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got a new computer with 500gb and some is missing?

1K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  raptor_pa 
#1 ·
I got a brand new dell studio with the default 500gb hard drive.

In device manager it says: ST3500620AS ATA DRIVE

I'm pretty sure its this: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...e=en-US&reqPage=Support&supportReqTab=Install

But in my computer it says:
OS (C): 418GB free out of 450GB
RECOVERY (D): 8.77GB free out of 14.9GB

That makes a total of 464.9GB

Wheres the other 35.1GB?

I know 35.1 gigs isn't a lot but it just bothers me...
 
#2 ·
It might be an issue with Windows but if I'm not mistaken it's a simple conversion thing. Because of the way the math is when you buy a hard drive you never get the amount that is specified on the box.

You can learn more here:LINK
 
#3 ·
It's all in the numbers..... first of all a portion of the raw disk surface is lost when the disk is formatted, exactly how much varies with file system. That is a very small portion of your 'missing' space. The biggest difference is in how a GB is calculated. Drive manufacturers calculate 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 ( one billion ) bytes. so your 500 GB drive actually has 500,000,000,000 bytes available. Works well for us humans who use the base 10 (decimal )number system. Computers however use Base 2 (binary) numbers, in binary the calculation 1 GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes. So when the 500,000,000,000 base ten bytes are converted to GBytes based on binary we get 465.66 GB So all your storage is there, it is just the difference in the way a GB is defined.
 
#5 ·
Pretty much, it is just based on the definition of a GB between human terms. the computer calculates a GB as about 73 Million bytes more than we humans do... and the manufacturers have standardized on using the human calculation for GB. So you get 500,000,000,000 bytes when you buy a drive labeled 500 GB. The computer converts that to GBytes based on it's larger number o bytes per gb, so the 500 becomes 465 in computer terms... In other words.. nothing is missing, all is right with the world, it's just a bit confusing.. LOL
 
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