Hard Drive manufacturer getting sued for putting wrong product in boxes?

[cmf21]

This morning my mother calls me about a story on the evening news about a Hard Drive manufacturer out of California getting sued becuase they are putting different products (smaller / larger) hard drives in thier boxes and selling them as the size advertised on the package.

Most of us probably already know that Western Digital and Maxtor put larger and faster drives in their packages when they run out of a certain size, but aren't they just putting themselves in danger of getting sued for doing so and not advertising it on their packages??

If I didn't know anything about hard drives and purchased a drive that turned out to be larger then what I wanted, I might be a little upset because that's not what I wanted or what was advertised on the package. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them is getting sued. If I purchased a 160gb and got a 200gb instead with no indication that it was inside, I would be a little upset if that's not what I wanted. What does everyone think??

 

[Wozster]

If I buy a chevette and they give me a corvette I wouldn't complain or sue.

There are too many bored lawyers on this planet!

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

as long as you get a just as good/ just as fast / just costs as much OR better, I'm all for it.

 

[Utterman]

That is not entirely the case. The problem is that when someone buys a hard drive like a 160gig, it is showing up as ~150 gigs in windows from the result of going from decimal to binary numbers.

text about the suit

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Utterman
That is not entirely the case. The problem is that when someone buys a hard drive like a 160gig, it is showing up as ~150 gigs in windows from the result of going from decimal to binary numbers.

text about the suit

going from binary to decimal? you mean from presenting 1k as 1024 vs. 1000, right?

 

[metalmania]

Yes, those stupid users and lame lawyers!

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Thsi is just dumb because it's windows not properly identifying storage as Gigibytes instead of Giga. Has nothing to do with the HDD manufacturers.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
Thsi is just dumb because it's windows not properly identifying storage as Gigibytes instead of Giga. Has nothing to do with the HDD manufacturers.

Actually, Windows is properly identifying the capacity. A true Gigabyte is 1024 Megabytes, which is 1024 Kilobytes, which is 1024 bytes.

ZV

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Giga is a base 10 prefix 1024 is a base 2 measurement. Giga is is used as 10^n (cant remember the value of n) whereas 1024 is 2^10.

 

[Brutuskend]

Well if you were buying one to match one you already had, or bought two to set up a raid array and then it turned out not to be what the box said, I could understand being pissed.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
Giga is a base 10 prefix 1024 is a base 2 measurement. Giga is is used as 10^n (cant remember the value of n) whereas 1024 is 2^10.

Understood, but for as long as computers have been around, Giga, Mega, and Kilo have always referenced 2^10 because computers use Binary. The prefixes are base 10, but the whole words are not. The words "gigabyte", "megabyte", and "kilobyte" are specific to computers and are all defined in base 2.

From Dictionary.com

gig·a·byte ( P ) Pronunciation Key (jg-bt, gg-) n.

1. A unit of computer memory or data storage capacity equal to 1,024 megabytes (2^30 bytes).

ZV

 

[guapo337]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Well if you were buying one to match one you already had, or bought two to set up a raid array and then it turned out not to be what the box said, I could understand being pissed.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

gigabyte

n : a unit of information equal to one billion (1,000,000,000) bytes or one thousand megabytes [syn: Gigabyte, {G}, Gb, GB]

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
gigabyte

n : a unit of information equal to one billion (1,000,000,000) bytes or one thousand megabytes [syn: Gigabyte, {G}, Gb, GB]

You just want to argue for the sake of arguing, don't you?

The measure is 1024 because of its binary heritage. Why can't you just accept that? Or is some kind of personality disorder involved?

 

[Howard]

I don't really care.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
gigabyte

n : a unit of information equal to one billion (1,000,000,000) bytes or one thousand megabytes [syn: Gigabyte, {G}, Gb, GB]

That's from a descriptive dictionary, or a dictionary that records common useage. Look in a proper, prescriptive, dictionary that actually lists the trur definitions of words.

The simple fact is that in reference to computer storage capacity, a gigabyte has always been equal to 1024 megabytes.

ZV

 

[mugs]

Text

It's amazing, nerds will argue about anything for the sake or arguing.

It's not just Windows that uses the kilo-/mega-/giga- prefixes to represent their binary approximations. They're always used that way when measuring bytes.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

The simple fact is that in reference to computer storage capacity, a gigabyte has always been equal to 1024 megabytes.

Taken from NuclearFusi0n in this thread

10^0 = 1 byte
10^1 = 10 bytes
10^3 = 1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte
10^7 = 1000 kilobytes = 1 megabyte

2^0 = 1 byte
2^1 = 2 bytes
2^10 = 1024 bytes = 1 kibibyte
2^20 = 1024 kibibytes = 1 mebibyte
2^30 = 1024 mebibytes = 1 gibibytes

 

[Lonyo]

Since the Greeks, Kilo has meant 1000

kilo-
pref.

One thousand (10^3)

Since the dawn of computing, computer people have used kilo to mean 2^10
Since 1998, 2^10 has meant Kibi, NOT kilo, hence in 1998, when the standards changed, kilo meant 10^3 and kibi meant 2^10.

Since the dawn of whenever, Kilo, to 99% of uses and people, has meant 1000 (kilogram, kilometer etc), thus, kilobyte should mean 1000 bytes, which is does, in computer terms, as it was changed to in 1998, 5 years ago.

