Windows 7: SSD smaller then Original Size ?

I installed a 60 gig SSD realizing it is too small after windows says there is only 55 gigs on the SSD instead of 60 ? After doing some reading, this is considered normal ?

Hi there
I think there are some posts somewhere on the forum about size reported on Disks.
Manufacturers obfuscate the issue deliberately because they treat say 1GB as exactly as 1000 MB and a MB 1s exactly 1 Million Bytes.

In Normal terminology (Windows etc) 1 Mega anything is 1024 X 1000.

So Windows will always report the disk has having less bytes than the manufacturer.

Pity - but true. The Manufacturers aren't going to change.

Cheers
jimbo

It is normal. The formatted size of the drive is smaller than the advertised capacity. 55GB is plenty for installing Windows and programs. Keep your data, games etc on a separate drive

That's been the case as long as hard drives have been sold to consumers. But, as mentioned, you should be able to run a system with a 60 GB SSD and a spinner.

There is insignificant disk space to restore a backup on a 55 gig SSD. I decided to order a 120 SSD, rather then trying to squeeze it, if it could at all.

Kilo, Mega, Giga, and Peta were all base-10 numbers before they were base-2 digital numbers. If anyone has it right, it's technically the harddrive manufacturers.

Real World Examples:
1 kilogram = 10^3 grams = 1000 grams
1 kilobyte = 10^3 bytes = 1000 bytes (not 2^10 = 1024 bytes)
1 megapixel = 10^6 pixels = 1,000,000 pixels
1 megabyte = 10^6 bytes = 1,000,000 bytes (not 2^20 = 1,048,576 bytes)
1 gigaflop = 10^9 flops = 1,000,000,000 flops
1 gigabyte = 10^9 bytes = 1,000,000,000 bytes (not 2^30 = 1,073,741,824 bytes)

This variance in base-2 versus base-10 is what gives people the perception that storage manufacturers are lying sacks. A 60GB harddrive / SSD device does indeed have 60 billion bytes of storage, but in base-2 form (Windows method of sizing) a 60GB device would need 64.4 billion bytes.

Yes, yes, I know, all of us old cronies (I'm certainly included in this) are very accustomed to seeing kilo, mega, giga and peta in base-2 form. But we were taught wrong RAM must be sized in base 2 increments for addressing reasons, but not physical storage.