SSD smaller then Original Size ?

[JerometheGiraff]

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 ?

 

[jimbo45]

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

 

[tw33k]

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

 

[DeaconFrost]

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.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

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.

 

[Albuquerque]

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.