my 750 GB HD shows only 698 GB

[akvaman]

Hi, I just got a new HD and tried to just plug it in on my old HD with w7 but I can't find it anywhere no meter that it get recognized and installed at the beginning, I tried to install my old XP and it shows only 698 GB on the other hand W7 shows 715GB.This HD is 750GB.And shouldn't those anti static bags that they(HD) are packed be closed hermetical instead this HD was with a bag that was just folded and glued with duck tape (made of paper) with a "made in china" letters!

 

[Arc]

698GB = 714,752 MB = 731,906,048 KB = 749,471,793,152 B

I hope it is normal.

 

[Corazon]

It's one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book...harddisk manufacturers round their numbers on a 1:1000 basis, i.e. your HD really holds 750,000,000,000 bytes - which to them means 750,000,000 KB or 750,000 MB or 750 GB.

But one KB really is 1024 bytes, one MB is 1024 KB and one GB is 1024 MB. So the actual size of your harddisk comes out to 750,000,000,000 byes = 732,421,875 KB = about 715,255 MB = about 698 GB.

Windows XP's setup was showing you the correct size. I'm surprised that the Windows 7 install would show 715GB, unless for some weird reason it took the amount of 715,255MB and just made 715GB out of it by chopping the lower 3 digits off. (That would really surprise me though and might even be a bug, albeit a harmless one.)

Regarding the antistatic bag, no worries. I've bought a lot of new HDs over time and some came completely sealed, some just with a flap and tape. And many drives are manufactured in Malaysia and similar places, that's normal.

 

[sygnus21]

In addition to what Corazon said see this thread as well - Why is my hard drive smaller than the advertised capacity? - [H]ard|Forum

This as well - 12. My 200 GB hard drive is only regocnized as 186 GB. Why is the capacity of my hard drive being reported less than the full size of the drive reported on the box?

 

[Arc]

I'm surprised that the Windows 7 install would show 715GB

There may be a reason , I guess

Capacity - 750GB unformatted / 715GB Formatted

source : Seagate Momentus 750GB Review (ST9750420AS) | StorageReview.com

 

[Corazon]

Aha. That capacity quote is misleading, though, since it assumes an actual capacity of 750GB which we've already disproven - otherwise, the drive would really have 805,306,368,000 bytes of storage space.

However, it is true that the formatted capacity will be even less, since every filesystem (not just NTFS) uses a small amount of the partition space for its own metadata. It's not much at all though, so on a 698GB partition you can probably expect roughly 697GB of free space available to you.

 

[mjf]

I'm still puzzled (just curious actually). The review says that but I don't see it on the Seagate spec sheet. All my disks in disk management read the raw bytes just taking the binary conversion into account. I don't know what formatting has got to do with it. What you stick on the disk (eg. file system) is up to you.
Sometimes 1 TB might be slightly larger than 1x10^9 bytes.

 

[akvaman]

CORASON "Windows XP's setup was showing you the correct size. I'm surprised that the Windows 7 install would show 715GB, unless for some weird reason it took the amount of 715,255MB and just made 715GB out of it by chopping the lower 3 digits off. (That would really surprise me though and might even be a bug, albeit a harmless one.)"

Ok, this, about a bug, can you elaborate more, please?Is it possible that a brand new HD have bugs or you meant that my W7 has a bug?!
I must say, I'm quite disappointed, you buy 750gb and get 50gb less, thats very stupid, its 50gb, isn't better just to say the truth and not lie, I mean if they lie about the capacity than what are they lying more about?
And what about the installation? why couldn't I find the new HD?It wouldn't show on "my computer" how am I suppose to find it.I want to use this HD as storage like one partition using my old HD and its W7 I can't buy another W7.
And just one more question: how do you calculate how much do you actually get from HD of 750gb?

 

[search53]

If you will look at the fine print on the packaging the HD came in, it will probably say something to the effect: 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. If so, they're not lying. Even if it's not there, they have been pulling this trick for at least 20 years - it's become "common knowledge."

750,000,000,000 bytes = 698.49 REAL gigabytes

The "bug" referred to isn't really a bug. All he was saying was that Windows might have been programmed by Microsoft to show a less than accurate number.

 

[essenbe]

Advertised vs actual size of hard drives
To make it simple advertised size is the GB advertised X 0.9313226 = actual size
In your case advertised size 750GB X 0.9313226 = 698.49195GB

 

[ignatzatsonic]

you buy 750gb and get 50gb less, thats very stupid, its 50gb, isn't better just to say the truth and not lie, I mean if they lie about the capacity than what are they lying more about?
And what about the installation? why couldn't I find the new HD?It wouldn't show on "my computer" how am I suppose to find it.

If you can't find it, it's probably because it hasn't been given a drive letter in Disk Management.

As for the capacity deception:

Do you also wonder why gasoline is sold for $3.39.9 rather than $3.39 or $3.40?

Do you also wonder why stereo equipment ads scream "300 watts" at you?


Any fool knows that larger is better. The marketing types think buyers are fools. It's done because the marketers believe the tactic works. Why in the world would a fool buy a 698 GB drive when he can get a 750 GB drive for the same price?

By all accounts, they are correct. Otherwise, the practice would stop.

 

[Corazon]

Agreed on all previous posts.

Personally, what just kills me is those little PC desktop speakers they sell that claim to have an output of 180 watts or so when at the same time they come with a little power brick that says "AC input 110V/60Hz, DC output 12V/1000mA."

Translation: the speakers only get 12 watts of power to begin with, so yes, in this case 180W is a total lie. I wonder why they get away with that, but I also think it's funny in a stupid way.