Are 32gb SSDs EXACTLY 32gb?

[kandon]

Well, I have a computer that takes a long time to start up and it's kind of annoying sometimes, so I decided I'd purchase a small SSD to help speed that up. I was looking at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171667

Now, it says 32gb. My windows folder is BIG for some reason; it's 30.5gb. My question is, are SSDs like hard drives, where there is always a little less space than advertised?

If so, how can I make my windows folder smaller? It seems huge. I'm interested in buying a laptop that comes with a 16gb SSD and using that just for booting, but what the hell, my windows folder is 30gb!

Any help would be appreciated.

Also, would buying the laptop with the 16gb SSD be beneficial at all for windows? It comes with Windows 8 but if I don't like it, I might install windows 7 on it. But I don't want it to be too small..

 

[Azn Cracker]

No its usually a little less because its formatted. They advertise the wrong amount in 10's value instead of binary.

If you want to put your os on the ssd, you should do a clean install onto it. It will take up less space thereafter. Plus you cant just copy and paste the windows folder over so might as well do it this way.


Edit: you should also get a 64 gb one instead. Only about $20 more.

 

[kandon]

No its usually a little less because its formatted. They advertise the wrong amount in 10's value instead of binary.

If you want to put your os on the ssd, you should do a clean install onto it. It will take up less space thereafter. Plus you cant just copy and paste the windows folder over so might as well do it this way.

Wait, really? You can't copy-paste it? I heard you could. So everybody who purchases an SSD has to completely reinstall Windows? How do you transfer your programs and stuff on it?

EDIT: Yeah, I checked that out and I'm gonna get a 64gb one. But, as for the laptop, would 16gb be enough JUST for the OS? I'm not interested in putting anything else on the SSD for the laptop.

 

[overfocused]

A bad thing to do with ANY disk drive is to fill it beyond %80 free space, even SSDs. There needs to be room for garbage collection. With how cheap drives are, its generally the best to go the next size up. If you buy a 16GB drive for a 16GB OS, the disk will come to a crawl shortly.