|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
simIAN
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
|
 Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 5:06 am Post subject: WD passport 250 gig question |
 |
|
I have a WD passport 250 gig drive. It is sweet, and I have been using it over a year. I recently discovered the folder with Dexter seasons one and two was corrupted and I couldn�t delete it. So I formatted the drive into NTFS, only to discover that in order to watch my files on my XBOX it had to be FAT32. Vista doesn�t give an option to format into FAT32 only exFAT. So I found a nifty program to format the whole thing to FAT 32. My question is why does it only have 232GB of usable space? I formatted the whole thing, thus eliminating the WD software on it; I would assume you could get the whole 250gb. It is advertised as a 250GB drive but only has 232, and on the internet all 250gb drives have 232 too.
Why? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 5:26 am Post subject: |
|
|
In short, all drives are like that. The bigger the drive, the larger the amount of space that's "missing" once it's formatted for Windows.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/245851-32-hard-disk-label-actual-capacity-difference-excessive
| Quote: |
Be aware that you are not losing space. The confusion happens only if you try to mix different measurement tools. Draw the analogy of measuring a board with a ruler marked off in inches, then again in centimeters. You get VERY different numbers. If you cut the board into 4 pieces and measured each with a ruler, then added them up, it would come out OK as long as you use ONLY the inch ruler, or only the cm one, but never mix them.
HDD makers define "GB" or "Gigabyte" as 1,000,000,000 bytes. Microsoft (in Windows) defines it as 1,024 x 1,024 x 1,024 bytes, or 1,073,741,824 bytes. A "Megabyte" is 1,048,576 bytes, and it takes 1,024 of them to make a Gigabyte. As long as you stick with Windows' measurement system, the file sizes and disk capacity numbers all use the same definition. The root of the problem is that two groups are using the same term, "Gigabyte", for slightly different units, unlike the "Inch" vs "Centimeter" situation where it is clearer.
Make the tranlation once at the start. 640,000,000,000 bytes, measured in Windows' units, is 596.046 "Gigabytes" with NONE of it missing. From then on, think in Windows' definitions of the terms and it's all good.
It's actually pretty simple stuff. Computers use a binary number system! Basically everything is 2 to the power of some number:
2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 1024, 2048... and so on. If you look through that list you'll notice a few common computer numbers. (e.g. 512 mb of ram, ever wondered why its 512 not 500? or why 2Gb of ram is actually 2048 megabytes?).
So basically there are 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte and 1024 megabytes in a gigabyte. So 500 gigabytes is actually 500 x 1024 megabytes which equals 512000 megabytes or 512000 x 1024 kilobytes which equals 524288000 kilobytes.
Now in the normal decimal system kilo means 1000, mega means a million etc.
So what the manufacturers sell is 640 gigabytes using the "decimal" giga, not the "binary" giga:
640 x 1000 = 640 000 "megabytes"
640000 x 1000 = 640 000 000 "kilobytes"
640 000 000 x 1000 = 640 000 000 000 "bytes"
BUT the computer reads this number in binary! So 640 000 000 000 bytes divided by 1024 = 625 000 000 kilobytes, not 640 000 000!
625 000 000 divided by 1024 = 610 351.56 megabytes
610 351.5625 divided by 1024 = 596.04 gigabytes.
So there you go! To summarize, when selling they use decimal, but the computer uses binary. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| For large files you do NOT want FAT32. For example, I tried to copy a 13GB blu-ray rip to a 16GB FAT32 drive and it gave me an error saying the file size was too large for the file system. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
simIAN
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:44 am Post subject: |
|
|
I primarily use the HD in the usb on the front of my 360 to watch movies, so FAT32 is the only option I have really. My largest video files are 2GB, the Planet Earth in 720p series.
Good explanation Bassexpander.
cheers |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
