Is SSD like HD and your space is lower then specs

[tweakboy]

You buy a 320GB hard drive, it only shows 298GB ,,,,,, all hard drives are like this.


My question are SSD the same way.

So if I buy a 256GB ,,,,,,,,, will I have all 256gb shows free or its like 235gb or so.

thanks

 

[weez82]

read post #7 in this thread for an explanation on how storage devices are read in windows
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2243698

This goes hd's, ssd's, flash drives, usb drives, ect ect

 

[VirtualLarry]

Short answer: Yes, SSDs, like any storage device, get "shortchanged" when you look at the size from within Windows.

Longer answer: Not only do SSDs suffer from the 1024/1000 issue, they also have an issue with OP (over-provisioning). Sandforce SSDs use part of the NAND for "RAISE" (redundancy), as well as OP.

So, some SSDs are sold as 256GB, which means that they have that much NAND physically in the product, but it may turn out that only 240GB is user-accessable, and then out of that 240GB, you may only see 223GiB from within Windows. (My Mushkin 240GB SSD is like that, only 223GB usable in Windows.)

 

[corkyg]

It's caused by marketing - they can legally calculate drive sizes so they "look" bigger. It is the old 1024 vs. 1000.

 

[taltamir]

It's caused by marketing - they can legally calculate drive sizes so they "look" bigger. It is the old 1024 vs. 1000.

To be fair, drive makers are the ones actually using the correct definition.
Operating systems have been using an incorrect binary estimation definition of the words kilo (codified 1799), mega (confirmed 1960), and giga (earliest reported use 1947) for years due to convention.

To clarify and prevent further confusion international bodies gave proper terms for those binary approximations. Kibi, Mibi, Gibi, etc...
Abbreviated KiB, MiB, GiB, etc. Many programs use those new and proper abbreviations, but MS windows refuses to, still incorrectly calling them KB, MB, and GB.

You don't lose any space. 60GB = 60,000,000,000B and is what you get.
Windows simply gives you the size in GiB and incorrectly calls it GB.
1 GiB = 1024^3 = 1,073,741,824 B
60GB = 60,000,000,000B = 55.8793544769287109375 GiB

OCZ is the only company to ever try to claim their hidden non user accessible spare area on SSD. And that is because OCZ is a slimy unethical company. They suffered severe backlash due to it and stopped doing it.
It should be noted that HDDs ALSO have spare area just like SSDs do (but it serves a different purpose)

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mebibyte

TL😀R Windows is report sizes wrong, you are actually getting what the drive makers are saying

 

[icanhascpu2]

GiB isnt a GB. 1GiB ≈ 1.074GB.

 

[tweakboy]

Thank you for the answer. 🙂

 

[groberts101]

OCZ is the only company to ever try to claim their hidden non user accessible spare area on SSD. And that is because OCZ is a slimy unethical company. They suffered severe backlash due to it and stopped doing it.

ROFLMAO FUD. Pure FUD.

Google "Sandforce's RAISE function".

Then to round out the knowledge base a bit more?.. google "Sandforce 0% OP".

 

[F1shF4t]

ROFLMAO FUD. Pure FUD.

Google "Sandforce's RAISE function".

Then to round out the knowledge base a bit more?.. google "Sandforce 0% OP".

Well in one instance it is true. The silent change from 34nm > 24nm NAND for Vertex 2 SSDs. The 60GB & 120GB models had only 55GB & 115GB user available capacity but were still labeled at the larger capacity. (Yes I'm aware that internally they both had the same ammount of NAND, 64GiB and 128GiB)

Corsair for example named similar SSDs the F115.

 

[taltamir]

ROFLMAO FUD. Pure FUD.

Google "Sandforce's RAISE function".

Then to round out the knowledge base a bit more?.. google "Sandforce 0% OP".

I googled that exact phrase and found no mention of other companies doing it.
I know what RAISE is. OCZ is the only company to ever count non use accessible area (RAISE space) when selling to the customer and they stopped doing it due to backlash.

Every other company only reports usable area. RAISE uses up more area, just like over provisioning, but they are still going to list its size based on how much space it has. IF you have proof to the contrary link one.

As far as the baseless accusation of me spreading pure Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about OCZ...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ocz-vertex-2-25nm-ssd,2867-2.html

They are being very understanding of OCZ (after all, OCZ is such a good advertiser) and accepting their BS claim that it was all an honest mistake and OCZ willingness to replace it for a properly sized drive for free makes it right (something they only agreed to budge on after a lot of internet backlash). But the bottom line is that EVERY company had to increase RAISE on 25nm parts, OCZ was the only one to actually try to lie to customers about how much space they are getting.

 

[bryanW1995]

They are just pushing the envelope... 😉

@OP: I have 238.47 GiB usable per drive on my 256gb m4's that I got the other day.

 

[Soundmanred]

U only need GiB and P4 if ur not using a DAW.
kthx

 

[taltamir]

U only need GiB and P4 if ur not using a DAW.
kthx

1. What do you mean "need GiB"?
2. What does P4 mean? Pentium 4?
3. What does DAW mean?