256 gig SSD with only 238 gig usable space...

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Cybrex

Cybrex

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Nov 15, 2012
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Hi guys, I just bought the Samsung 840x Pro 256 gig SSD. After formatting and installing windows I noticed that I only have a total of 238 gigs of usable space.

I Know that whats advertised and what we actually get are two completely different things, but I thought it was a couple of gigs of space we lost, not nearly 20 gigs of space.

Is there anything I can do to get more from my SSD? I'm using Windows 7 x64
 
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It has nothing to do with formatting. What's going on here is that Samsung is using GB, 1,000,000,000 Bytes, whereas Windows is using GiB, 2^30 Bytes. Windows just lies to you and calls everything by the decimal name instead of the binary name. Windows is saying 1 GB= 1024 MB. 1MB=1024KB. 1KB= 1024B. So if we do some math 256 GB/1.024^3 = 238.4 GiB. Make sense now?
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Swordkd

Swordkd

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Oct 3, 2012
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No, that sounds about right. I have a 640gb HDD, and windows reads it as 596, or about 93% of 640. Yours is just under 93% of actual, so ballpark really. You can't do anything, and the other thing is, you don't want to fill up the SSD. You want to keep about 20% free for *performance* issues.
 
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The_Doctor

The_Doctor

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May 19, 2013
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Due to using bootcamp I know Win 7 64 bit takes around 18 - 20 Gbs up so thats about right!
The Doctor
 
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spookyman

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Jun 20, 2011
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Your drive is fine. Its how Windows formats and partitions the drive. you will never a full 256gig drive. In fact no OS will.

As for the drive itself. Manufactures will say its a 256GB drive.

They can say 1000MB per gig or 1024MB per gig. Its up to them how they label it.

Other then that enjoy the drive.

 
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ddpruitt

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Jun 4, 2012
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The extra space is used by the OS for various reasons. Generally formatted capacity is around 95% of capacity depending on OS, filesystem, and if it's the primary OS drive. Same thing happens regardless of the size or type of drive.
 
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wanderer11

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Jun 11, 2012
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It has nothing to do with formatting. What's going on here is that Samsung is using GB, 1,000,000,000 Bytes, whereas Windows is using GiB, 2^30 Bytes. Windows just lies to you and calls everything by the decimal name instead of the binary name. Windows is saying 1 GB= 1024 MB. 1MB=1024KB. 1KB= 1024B. So if we do some math 256 GB/1.024^3 = 238.4 GiB. Make sense now?
 
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Solution
faalin

faalin

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Feb 22, 2012
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/tear could no have said it any better myself
 
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Cybrex

Cybrex

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That was beautifully put. I feel like I just watched a nerd romance movie. Brought a tear too my eye. :)

Thanks. Perfect sense.
 
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ddpruitt

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Actually this isn't entirely true. Some flash based drives advertise capacity in powers of 2 so I would be careful with a blanket statement.
 
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