Specifications versus actual capacity for hard drives

[Starbuck1975]

Just completed a new build, but had a few complications. After installing all of the base hardware, installed Windows XP (original version prior to SP1 and SP2). The problem was that Windows setup only recognized 120GB of the hard drive due to it being an original full retail version of Professional.

After installing Windows, I immediately installed SP2. The problem was that after the system rebooted, my system wouldnt recognize my hard drive.

Decided to slipstream my WIN XP and SP2 disks, and ran a fresh install.

This time around, Windows setup recognized that a prior version of the operating system was already installed, as expected, but this time also posted my hard drive as 230GB in capacity.

I formatted the hard drive again and installed Windows XP w/SP2. Now my system is running fine.

My only concern is that my hard drive is only posting as 230GB. I know there is some variance in hard drive capacities...for instance, my previous 40GB Maxtor IDE drives posted as being a few gigs short of its specifications.

On larger drives such as 250GB, is 20GB an expected variance in their actual capacity? My main concern is that there may still be some residue of my prior Windows installation lurking in that missing 20GB...of course I could be wrong.

Thoughts?

 

[Crescent13]

My WD SE16 posts as being 232, after formatting a drive that large, it's not a huge drop in size. nothing to worry about

 

[mjifu]

230 is roughly what I would expect.

Remember: hard drive builders sell 1K as 1000, but your computer (being binary) sees 1K as 1024.

250*1000^3=250,000,000,000

250,000,000,000/1024^3=232

 

[Starbuck1975]

I suspected as much...in the grand scheme of things, 20GB is no big deal (astonishing considering that hard drives were 20GB only 10 years ago).

My main concern was that in the great WIN setup fiasco, I somehow managed to screw up my hard drive format such that there was a sector or two lurking with my first install of WIN XP.

If a 20GB discrepancy is normal, then I probably have nothing to worry about...that is until the next driver conflict.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I have a 250GB samsung drive and it comes up as about 230-something GB.

Even though it is considered "normal" I still wish they would advertise them properly with 1K = 1024, not 1000, #@*$%# liars.... /rant

 

[kpb]

1k = 1000 is the correct way to do things since thats what the metric prefix means. It's the os mfg's that are doing things wrong by misusing metic prefixes for binary numbers and using 1024 instead of 1000. Start bitching at MS to use GiB if they want do use binary gig's

 

[imported_rod]

The problem is Decimal Vs Binary.

1 GB is actually (1024*1024*1024) 1,073,741,824 bytes. So when you purchase a "250GB HDD" you are really buying a "250GiB HDD", which is 250,000,000,000 bytes, which works out to 232.83 GB.

RoD