250gb after format 232gb

[racefan]

I just installed a 250gb HD and after partition and windows install I have a 102GB section and the other is 130GB. Add the two together and you only get 232GB, where did the other 18GB go?

 

[imported_BIOSMonkey]

Because manufacturers list drive capacities in base 10 units instead of base 2. They do this to make their drives sound like they have more capacity than they really do.

From the manufacturer's perspective: 250GB = 250*1,000,000,000 = 250,000,000,000

A gigabyte to the computer is "a thousand megabytes" but in computer terms "a thousand" is really 1024, or 2^10, and a megabyte is 1048576 bytes, or 2^20.

So take 250,000,000,000 / (1024*1048576) = 232.83 (real) GB

 

[racefan]

Thank you for the answer, I though there was HD space being saved for something like virtual space or something like that.