I bought a 320 gb hard disk, SATA II 16 mb, and in windows it just have 298 gb. Should I contact the store?? Thank you
2007-05-16 01:55:36 · 11 answers · asked by Carlos Neto 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
*Seagate HDD 320 gb SATA II
2007-05-16 01:56:04 · update #1
The "missing" space is not used by your operating system. The OS uses disk space but that is visable as used disk space.
When a disk is prepared to receive data it is formatted and part of that formatting is setting aside some space for important things like the file allocation tables which records where on the disk your data is located.
When disks are sold they advertise the total capacity, but in reality all disks utilize some space for the file system and your total useable capacity is somewhat lower. The bigger the disk the more space will be needed for the file system.
So no you don't need to contact the store, unless you run a scan disk and find bad sectors on your new disk, in which case I would return it.
2007-05-16 02:06:23 · answer #1 · answered by Brian K² 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
With all hard drives, some space is used for formatting, to make the drive usable on your computer. The larger the drive, in your case 320 GB, the more space it takes to format. You can't get this space back, so if you need the extra space you'll have to buy another drive. All hard drives do this though so you can't get the full advertised capacity.
2007-05-16 02:01:05 · answer #2 · answered by dude605 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Companies lie about disk capacity. My computer is a "40 gig drive" but only has 33. The OS does NOT take up that much space. Formatting does NOT take up that much space.
2007-05-16 02:45:24 · answer #3 · answered by mar m 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Marketing people use the base 10 (Decimal) system to come up with 320 GB. Computers use the base 2 (Binary) system to come up with 298 GB.
Both values are virtually equal, so don't call the store.
2007-05-16 02:07:52 · answer #4 · answered by ELfaGeek 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
On large hard drives, Windows' NTFS file system cannot utilize the entire drive, and a few megabytes go unused. There are third-party file-partition programs that can re-partition your hard-drive and recover some of the missing file space, but it's probably better to just leave it as is.
2007-05-16 02:06:33 · answer #5 · answered by Tom Barrister 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
this happens because hard drive companies say that the scale factor is 1000 for b to kb and kb to mb and mb to gb while windows uses a scale factor of 1024. so in translation you "lose" space, but if you are wondering what the true scale factor is its 1024
2007-05-16 02:05:22 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes, it's totally normal. like the others have said, it's NOT because of formatting space or operating system space or any of that. it's because of the way the the computer figures out how much space it has.
320gb is misleading - you're not going to get that much.
2007-05-18 17:33:11 · answer #7 · answered by tuff~luv 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you have a partition for System Restore and you also need to take note that your never going to have your full HD space because the O/S takes up space as well.
2007-05-16 01:58:55 · answer #8 · answered by Mike 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Yes, this is normal. Windows NTFS can not fully format and give you 100% of the drive's capacity.
2007-05-16 01:59:17 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Thats normal, in simple terms, like the old bulky TV you have, 20" and you really getting 18.5", misleading but thats how things work.
2007-05-16 02:00:34 · answer #10 · answered by Cupcake 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