Hard drive spac e...?

[Rand Dusing]

I bought a 120gb maxtor hard drive this summer, and when I read how much total hard drive space there is it shows up as 114 not 120gb. I know this happens on every hard drive. But why does maxtor sell you a 120gb hard drive when it is really 114gb? IS there something I don't know about hard drives?

[kramerica]

If they go by 120,000,000 KB instead of 120 GB, then the total will only be 114 GB i think... 120,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 = 114.4

I think...

[Soheils91]

ya, plus doesnt the windows installation take up some harddrive space

[wju425]

120 binary = 114 decimal.

\o/ Billy

[rpertusio]

Originally posted by kramerica
If they go by 120,000,000 KB instead of 120 GB, then the total will only be 114 GB i think... 120,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 = 114.4

I think...

Exactly, kramerica!

- Hard drive makers say that 1 kilobyte = 1000 bytes (in decimal)
- Windows says that 1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes (in binary)

You might be interested in some charts to help explain the differences.

Furthermore, a new term is gradually being used:
- Hard Drive makers: 1,000,000,000 bytes = 1 Gibibyte (in decimal)
- Windows: 1,000,000,000 bytes = 1 Gigabyte (in binary)

Both are abbreviated as "GB". So, a hard drive maker selling a 120GB drive means 120 Gibibytes in size. This term (Gibibyte)has yet to catch on, so you won't find much information about it yet.

- rp

[edit: I realized I spelled 'gibibytes' wrong after reading davidamarkley's helpful post. ]

[Rand Dusing]

Oh ok, thankyou. I was thinking they ripped me off by 6 gigs

[Rand Dusing]

yah windows takes up space but m,y harddrive said 114 total GB in all which means 120 gigabytes in all.

[davidamarkley]

It all comes down to how you define 1GB. Windows users one definition while har drive manufacturer's use another. Hard drives use gigabytes, or 10 to the tenth power. Microsoft uses gibibytes but labels them as gigabytes. Microsoft's "gigabyte" is 1,073,741,824 bytes, thus it subtracts seven percent from the total of the drive. According to the NIST, 120x10(to the tenth power) divided by 1073741824 = 111.7 gibibytes, not gigabytes as Microsoft would have you believe. While most of the time, we(techies) refer to hard drives using the gigabyte like(Hey, I just got a 120GB hard drive!) instead of the gibibyte(Hey, I just got a 111GB hard drive!) windows uses actual gibibytes.


Hard drives use the term "gigabytes" which would be what the 120GB stands for. But, Microsoft uses a different way to measure gigabytes(they're actually gibibytes) so that's why you "lost" some 6GB from your hard drive. It happens to everyone. It's just the conflict of two different numbering systems.

The funny(and confusing) thing is that while microsoft uses gibibytes, they actually call or label them as 'gigabytes' and that throws alot of people off.

Hey, maybe this will be easier to understand since it's a scale:

Base-2 numbering system that computers use(Binary System):
Kilo.........K.....2^10 = 1,024
Mega......M....2^20 = 1,048,576
Giga........G....2^30 = 1,073,741,824
Tera........T.....2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776
Peta........P.....2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624
Exa.........E......2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
Zetta......Z.......2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424
Yotta.......Y......2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176


Base-10 numbering system that Hard Drive Manufacturers use(Decimal System):
Kilo.........K.....10^10 = 1,000
Mega......M.....10^20 = 1,000,000
Giga........G.....10^30 = 1,000,000,000
Tera........T......10^40 = 1,000,000,000,000
Peta........P.....10^50 = 1,000,000,000,000,000
Exa.........E......10^60 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Zetta......Z......10^70 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Yotta.......Y......10^80 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000


I hope I didn't lose you, and probably by the time I've typed this all up, someone else will have told you already!

HTH,

David

[rpertusio]

This article may be of interest:

PC makers sued over hard drive sizes

- rp

[Computer]

David. You certainly lost me. The Gibibyte is the top one or bottom one?

Edited for spelling