Hp 320 GB n305 GB

[Guest]

Hello,
I just bought two HP DM3s with 320 GB of storage, installed ith an Intel 64 bit, Windows 7.
However when I reviewed the system disk storage, it shows 319,753,805,824 bytes which equals 297.79 GB/effectively 298 GB not 320GB as advertised. 320 GB "should" be 335,544,320 bytes.
On the side of the HP box it "states" that 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes and 1 GB = 1 billion bytes, which is not true, 1 MB "should = 1,048,576 Bytes (1024*1024). The side of the box also says that up to 20 GB is reserved for recorvery. On my system it is using about 12 out of the total 298 GB giving me about 22 less BG of storage than what I thought I purchased. Is this common miss rep of the HP 320GB????

 

[jitpublisher]

It is normal, they advertise them incorrectly.

 

[steve9207]

Right, any drive you buy is not going to be the full capacity it advertises (i.e. if you buy a 1TB drive, you may have 980GB of space available for use hypothetically). This might not be your question though... if you were asking more about the "1MB = 1mil bytes", etc. I think they typically do this to make it easier for the common person to understand how MB / GB / TB all compare / convert to one another, even though it's not the true amount. That's just my personal thought of why they do it...

 

[kamel5547]

Right, all drives are advertised at X GB using a different conversion that the computer (since the computer tracks in pwoers of 2). Technically this isn't incorrect as Giga and Mega have a specific scientific meaning. They simply use this to be able to label a larger capacity than will be suuable.

The only reason the HP box even states the conversion factor is a class action lawsuit a few years ago that forced them to state it.

 

[elel]

In drive labels, 1GB = 1000 MB, which is the definition of mega. In a computer, 1GB = 1024MB. This is because 1024 is a multiple of 2 and therefore easy for computers to handle. Companies just use the larger number.

 

[Paperdoc]

You say, "On the side of the HP box it "states" that 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes and 1 GB = 1 billion bytes, which is not true, 1 MB "should = 1,048,576 Bytes (1024*1024)." Actually, it IS true that 1 GB = 1,000,000 bytes. The 1,048,576 bytes quantity is a GiB, not a GB. "Giga" means exactly 1,000,000. The binary "Gi" was defined to ensure there is a proper prefix for your number.

The terminology is certainly "common", but I don't believe you could call it a "misrep". ALL HDD makers use the term GB to mean 1,000,000 Bytes, and they would contend that they are using the term correctly. Their view is that Microsoft (and many other software organizations) misappropriated the term "kilo" a long time ago to use for 1,024 instead of 1,000, and have been multiplying the error for decades.

 

[elel]

You say, "On the side of the HP box it "states" that 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes and 1 GB = 1 billion bytes, which is not true, 1 MB "should = 1,048,576 Bytes (1024*1024)." Actually, it IS true that 1 GB = 1,000,000 bytes. The 1,048,576 bytes quantity is a GiB, not a GB. "Giga" means exactly 1,000,000. The binary "Gi" was defined to ensure there is a proper prefix for your number.

The terminology is certainly "common", but I don't believe you could call it a "misrep". ALL HDD makers use the term GB to mean 1,000,000 Bytes, and they would contend that they are using the term correctly. Their view is that Microsoft (and many other software organizations) misappropriated the term "kilo" a long time ago to use for 1,024 instead of 1,000, and have been multiplying the error for decades.

Well said.