U2start.com | Technology Topic

If it comes to that let me know before you put it on eBay.

so I bought myself a new harddrive with 1 TB

thanks to all those U2 audio and video bootlegs totally loading my other 3 harddrives to the limit.... anyway, got the new HD formatted and all, it works fine.
But why does the system tell me there is 937 GB of free disc space available, when it's supposed to be 1.000 GB ? where are the mighty 63 GB that I would also like to use?

Risto

14 years

Different unit system.

Basically harddisk manufactorers are correct and Windows is wrong.

It has to do the way MB/GB/TB are defined. The one is in standard units, the other is in 'computer units'

MacStripey

14 years

so.... it's all there, but I should not expect to be able to use all of it as Windows shows a lower free space?

KieranU2

14 years

Originally posted by MacStripey:so I bought myself a new harddrive with 1 TB thanks to all those U2 audio and video bootlegs totally loading my other 3 harddrives to the limit.... anyway, got the new HD formatted and all, it works fine.
But why does the system tell me there is 937 GB of free disc space available, when it's supposed to be 1.000 GB ? where are the mighty 63 GB that I would also like to use?

I got 931 GB when I got mine

I want the rest!

What make is yours if you don't mind me asking?

Risto

14 years

There is no less space, just a different number

In real life:
1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte

But in most software they bastardized the unit into:
1024 bytes = 1 KB (so not really 'kilo')

Its confusing, but they are like centimeters and inches, only the difference is not as big.

EDIT:

937 gigabytes = 1 006 096 089 088 bytes (Over 1TB in standard unit)
931 gigabytes = 999 653 638 144 bytes (Just a bit less, this is because every harddrive needs to have a index, much like a book. Those take 'pages')

MacStripey

14 years

size is overrated anyway

so i get it now..... in a way. still too tech-dorky to explain it to another person if i had to, but I think I get the basic idea now

thanks for clarifying

it's called Samsung HD103SJ HDD, 2.0 USB with 1 TB

Risto

14 years

Its all here as well

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

iTim

14 years

Originally posted by MacStripey:so I bought myself a new harddrive with 1 TB thanks to all those U2 audio and video bootlegs totally loading my other 3 harddrives to the limit.... anyway, got the new HD formatted and all, it works fine.
But why does the system tell me there is 937 GB of free disc space available, when it's supposed to be 1.000 GB ? where are the mighty 63 GB that I would also like to use?

Gets on my wick when people say there are 1000 bytes in a Kb and so forth. To suit you, the consumer, the manufacturer of your hard-drive has given you pretty much what you wanted. How many bytes in a terabyte? A trillion. Why? Because someone who is not into their technology thinks that:

1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte
1000 kilobytes = 1 megabyte
1000 megabytes = 1 gigabyte
1000 gigabytes = 1 terabyte

So, 1000 x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 1 trillion bytes.

So, your 937 GB is in actuality a consumer TB since you have 1,006,096,089,088 bytes (which is pretty close to 1 trillion bytes, which is what you'd expect to be in your terabyte)

However, Windows sees the 1,006,096,089,088 bytes and says that this is actually 937 GB because Windows, like every other computer system in the world, uses binary code to process data. It therefore divides the 1,006,096,089,088 bytes by 1024. So 1,006,096,089,088 divided by 1024^3 = 937 GB.

If you want a full terabyte (which you do want judging by your post) then you already have one. In fact, you have more than a full terabyte. On the other hand, if you want a real life percieved terabyte (1000GB) then you are of course, 63GB short. Because the general public see 1000 bytes in a KB etc, they really start to mess with the capacity of hard drives that extend up to terabyte territory.

If you bought a 1kb hard drive, with 1000 bytes on, you're only missing 24 bytes from the real 1024 bytes in a kb. Hardly noticable. But when your new 1 TB hard drive doesn't have your expected 1000GB on, you're not happy.

A terabyte should in fact hold 1024GB of data, which is 1,099,511,627,776 bytes of data. Doesn't seem too much different from what you have.

Your TB has: 1,006,096,089,088 bytes of data (your trillion bytes)
A TB should have: 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
Difference: 93415538688 bytes (or 87GB)

So in reality, you should be saying, I've bought a terabyte hard drive. It has 937 GB of data on, which is what I wanted (1 trillion bytes). However, I want my extra 63GB to make up 1000 GB and my newly defined TB. However what you want MacStripey is an extra 87GB, not an extra 63GB.

Apologies for the slight rant, but it does annoy me. Hope I have actually informed you somewhat?