Vista Home Premium only detecting 465GB out of 500GB?

[ZombieRitual]

I just purchased new computer parts and am installing Vista Home Premium x64 bit after putting everything together. However, I noticed when it detected my 500GB Samsung HD, Vista only saw 465 GB. Why is this and what can I do to get around it?

Here are my system specs if it helps:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115017
ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16813131180
SAPPHIRE 100186L Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 VIVO HDCP Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16814102067
Kingston 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retai
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...820134193&Tpk=kingston
SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16822152052
ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT ATX12V 500W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16817194003
ASUS 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe and 14X DVD-RAM Write Black SATA Model DRW-1814BLT - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16827135146
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16832116204
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16811119106

Thanks guys.

 

[montag451]

Some of it is probably due to the fact that manufacturers will say 500GB = 500000000000 Bytes (might have got a couple of 0 wrong)
whereas you probably have 500000000000B which is really around 485GB
Dunno where the rest has gone.

 

[MarcVenice]

Vista only sees 39gb of my 45gb partition. Iunno man, XP only saw 112gb of my 120gb HD before. You do realize you lose some GB's because of the dataformat, in your case I'm guessing ntfs?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

It's perfectly normal, don't worry about. It is the result of manufacturers using decimal and data being binary. 2^10 = 1024; 10^3 = 1000. And the "loss" increases with size--imagine how much I'm losing I'm my 1.2TB array. No worries though.

 

[Bateluer]

XP sees my 500GB drive as 465GB. Its perfectly normal because of the binary/decimal conversation.

 

[montag451]

Hold on though - part of it is the fact that we lose 2.4% of the stated volume, and part of it is that they aren't really 500GB in any sense - might be 496GB (even by manufacturer standards) or less.
But a 500GB drive sounds better than a 493.13452GB hdd, doesn't it?

 

[n7]

THIS IS NORMAL.

You're not losing space at all...there are two completely different measurement systems.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: montag451
Hold on though - part of it is the fact that we lose 2.4% of the stated volume, and part of it is that they aren't really 500GB in any sense - might be 496GB (even by manufacturer standards) or less.
But a 500GB drive sounds better than a 493.13452GB hdd, doesn't it?

No.

Normally, a 500 GB HDD is just over 500,000,000,000 bytes, not less.
All of mine are just over.

Or 465 GiB


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...yte#Consumer_confusion

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Vista only sees 39gb of my 45gb partition. Iunno man, XP only saw 112gb of my 120gb HD before. You do realize you lose some GB's because of the dataformat, in your case I'm guessing ntfs?

Wrong - the "loss" of nearly 35 gigabytes is not due to "data format" at all. The other posters have it right - its about conversion.

 

[Madwand1]

500 GB = 500 * 10^9 B = 500 * 10^9 / 2^30 GiB =~ 465.7 GiB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte

 

[JackBurton]

Yeah, my XBox only sees 465GB of my 500GB drive. What gives?

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: montag451
Hold on though - part of it is the fact that we lose 2.4% of the stated volume, and part of it is that they aren't really 500GB in any sense - might be 496GB (even by manufacturer standards) or less.

In fact, every 500GB drive has a storage capacity of at least 500 billion bytes - the definition recognized by every standards body, organization, and international convention (IEC, IEEE, SI).

Storage devices have been round long before commercial software and those engineers have been using the same units since the 1950s. Its not the fault of hard drive manufacturers that the software industry decided to "invent" its own unit of measure that bucks universally established convention and definition.

 

[ZombieRitual]

Ah, ok, thanks for the quick responses guys. I thought this was related to how early versions of XP would only recognize up to approx 133 GB on a HD. Much obliged!

 

[kingfetty]

Also depends on the cluster size, larger cluster size, more "wasted space"

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/partCluster-c.html

 

[MarcVenice]

Ah, learn something new every day, although I did know about the different measurement systems.