My SSD and hard drive aren't showing proper storage amounts.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
X

xXCrossfireXx

Reputable
Jan 16, 2016
869
0
5,160
How much is one terabyte? Some people think storage is decimal based and 1 terabyte is 1000 gigs. Some people who are more tech savvy know that storage is octal based, and would correctly answer 1024, but Windows gives me a completely different answer for my one terabyte SSD. It calls it 931 gigabytes. Now I know this SSD, it's a Mushkin Reactor 1TB, you can look it up, it's popular because it gives you amazing price to performance, and I know for a fact it is exactly 1024 gigabytes. But for some reason, Windows calls it 931 gigabytes, from the moment I put in the drive to install Windows to the present, where I'm sitting on my ass at my new computer.

Now this happened with my hard drive too, which it called 4.56 gigabytes, it's happened with my MacBook Air where it calls my 128 gig SSD a 120 gig SSD, and I've even seen it on EasyPCBuilder's tutorial for installing an operating system. My question is though, why, why does Windows nuke your storage so you basically lose 1/10 of the storage your drives are supposed to have? Or is it the drive itself?

Thanks
 
Solution
R
What makes you "know for a fact it is exactly 2014 gigabytes?"

If you do the maths you can find your answer. Muskin (like every other HDD & SSD producer) is using decimal to make their capacity seem larger. So by their maths it has one trillion (1x10^12) bytes and they can therefore sell it as a "1 terabyte SSD".

Windows, on the other hand, is calculating capacity using 1024 every time.
So for windows:
1KB = 1024B
1MB = 1024KB (= 1,048,576B)
1GB = 1024MB (=1,073.741.824B)

And, if you divide the 1 trillion bytes that Muskin states their drive contains by the number of bytes windows will count per gigabyte (1,073,741,824, the number we arrived at above), you get just over 931 gigabytes, which is exactly the capacity Windows is...
Sort by date Sort by votes
R

rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
4,366
29
26,990
What makes you "know for a fact it is exactly 2014 gigabytes?"

If you do the maths you can find your answer. Muskin (like every other HDD & SSD producer) is using decimal to make their capacity seem larger. So by their maths it has one trillion (1x10^12) bytes and they can therefore sell it as a "1 terabyte SSD".

Windows, on the other hand, is calculating capacity using 1024 every time.
So for windows:
1KB = 1024B
1MB = 1024KB (= 1,048,576B)
1GB = 1024MB (=1,073.741.824B)

And, if you divide the 1 trillion bytes that Muskin states their drive contains by the number of bytes windows will count per gigabyte (1,073,741,824, the number we arrived at above), you get just over 931 gigabytes, which is exactly the capacity Windows is reporting.

I find it interesting that despite the mathematical precision that exists in the world of computing, we've nonetheless arrived at a situation where such fundamental units of measurement are so slippery... but that's the world we live in!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
D

DeadlyDays

Honorable
Mar 29, 2013
379
0
10,960
Windows uses the 1024, HDD/SSD manufactures uses 1000(because it looks better)
1TB > 1024GB > 1048576MB > 1073741824KB > 1099511627776B
The manu is doing base 1000 instead of base 1024 AT EACH STAGE
so you are losing deceptively large amount of space between measuring systems.
1,000,000,000,000
vs
1,099,511,627,776B
a difference of
99,511,627,776B (92.68GB as we and Windows sees it)
So they only needed to give you 908GB base 1024
Unless my math is wrong, you got more than you paid for...lol

Edited some of my typo's
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
4,366
29
26,990


You just went one step further to terabytes, that's all! So his 1 trillion byte drive has 931 gigabytes or 0.909 terabytes (=931.32257 / 1024).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

DeadlyDays

Honorable
Mar 29, 2013
379
0
10,960


?? I Disagree, you are not going far enough. He has a 1TB drive, and you are calculating up to 1GB. The difference between 1TB and 1TiB is ~92GiB yes? I don't see the error in my math. He has more space than the manufacturer said is in his drive considering we all know they go by 1000 instead of 1024.

Maybe I don't understand, I only slept 5 hours and I am near the end of my day

EDIT
nvm you edited
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
4,366
29
26,990


My only edit was to fix my typo of a multiply instead of divide, and add a few extra digits after the decimal point so that the maths I was writing was actually correct.

I'm calculating up to a GB because that's what Windows is reporting on, OP says "931 gigabytes". Take 931 and multiply it by 1024 three times (to go to MB, then KB, then B) and you get 1 trillion.... which is what Muskin is claiming.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

DeadlyDays

Honorable
Mar 29, 2013
379
0
10,960
sry, I have not had enough sleep u r right. could've sworn I went both ways with windows calculator but too tired to think.

I was subtracting the difference wrong because I am sleep deprived. I was basing off 1TiB and comparing it to 1TB, and showing the difference between what you get. There is a difference of .09951TB or .09051TiB

So he is losing potentially that much due to marketing fun compared to if he got one noted 1TiB, what he has is what he has, 1TB which is the 932GiB etc etc. I was subtracting off 1000 for some reason the 92GiB, when I should've been subtracting off 1024 to reach 932Gib. Silly that I didn't notice that mistake.

It was the last step I made mistake, everything else besides the 902 was correct though as far as I can see, but I still haven't slept so lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom