320 GB Hard Drive showing 298 GB?!?

Solved
neo85 Posted messages 4 Status Membre -  
 DJENTLMANN1 -
Hello,

I recently bought a 320 GB external hard drive "Western Digital Passport" and I can actually only use 298 GB. Is it possible to recover the remaining 20 GB as that's quite a bit lost! The file system is NTFS.

Thanks in advance!

Néo

12 réponses

Chris88
 
No matter what "scientific calculation" system to apply, even if many agree that it's normal, it is what it is!... That's life...

I put myself in the buyer's shoes who feels slightly cheated when plugging in his hard drive.

But of course, if it’s Microsoft that is responsible for all this, I don’t feel up to taking them on tonight...
10
Xavstarblues Posted messages 10585 Registration date   Status Contributeur Last intervention   1 858
 
Hello
you'll have to get used to it, it's computing, it's the same for everyone
Due to a naming issue, the stated size and the actual size are different, NTFS or FAT won't change that
actually 320GB
320GB*1000*1000*1000/1024/1024/1024=298
try the test with your Windows calculator

More info here
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet

Have a good day
--

P4 2.4, 512 DDR, Geforce 6200 AGP Win XP SP2
P3 1 GHZ, 256 SDRAM, Debian Etch ||| P3 1Ghz, 392 SDRAM, Xubuntu 6.10
8
Xavstarblues Posted messages 10585 Registration date   Status Contributeur Last intervention   1 858
 
Hello
Etienne, if you want to take it out on someone, take it out on Microsoft, they are the ones instilling bad notions into the user.
Your 320 GB disk is 320 GB but it is only 298 GiB (gibibytes), which Microsoft literally converts into GB (on any Linux distribution, the size is indicated in gibibytes).

There are indeed 320 GB; it's Windows that doesn't use the correct notation (once again against international standards).

By the way, this topic is over a year old, please be careful ;)
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Thank you for reading the charter (above the forum list). Please mark your topics as resolved.
"Man is scum, he gets used to everything." (F.D)
5
etienne7178 Posted messages 4 Status Membre 8
 
Anyway, by leaving things as they are, people get taken advantage of.

I prefer not to understand a piece of information/explanation and have the choice between:
Either trying to understand it
Or not trying to understand it, at my own risk

Rather than
Believing that I've understood it and ultimately not having understood it at all.
4
dodieu50
 
You're really not very bright, are you?
0
neo85
 
Wow, well thank you already for the quick response! :-) Too bad about the space then... it's a bit of a scam anyway...!

Thanks again!

Neo
3
Xavstarblues Posted messages 10585 Registration date   Status Contributeur Last intervention   1 858
 
It's like everywhere..........

Good luck
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P4 2.4, 512 DDR, Geforce 6200 AGP Win XP SP2
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-1
etienne7178 Posted messages 4 Status Membre 8
 
I have exactly the same problem.
Yes, it's simply a scam, pure false advertising!!!

It's clear that what matters is what the average user understands from this message, namely:
320 GB = 320 GB of available memory on their hard drive, end of story.

What is UFC doing?!
2
Chris88.
 
(I have exactly the same problem.
Yes, it's simply a scam, pure false advertising!!!

It is clear that what matters is what the average user understands from this message, namely:
320 GB = 320 GB of available memory on their hard drive, end of story.)...

.... I completely agree, we can't just settle for a response like "It's the same everywhere .......... Good luck..."
20 GB less is still not NOTHING!.
0
Xavstarblues Posted messages 10585 Registration date   Status Contributeur Last intervention   1 858
 
No, it's not false advertising, you really have 320 GB on the drive, thank you for rereading the answers marked as the best response.
0
etienne7178 Posted messages 4 Status Membre 8
 
Hello Xavstarblues,

Indeed, my Windows should display in GiB, you're absolutely right.
We still have to be realistic. Windows is so widespread that it remains a reference in computing for the average consumer. What percentage of buyers will notice this distinction between GB and GiB?

When there are two units of measurement coexisting, the least we can do is provide information with a dual display, just like when we changed our currency from francs to euros. Products had dual display for several years (even today)!

However, to my knowledge, I have never seen this dual display. At least, certainly not on the packaging of my Western Digital 320 GB hard drive.
2
Quentin
 
I have the same case, 20 GB stolen pff.
1
Xavstarblues Posted messages 10585 Registration date   Status Contributeur Last intervention   1 858
 
@quentin, thank you for reading the responses and trying to understand what’s going on.
1
DJENTLMANN1
 
  • 1 GB = 1 billion bytes. The available storage capacity will be lower; the device uses up to 10% of the memory for formatting and other functions. See www.verbatim.com/flashcapacity.
1
Xavstarblues Posted messages 10585 Registration date   Status Contributeur Last intervention   1 858
 
And you won't see this display for a long time in my opinion, but people wouldn't understand either

320GB = 298GiB on a package is unclear, especially since Windows doesn't recognize GiB, people would be even more confused, thinking they were cheated because they only have 298GB, well that's even less clear... usually sellers try to soften the blow by saying it's due to the file system (FAT, NTFS) but well... those who really care find the information and get it
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Thank you for reading the charter (above the forum list). Thank you for marking your topics as resolved.
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-2
freeworldgreg Posted messages 342 Status Membre 31
 
Hi, it's normal for your hard drive to lose space

when you create an NTFS partition you lose some memory but actually the content is the same, it's a bit like compression, you understand?
-3
Xavstarblues Posted messages 10585 Registration date   Status Contributeur Last intervention   1 858
 
Traditionally, when applied to bytes, the prefixes "kilo", "mega", "giga", etc., do not represent a multiple of 1,000, but a multiple of 2^10 = 1,024. However, this tradition violates the current standards for other units, including the bit, and is not even applied uniformly to bytes, particularly in measuring hard disk capacity. A new standard has therefore been created to denote multiples of 2^10 = 1,024: "kibi", "mebi", "gibi", etc.

The traditional usage remains largely in effect among professionals and the general public, even if it contradicts the SI recommendations, which clearly define other prefixes. The use of binary prefixes remains very limited and does not spread much in everyday language, while the values represented by these units in power of 2 are widely used in applications, particularly operating systems.

This distinction has indeed been used for a long time by hard drive manufacturers. The fact that using prefixes in powers of 10 allows for commercially displaying capacities higher than those given by powers of 2 can lead to misunderstandings on the part of unsuspecting users. Thus, a 100 gigabyte hard drive (100×10^9 bytes) contains the same (rounded) number of bytes as a 93.13 gibibyte drive (93.13×2^30 bytes).

This is a misuse of language that makes it so you do not have the same size
Basically, your 320 GB are "Commercial" GB and your 298 are "Computer" GB


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P3 1 GHZ, 256 SDRAM, Debian Etch ||| P3 1Ghz, 392 SDRAM, Xubuntu 6.10
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