Hi all.
I recently got the Kindle Fire HD (not the HDX). I got the one with 16GB of storage.
Now something I didn't see at first in the product description (it's waaaaayyyy down near the bottom of the web page; kinda reminds me of "....read the fine print) is that the full 16GB is not available to the user; it says: 12.7GB available to user.
Well, that's 3.3GB of space being used.
I've contacted Amazon/ Kindle tech support on more than one occasion; let's suffice it to say that their tech support leaves something to be desired (if you get my drift).
What I basically gathered was that the Kindle's operating system (it uses Android, right?) and the various apps that are pre-installed on it take up this much of the storage space.
Then I noticed something else.
But before I get to that, let me say that I'm aware of the fact that the Kindle Fire HD has wireless capability, and that I can download books straight to the device. But, my preference is, I like to browse for a book online using my desktop computer, download it to my hard drive, and then, using the included USB cable, transfer it over to the Kindle device.
Well, what I noticed was, when using my computer to open the Kindle device's drive when connected by the USB cable, what I see for drive space is this:
11.7GB free of 12.7GB
If the Kindle I purchased is supposedly 16GB in size.....where the heck is it?
No I do realize that many manufacturers of various devices round their numbers when it comes to drive space. Hard drive manufacturers (Western Digital, Seagate, etc.) are notorious for doing this. To make calculations easier, they use the number 1,000.
As most of you probably know, there are 1,024 bytes in a kilobyte. So when you're going from Kilobytes all the way up to Gigabytes, that "24" at the end adds up when you multiply it that many times over.
But I'm not quite getting it with this Kindle device. Even if their "claimed" 16GB is not really a full 16 (if they use 1,000 instead of 1,024 in their calculations), these numbers are not adding up and making sense to me.
Let's say it really is a full 16GB like they claim: then why wouldn't the drive read something like "12.7GB free of 16GB"
Or, if it's true what they claim on their web page that "12.7GB available to user", then why the heck is mine reading as "11.7GB free of 12.7GB" when I plug the USB cable into my desktop computer? What's taking up a Gig of space?
I have not downloaded any 3rd party apps or games; I have no movies downloaded onto the Kindle. I have two books on it at the moment whose total amount in size of both books is about 2 to 3MB; that's "mega", not "giga".
Can anyone help me make sense of this? This hard drive/ storage space issue?
Thanks for any info and insight into this.
Pez
I recently got the Kindle Fire HD (not the HDX). I got the one with 16GB of storage.
Now something I didn't see at first in the product description (it's waaaaayyyy down near the bottom of the web page; kinda reminds me of "....read the fine print) is that the full 16GB is not available to the user; it says: 12.7GB available to user.
Well, that's 3.3GB of space being used.
I've contacted Amazon/ Kindle tech support on more than one occasion; let's suffice it to say that their tech support leaves something to be desired (if you get my drift).
What I basically gathered was that the Kindle's operating system (it uses Android, right?) and the various apps that are pre-installed on it take up this much of the storage space.
Then I noticed something else.
But before I get to that, let me say that I'm aware of the fact that the Kindle Fire HD has wireless capability, and that I can download books straight to the device. But, my preference is, I like to browse for a book online using my desktop computer, download it to my hard drive, and then, using the included USB cable, transfer it over to the Kindle device.
Well, what I noticed was, when using my computer to open the Kindle device's drive when connected by the USB cable, what I see for drive space is this:
11.7GB free of 12.7GB
If the Kindle I purchased is supposedly 16GB in size.....where the heck is it?
No I do realize that many manufacturers of various devices round their numbers when it comes to drive space. Hard drive manufacturers (Western Digital, Seagate, etc.) are notorious for doing this. To make calculations easier, they use the number 1,000.
As most of you probably know, there are 1,024 bytes in a kilobyte. So when you're going from Kilobytes all the way up to Gigabytes, that "24" at the end adds up when you multiply it that many times over.
But I'm not quite getting it with this Kindle device. Even if their "claimed" 16GB is not really a full 16 (if they use 1,000 instead of 1,024 in their calculations), these numbers are not adding up and making sense to me.
Let's say it really is a full 16GB like they claim: then why wouldn't the drive read something like "12.7GB free of 16GB"
Or, if it's true what they claim on their web page that "12.7GB available to user", then why the heck is mine reading as "11.7GB free of 12.7GB" when I plug the USB cable into my desktop computer? What's taking up a Gig of space?
I have not downloaded any 3rd party apps or games; I have no movies downloaded onto the Kindle. I have two books on it at the moment whose total amount in size of both books is about 2 to 3MB; that's "mega", not "giga".
Can anyone help me make sense of this? This hard drive/ storage space issue?
Thanks for any info and insight into this.
Pez