Is this typical for an USB 2.0 external harddrive?

Sal R. · 03-07-2007, 05:50 PM

I recently bought a 160GB Maxtor external harddrive.

Upon plugging it in, I found that it only has 149GB free space.

Should I return it?

guizai · 03-07-2007, 06:14 PM

Why not reformat it?

crez79 · 03-07-2007, 06:31 PM

That is normal. Just the manufacturer's way of making it seem bigger than it is. It has to do with the way they come up with the numbers. This can explain it better. Doesn't 160 sound better than 149?

Sal R. · 03-07-2007, 06:43 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by guizai

Why not reformat it?

I did. Still 149GB.

Quote: Originally Posted by crez79

That is normal. Just the manufacturer's way of making it seem bigger than it is. It has to do with the way they come up with the numbers. This can explain it better. Doesn't 160 sound better than 149?

Heck yeah.

Still a bit miffed that I lost out on 11GB.

I mean, I paid for 160GB of almost all useable space.

meh.

tooch · 03-07-2007, 07:25 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Sal R.

I did. Still 149GB.

Heck yeah.

Still a bit miffed that I lost out on 11GB.

I mean, I paid for 160GB of almost all useable space.

meh.

Not as bad as buying a 4gb Ipod nano, and finding that it's only 3.6gb or similar

Didn't realise that apple used this trick as well, I suppose they would be the worst perpetrators of dodgy advertising!

DarquePervert · 03-07-2007, 07:29 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Sal R.

I did. Still 149GB.

Heck yeah.

Still a bit miffed that I lost out on 11GB.

I mean, I paid for 160GB of almost all useable space.

meh.

No. Read the fine print.
It will say somewhere in teh documentation that they measure the size of a GB as 1000MB, as opposed to the more accurate 1024MB.

If you're miffed about that, then take it up with the HDD manufacturers.

MatrixPC · 03-08-2007, 09:45 AM

MrJamieR · 03-08-2007, 04:55 PM

It's a pity you don't get the opportunity to pay for the HDD the same way. Imagine telling the guy behind the counter "Ohh I'm sorry where I come from when we say $100 we really only mean $97. It's all right here in the fine print."

Numbchux · 03-08-2007, 11:45 PM

every hard drive I've ever owned is like this. my "80gb" western digital in my desktop only has 74.5.

gagan512 · 03-09-2007, 01:22 AM

once a harddrive is formatted, a file-system is created on it (NTFS, FAT, FAT32 etc..). Depending on the file-system, you end up losing some space on the drive. basically, the larger the drive, the more you end up losing before it is formatted to be used.