file system. that's just how hard drives are. u won't get the exact space. it's normal. i have a 300gb and only showing 279

 

[Shannon]

I agree. My 250gb drives show up with 233gb.

 

[Dan DeVille]

My 200gb shows 183gb. live with it.

 

[bkolk]

i heard sum1 say on these forums its because binary doesnt convert to the metric gig we are using. Ive noticed u always get like 93% storage of what it says ull get.

The problem with drive size, as reported by manufacturers today, is that a gigabyte is actually reported in binary not metric value. We assume that 1 megabyte = 1,000 bytes which is not true. The Gigabyte, in binary, is actually 2 to the 30th power or 1073741824 bytes. So, 40 gig metric divided by 1,073,741,824 = 37 gigs (approximate). Yours is reporting 33?????? please open My Computer and right click on that hard drive and tell me what is reported in the properties on that hard drive????

this link to where it was said, seems to make sense.

 

[003]

Thats because it only has 230gb. HD companies rate their hd space as 1000mb = 1gb, but in reality, 1gb = 1024mb. I also have 250gb and it shows up as 230gb.

 

[straightv6]

Thats because it only has 230gb. HD companies rate their hd space as 1000mb = 1gb, but in reality, 1gb = 1024mb. I also have 250gb and it shows up as 230gb.

that math doesn't add up. where does the rest of it go?

 

[Flying-Squirrel]

I have a similar question, I got a 160 gig hard drive but windows only allowed me to have 120gig. Do I just need to have another drive letter for the rest? I think it said something about 120 being the most you could get in 1 partition. I realize this is probably a dumb question but hey thats how you learn. Thanx

 

[shdwsclan]

I have a similar question, I got a 160 gig hard drive but windows only allowed me to have 120gig. Do I just need to have another drive letter for the rest? I think it said something about 120 being the most you could get in 1 partition. I realize this is probably a dumb question but hey thats how you learn. Thanx

Your OS may not have been updated to 48-bit allocation and so technically you have 137gb-filesystem=120gb

Make sure you have SP1 or greater.........also....refer to the posts about the 137gb barrier......

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Back to this post....
As for the file system....some manufactures put down that 1000 bytes is 1kb...etc.......

This is true if there is no file system....no formatting....that is how much the platters support......

In reality....everything is in 1024 base.
Also, you have sector data and other data that is put on the drive during the factory's low level format.....
And finally comes the file system....depending on what it is.....

I have a 400gb hard drive(currently in RMA...dont ask...)
and the NTFS partition only supported 367 gb......