Hard Drive - why is 2 TB only 1.8 TB ??

derekimo · 26 Dec 2010

James Colbert said:

derekimo said:

Excellent explanation Wolfgang!

Case closed, let the horse rest in peace.

Hi Derek. Understanding of the 'math' involved notwithstanding, unfortunately, the 'case' will continue (as will the threads) as long as the average user doesn't understand where his "missing GBs" went. Not an argument, but a statement of reality.

James

I understand, but it is what it is. Wishful thinking I guess.

James Colbert · 26 Dec 2010

derekimo said:

James Colbert said:

derekimo said:

Excellent explanation Wolfgang!

Case closed, let the horse rest in peace.

Hi Derek. Understanding of the 'math' involved notwithstanding, unfortunately, the 'case' will continue (as will the threads) as long as the average user doesn't understand where his "missing GBs" went. Not an argument, but a statement of reality.

James

I understand, but it is what it is. Wishful thinking I guess.

Appreciated all the opinions and info put forth in this thread, and wish happy holidays to all!

James

derekimo · 26 Dec 2010

James Colbert said:

derekimo said:

James Colbert said:

Hi Derek. Understanding of the 'math' involved notwithstanding, unfortunately, the 'case' will continue (as will the threads) as long as the average user doesn't understand where his "missing GBs" went. Not an argument, but a statement of reality.

James

I understand, but it is what it is. Wishful thinking I guess.

Appreciated all the opinions and info put forth in this thread, and wish happy holidays to all!

James

And to you as well James!

profdlp · 27 Dec 2010

ignatzatsonic said:

...The measuring method is used because it is thought to be effective---a certain unknown percentage of rubes would shy away from a drive advertised at 465 GB and buy the adjacent drive measured at 500 GB, even though they have the same usable capacity...

I agree with your entire post - with one exception:

I would bet that the marketers know exactly what percentage of rubes would do that.

Buddahfan said:

...I have never understood why people use "weather" thermometers.

If you feel too cold you put on more clothes and/or turn up the heat to get comfortable.:)

If you feel too hot you wear less clothes and/or turn the temperature down on your air conditioner to get comfortable.:)

Knowing what the temperature says on a "weather" thermometer does not change your atmospheric comfort level.

Yeah, but it's easier to know such things before you take your dogs out for a whiz, then have to drag them back in to add/remove clothes.

omnimodis78 · 27 Dec 2010

Clearly there are two camps here! The one is explaining how mathematically it all makes sense, and the other is saying that when we buy a drive that shows "2TB", it should show up as a 2TB drive in the computer also. Frankly, I choose to side with the 2nd camp because when I buy a 2L carton of milk, I'm getting 2L of milk, when I buy a pair of shoes, I'm getting a complete pair of shoes. When I pay to see a movie, I'm not asked 90% into the movie to get up and leave...so why are we sold a drive that claims a 2TB capacity and then see...let me check...yup...1.81TB. Yes, we all get it, the drive actually has 2,000,396,742,656 bytes, and that's fine - but the box didn't specify that, it specified 2TB - so, I would expect there to be enough bytes to result in a full 2TB capacity. It's just a matter of perception, but 2TB does not mathematically equal to 1.81TB - and that's the point.

derekimo · 27 Dec 2010

omnimodis78 said:

Clearly there are two camps here! The one is explaining how mathematically it all makes sense, and the other is saying that when we buy a drive that shows "2TB", it should show up as a 2TB drive in the computer also. Frankly, I choose to side with the 2nd camp because when I buy a 2L carton of milk, I'm getting 2L of milk, when I buy a pair of shoes, I'm getting a complete pair of shoes. When I pay to see a movie, I'm not asked 90% into the movie to get up and leave...so why are we sold a drive that claims a 2TB capacity and then see...let me check...yup...1.81TB. Yes, we all get it, the drive actually has 2,000,396,742,656 bytes, and that's fine - but the box didn't specify that, it specified 2TB - so, I would expect there to be enough bytes to result in a full 2TB capacity. It's just a matter of perception, but 2TB does not mathematically equal to 1.81TB - and that's the point.

Understood, but nobody here can actually change the way it's done.

whs · 27 Dec 2010

omnimodis78 said:

Clearly there are two camps here! The one is explaining how mathematically it all makes sense, and the other is saying that when we buy a drive that shows "2TB", it should show up as a 2TB drive in the computer also. Frankly, I choose to side with the 2nd camp because when I buy a 2L carton of milk, I'm getting 2L of milk, when I buy a pair of shoes, I'm getting a complete pair of shoes. When I pay to see a movie, I'm not asked 90% into the movie to get up and leave...so why are we sold a drive that claims a 2TB capacity and then see...let me check...yup...1.81TB. Yes, we all get it, the drive actually has 2,000,396,742,656 bytes, and that's fine - but the box didn't specify that, it specified 2TB - so, I would expect there to be enough bytes to result in a full 2TB capacity. It's just a matter of perception, but 2TB does not mathematically equal to 1.81TB - and that's the point.

If you want it to show as 2TB, you have to teach the PC how to run in decimal - or use an IBM 7070 (from the 60's). That was a decimal computer.

Julio Cortez · 28 Dec 2010

omnimodis78 said:

Yes, we all get it, the drive actually has 2,000,396,742,656 bytes, and that's fine - but the box didn't specify that, it specified 2TB - so, I would expect there to be enough bytes to result in a full 2TB capacity.

It holds MORE than 2TB actually (2,000,396,742,656 > 2,000,000,000,000 which is 2TB).

omnimodis78 said:

It's just a matter of perception, but 2TB does not mathematically equal to 1.81TB

Of course not. What if I told you that 1 MPH = 1 Km/h? You would consider me a fool, wouldn't you?
The same way, 1 TB != 1 TiB. They do look and size similar (even if they're completely different each other), but that i of difference is there for a reason. The correct equation is 2 TB = 1.8 TiB, in this case.

Then, if the OS still shows disk capacity in GiBs but labels them as GBs, I agree it adds to the confusion.

BrightBlessings · 28 Dec 2010

LoWang · 28 Dec 2010

omnimodis78 said:

Clearly there are two camps here! The one is explaining how mathematically it all makes sense, and the other is saying that when we buy a drive that shows "2TB", it should show up as a 2TB drive in the computer also. Frankly, I choose to side with the 2nd camp because when I buy a 2L carton of milk, I'm getting 2L of milk, when I buy a pair of shoes, I'm getting a complete pair of shoes. When I pay to see a movie, I'm not asked 90% into the movie to get up and leave...so why are we sold a drive that claims a 2TB capacity and then see...let me check...yup...1.81TB. Yes, we all get it, the drive actually has 2,000,396,742,656 bytes, and that's fine - but the box didn't specify that, it specified 2TB - so, I would expect there to be enough bytes to result in a full 2TB capacity. It's just a matter of perception, but 2TB does not mathematically equal to 1.81TB - and that's the point.

I agree with you 90%. You are wrong with the last sentence and you obviously did not read my previous post here ;-) It is true that somebody someday invented GiB and MiB units but all the programmers of the world ignore this and use GB and MB in software instead thus confusing everybody who buy a floppy disk, hard disk or a DVD. HDD manufacturers are technically right with their labels but they are horribly wrong in real world usage of these units