Hard drive partition size question

[SaidMohammed]

I have a question about partitioning my hard drive. I am using Microsoft's DOS Partitioner, and whenever I format my hard drive, and partition it, I can never get the partitions to be the exact size I want them to be.

For example, when I partitioned it, the program asked my how big I wanted my C drive. I typed it 2,000 megabytes because I wanted 2 gigs exactly. Well, I didn't get 2 gigs exactly, the program gave me 2.04 gigs. I tried to make my drive D partition 3 gigs exactly, but the program gave me 2.92.

I know these figures aren't off by a big deal, but when I open up My Computer, it bothers me to see non-whole numbers in there. Maybe I am being too picky, but is there a way to get an exact number when partitioning my hard drive?

Thanks for your help!

 

[bozo1]

Isobuster will do most all formats.

Edit: Ignore above - This was a reply to another thread and I have *no* idea how it got attached to this one...

 

[SaidMohammed]

bump

 

[SCSIRAID]

I believe partitions had to end on 'cylinder' bounderies which causes the effect you describe. Also the varying definition of what a MB really is may come into play... is it 1000000 bytes or 2 to the 20th bytes.

 

[AppleTalking]

SCSIRAID is right. Partitions have to end on cylinder boundaries on the hard drive. Therefore it is next to impossible to get a whole number of gigabytes. Plus you have to take into account that formatting takes up some space on the drive as well. Bottom line: don't worry about it.

Nick

 

[SUOrangeman]

Well, you can get close ... when you use 1024MB as 1 GB. All of my partitons are nearly exact, ringing in at 2.99 or 3.51GB (well, you get the pattern. Use 1024 as your multiplicand (is that the right term from grade school?) and you will get close.

The cylinder sweet spot for 1GB is about 1019.7MB (1020 rounded) on the drives I've used.

-SUO