Don't forget that the file system / partitioning etc also uses up some space. Experiments have been done where they wrote RAW data to discs without any sort of file system or cluster indexing and were able to fill the disc with more data that with a file system
Of the 7% or so difference, 3,5% or so is NTFS formatting (probably similar for most other modern file systems) and the other 35.% is the GB vs GiB issue.
It's not earth shattering, it's just wrong and always has been, to use GB in ad and box art when computers use GiB.
As mentioned before a similar thing happened with tube monitors. Everyone advertised "19in" but that was actually tha outside diagonal of the tube. The displays were really like 17.5 inches some more some less. That was deemed a large enough discrepency that it was made to be required to report the actual screen area dimentions from then on, and frankly it was the right thing to do.
At this point in time, a single HD manufacturer could REALLY turn the tables by making and advertising a "REAL 1TB drive. There is nothing specific about the density of the storage media that means they HAVE to make them to 1000GB instead of 1000 GiB and in fact I'd go further if I worked for "brand X". I'd make the drive 1000 Gib AFTER formatting! What a great sales tool that would be. Since /everyone/ is always disspointed in the well below 1000 gigs of storage after formatting and the hidden GB/GiB loss (a total of about 7%), how great would it be to be able to buy "real" TB drives? That can store (on a normal OS) a REAL TB of user data!
Well that's what FSeal would do if he ran the world anyway...
My discs:
- WD 500GB SATA 3.5" = 465GB formatted
- Seagate 250GB SATA 3.5" = 232GB formatted
- Fujitsu 160GB SATA 2.5" = 148GB formatted
I always thought that the reason why you get less than was actually advertised was because the OS used the other space to as a file for storing data.
Some is file system overhead, the rest was all lies
The main differences have to deal with the two different types of disk measurements taken. The advertised size in decimal is the actual physical measurements across all drive platters using those units of measurement.
The OS on the other hand uses a totally differenr binary units of measurement to determine capacity following the partitioning and formatting for example which takes up a little there while most is lost in the conversion between the two different types of measurements.
Basically the decimal unit measure shows the estimated capacities while the binary shows what any OS will find available in real world application. Manufacturers have to use the decimal for the actual hardware side of things like machining the drive platters themselves while you opt to buy a drive by what Windows or any other OS would see as large enough.
The best understanding of the decimal side is taking a look at Tool+Die type manufacturing with engine lathes and surface grinders where tolerances have to be maintained when making more then one of the same.The estimated capacity in decimal terms is based on what the tool maker/machinist uses in manufacture.
The binary on the other hand is the "1s" amd "0s" neing the data switches and how that measures things. For anyone that gets confused on this one site offers a quick reememedy for seeing how much drive space won't be available for the OS side of things. The Tomorrow Times: The Hard Drive Capacity Calculator
Excellent info. Rep +1
Now that the HDD size disparity question is out of the way, what about these "LED" TVs?!?!
THERE ARE NO LED TVs! Talk about lies. They're the same old LCD TVs with an LED backlight. By this token the previous LCD TVs should have been called CCFL TVs? What about when real LED TVs are made, what will the call them then? "ReaLED"? I've even seen Ads where LED was spelled in RGB color as if to imply the pixels were really RGB LEDs. ARG!
Ok, maybe this should be a new thread :)
Well, when HD first came out and some of us bought our sets at 720p it was called HD. But when 1080p came out, they called it FullHD. I guess that means prior generation owners don't see FullHD, but rather LessThanFullHD.
People buy into marketing though. They love the buzz words
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