The case has no grounds, the users are ignorant, the lawyers are fools for taking up the case, Windows reports wrongly, the kilo meaning 1000 is the scientific prefix, kibi means 2^10 (1024) and this is also the accepted scientific standard.

The simple fact is that in reference to computer storage capacity, a gigabyte has always been equal to 1024 megabytes.

Wrong, a gigabyte always USED to mean 1024"megabytes" up until 1998, when 1 Gibibyte was equal to 1024 mebibytes, 1gigabyte equals 1000 megabytes now.

 

[Lonyo]

(Reprinted with permission from the January 1997 issue of the IEEE Standards Bearer)

Once upon a time, computer professionals noticed that 2.10 was very nearly equal to 1000 and started using the metric prefix "kilo" to mean 1024. That worked well enough for a decade or two because everybody who talked kilobytes knew that the term implied 1024 bytes. But, almost overnight, a much more numerous "everybody" bought computers, and the true computer professionals needed to talk to physicists and engineers and even to ordinary people, most of whom know that a kilometer is 1000 meters and a kilogram is 1000 grams. Then data storage for gigabytes, and even terabytes, became practical, and the storage devices were not constructed on binary trees, which meant that, for many practical purposes, binary arithmetic was less convenient than decimal arithmetic. The result is that today "everybody" does not "know" what a megabyte is. When discussing computer memory, most manufacturers use megabyte to mean 1 048 576 bytes, but the manufacturers of computer storage devices usually use the term to mean bytes. Some designers of local area networks have used megabit per second to mean 1 048 576 b/s, but all telecommunications engineers use it to mean 10.6 b/s. And if two definitions of the megabyte are not enough, a third megabyte of 1 024 000 bytes is the megabyte used to format the familiar 3-1/2 inch, "1.44 MB" diskette. The confusion is real, as is the potential for incompatibility in standards and in implemented systems.

Faced with this reality, the IEEE Standards Board decided that IEEE standards will use the conventional, internationally adopted, definitions of the metric prefixes. Mega will mean 1 000 000, except that the base-two definition may be used during an interim period if such usage is explicitly pointed out on a case-by-case basis.

Standards Coordinating Committee (SCC14) for Quantities, Units and Letter Symbols, has begun to work with the Computer Society, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to find acceptable names for prefixes that are related to powers of two. A proposal being circulated internationally would introduce the new prefixes kibi, mebi, gibi and tebi derived as short unions of the metric prefixes with the word "binary." The proposed new prefix symbols are Ki, Mi, Gi and Ti. Thus we would have a gibibyte of 2.30 bytes and a gigabyte of 10.9 bytes, and the 3-1/2 inch diskette would be formatted for 1440 KiB. (The 3-1/2 inch diskette is really, truly a mm diskette, but that is a question for another day.)

the IEEE Standards Board decided that IEEE standards will use the conventional, internationally adopted, definitions of the metric prefixes. Mega will mean 1 000 000, except that the base-two definition may be used during an interim period if such usage is explicitly pointed out on a case-by-case basis.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
Thsi is just dumb because it's windows not properly identifying storage as Gigibytes instead of Giga. Has nothing to do with the HDD manufacturers.

Actually, Windows is properly identifying the capacity. A true Gigabyte is 1024 Megabytes, which is 1024 Kilobytes, which is 1024 bytes.

ZV

How many watts is a gigawatt? It's definately not 1073741824.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Since the Greeks, Kilo has meant 1000

kilo-
pref.

One thousand (10^3)

Since the dawn of computing, computer people have used kilo to mean 2^10
Since 1998, 2^10 has meant Kibi, NOT kilo, hence in 1998, when the standards changed, kilo meant 10^3 and kibi meant 2^10.

Since the dawn of whenever, Kilo, to 99% of uses and people, has meant 1000 (kilogram, kilometer etc), thus, kilobyte should mean 1000 bytes, which is does, in computer terms, as it was changed to in 1998, 5 years ago.

The case has no grounds, the users are ignorant, the lawyers are fools for taking up the case, Windows reports wrongly, the kilo meaning 1000 is the scientific prefix, kibi means 2^10 (1024) and this is also the accepted scientific standard.

The simple fact is that in reference to computer storage capacity, a gigabyte has always been equal to 1024 megabytes.

Wrong, a gigabyte always USED to mean 1024"megabytes" up until 1998, when 1 Gibibyte was equal to 1024 mebibytes, 1gigabyte equals 1000 megabytes now.

Right. There is a prefix for 2^30 and it isn't giga.

 

[mugs]

So how many of you who are arguing against using megabyte/gigabyte for 2^20 and 2^30 ACTUALLY use "mebibyte" and "gibibyte" in normal conversation about computers? Anyone?

 

[ReiAyanami]

ACTUALLY use "mebibyte" and "gibibyte" in normal conversation about computers? Anyone?

are we not using it now? oh wait this is not normal. oh wait, it is for an ATOT conversation...

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Well if you were buying one to match one you already had, or bought two to set up a raid array and then it turned out not to be what the box said, I could understand being pissed.

Well if you bought the same model drives, I don't see how that could be a problem.