SSD is 256 gb but only showing 238 gb?
- Thread starter GTXNvidia
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rmark45matsu
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- Aug 23, 2014
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It's something called "Over Provisioning" It uses 10% of space to move data around/to degrade the ssd equally over all the components within it.
Here's what it is in depth,
"An SSD controller is responsible for the massive task of managing all data traffic and storage for the drive. NAND technology’s intrinsic complexities require a lot of extra work behind the scenes. A data write is not as simple as placing data into an empty memory bank. Each NAND cell has a limited lifespan – it can only endure a specific number of data reads/writes. An additional layer of complexity is added by the fact that overwriting old data on NAND requires an erase of the entire NAND block (this same block may contain other data that is still valid). As a result, the controller is constantly moving data around to ensure that the cells wear evenly and to preemptively prepare “free blocks” to use for future data writes.
All of this management work requires the SSD to have a kind of “swap space” available to use as temporary storage while the controller goes about its business. The controller will use any available free space for this, but free space becomes a premium commodity as we fill our drives with data. OP is a way to set aside a minimum amount of free space, inaccessible to the user or the OS, which the SSD controller can utilize as a kind of “work bench.”
If you want more information you can read up on it here, http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/about/whitepaper05.html
Here's what it is in depth,
"An SSD controller is responsible for the massive task of managing all data traffic and storage for the drive. NAND technology’s intrinsic complexities require a lot of extra work behind the scenes. A data write is not as simple as placing data into an empty memory bank. Each NAND cell has a limited lifespan – it can only endure a specific number of data reads/writes. An additional layer of complexity is added by the fact that overwriting old data on NAND requires an erase of the entire NAND block (this same block may contain other data that is still valid). As a result, the controller is constantly moving data around to ensure that the cells wear evenly and to preemptively prepare “free blocks” to use for future data writes.
All of this management work requires the SSD to have a kind of “swap space” available to use as temporary storage while the controller goes about its business. The controller will use any available free space for this, but free space becomes a premium commodity as we fill our drives with data. OP is a way to set aside a minimum amount of free space, inaccessible to the user or the OS, which the SSD controller can utilize as a kind of “work bench.”
If you want more information you can read up on it here, http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/about/whitepaper05.html
lucuis
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- Apr 21, 2008
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Hi, although rmark's explanation is correct as far as over provisioning it has little to do with the usable size of the drive. The over provisioning for SSD is pretty much invisible to the end user.
What you are actually seeing is detailed here, http://www.tweakandtrick.com/2013/07/lost-storage-space.html
Marketing is all it is.
What you are actually seeing is detailed here, http://www.tweakandtrick.com/2013/07/lost-storage-space.html
Marketing is all it is.
Hard disk manufacturers calculate 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes. Microsoft calculates 1 Gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes. This means you lose 7%. This is true of any drive and always has been. So a 120GB drive formats to 111GB, a 250GB drive gives you 232GB and so on. You can calculate exactly with this tool.
http://www.ussscctv.com/harddrivesizecapacitiescalculator.aspx
It has nothing to do with over provisioning.
http://www.ussscctv.com/harddrivesizecapacitiescalculator.aspx
It has nothing to do with over provisioning.
rmark45matsu
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- Aug 23, 2014
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I just installed the same drive on my son's gaming rig. Love the speed and responsiveness, but I was startled when i opened magician and saw the actual space...these drives should be 256 actual space...it wouldn't be hard to do that...
hang-the-9
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- Mar 25, 2010
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It's not just "these drives", it's every hard drive. Soon as you create a partition and format the drive you will find out there is less usable space than what the box states.
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