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WD 120GB SE is not 120GB at all! Bleah!

K

Kraid2xd

Member
First thing I notice when I install this drive was that it formatted to 114GB... I then recalculated that figure into bytes to get almost exactely 120000000 bytes... RIPOFF!!! When I see something advertised as 120GB, I expect to find 1024^2 bytes multiplied 120 times! Not exactely 120000000 bytes!!! That 6GB that I was UNJUSTLY cheated out of could mean 3-4 DVD rip movies or game ISOs that I could fit onto the harddrive!!!

Oh well... that's my rant!
 
Every hard disk I've seen works like that. My 45GB drive formatted to 42GB and both of my 40GB drives formatted to 37GB. They actually use the correct numbering scheme, it's the computer that doesn't. (Yes, I know that in computer terms a kilo is different than a metric kilo, it's still dumb though.) 🙂

edit: Do you complain that your 17in CRT (or whatever you have, it applies to all CRTs) is about an inch smaller than what they advertise?
 
Erm the hard drive industry has been pulling this sh!t for years. I think Seagate started it. The infamous megbyte of 1,000,000 bytes instead of a megabyte at 1,048,576 bytes.
Unfortunately all drives pull this crap in terms of size. 🙁
 


<< Every hard disk I've seen works like that. My 45GB drive formatted to 42GB and both of my 40GB drives formatted to 37GB. They actually use the correct numbering scheme, it's the computer that doesn't. (Yes, I know that in computer terms a kilo is different than a metric kilo, it's still dumb though.) 🙂

edit: Do you complain that your 17in CRT (or whatever you have, it applies to all CRTs) is about an inch smaller than what they advertise? >>

It's actually the other way around. The computer is correct, the drives are not. They are based on 1,000,000 bytes.
 


<< It's actually the other way around. The computer is correct, the drives are not. They are based on 1,000,000 bytes. >>



So, are you telling me that my 1km hike to campus is actually 1024 meters, not 1000 meters? The manufacturer of the drive uses the commonly defined version of giga, tera, whatever and the computer puts it into it's own terms. I see no problem with them doing it as they're actually correct.
 
The makers do use the common acceptance of gigabyte/megabyte. That doesn't make it correct. A megabyte is defined as 1,048,576 bytes. 1,000,000 bytes is not technically a megabyte. It's just marketing and it works 🙁

It's like calling your 950m hike to campus a kilometer instead of 950 meters 🙂
 
Like the others said it's been like this for years, it's been this way as far back as I can remember (or rather, have been working with computers).
My very old 540Mb were 520Mb, my 20Gb drive is 19.1Gb, 40Gb = 36.8Gb, 60 = 57.2, etc.
Learn to live with it, it's not gonna change anytime soon, if ever.
 
Since harddrives are used for computer hardware, they should follow the computer's numbering scheme!

Do you complain that your 17in CRT (or whatever you have, it applies to all CRTs) is about an inch smaller than what they advertise?

No I do not complain cuz they always mention "15 inches viewable" right under.

If the harddrive makers followed this example, they woulda put "114GB actual usable space" or something like that...😛
 


<< Since harddrives are used for computer hardware, they should follow the computer's numbering scheme!

Do you complain that your 17in CRT (or whatever you have, it applies to all CRTs) is about an inch smaller than what they advertise?

No I do not complain cuz they always mention "15 inches viewable" right under.

If the harddrive makers followed this example, they woulda put "114GB actual usable space" or something like that...😛 >>

Well, they do put 1MB=1,000,000 bytes 😛 Kinda close 😀
 
Imagine when drives are terabytes (IBM's pixie-dust technology) . . . drives labeled 120TB will only actually be 109.14TB. RIP OFF!
 
Well, they do put 1MB=1,000,000 bytes Kinda close

Yeah, but then who would be motivated enough to go and do the math and calulate the exact metric-gigabyte value and convert it to computer-megabyte values?

Still, a simple "114GB formatted" would be nice... they even have those on the 3.5" floppies... 2mb unformatted, 1.44mb formatted, right on the label!
 
What are ya gonna do? Maybe you ad Goober$#(% who was complaining about his ATI 8500 can get together and start a class action suit agianst the industry.
 


<< Well, they do put 1MB=1,000,000 bytes Kinda close

Yeah, but then who would be motivated enough to go and do the math and calulate the exact metric-gigabyte value and convert it to computer-megabyte values?

Still, a simple "114GB formatted" would be nice... they even have those on the 3.5" floppies... 2mb unformatted, 1.44mb formatted, right on the label! >>

Oof, good point

<----owned
 


<< Well, if you had bought a larger drive, you would have been cheated out of even more space. 😛 >>



Very true. My Maxtor 160GB ATA133 formatted to about 153GB.. now that I've filled it with pr0n, I've got to go buy another one...
 
I remember even floppies and diskettes pulling this crap to! I have a bunch that say 2.0 megabytes (unformatted) 1.44 formatted.
 
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