1000 MB != 1 GB...

[FollowThisLogic]

Looks like people have decided to sue hard drive manufacturers for continuing to pull off the old "1000 MB = 1 GB" game, that they've been pulling for years.

Actually, it's more like 1000 bytes = 1 KB, 1000 of those KB = 1 MB, and then 1000 of those MB = 1 GB.

Do the math sometime. I've got a 20 GB drive here. Windows reports 18.6 GB.

20,000,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 18.6 (and change).

On bigger hard drives, as they say in the article, this can amount to 10 GB of missing space!

So I'm actually glad that this suit finally happened.

[Hasegawa]

Uh-huh.

[The Brain]

Originally posted by FollowThisLogic
On bigger hard drives, as they say in the article, this can amount to 10 GB of missing space!

I don't even think on a 120 GB hard drive, you would actually lose any more than perhaps 3 GB total. Granted, that is still a great deal of valuable space lost, but 10 GB or more lost sounds extreme.

[Flock of Moosen]

An old lady once spilled hot coffee on her lap from McDonalds.
That's a more worthwhile lawsuit than this.

[Death_Metal Moe]

I have a keyboard.

And my cat's breath smells like catfood.

[Flock of Moosen]

Originally posted by Death_Metal Moe
I have a keyboard.

And my cat's breath smells like catfood.

Are you gonna sue 9 Lives and Purina because of this? I'm sure you'd get a hefty settlement.

[FollowThisLogic]

Originally posted by The Brain
I don't even think on a 120 GB hard drive, you would actually lose any more than perhaps 3 GB total. Granted, that is still a great deal of valuable space lost, but 10 GB or more lost sounds extreme.

Do the math yourself, man. It's easy.

120,000,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 111.7 GB

So you don't lose 10 there. Only 8.3...

[Kid Afrika]

This is fuggin' ridiculous. Doesn't formatting a drive take some of the space of the drive? Maybe the gross size of the drive is true, but the net size is less. I wonder how these sizes work out on a Linux system... (note - I'm not a linux head)

Every industry has their own method for measuring specifications. It would be one thing if only one manufacturer was boosting specs. But with the specs being so consistent, I figure this suit holds no water.

[FollowThisLogic]

Nah, it's not anything to do with formatting... look at the box, or the manual in it, if there is one. Usually you'll find something like 120GB*, and next to the * at the bottom, "1000MB = 1GB".

It's just the convention they've always used, but until now, there's never been such a huge, noticeable difference between advertised space and actual space. Those missing 10 gigs could be holding a lot of stuff.

Oh, and regarding the space taken in a format, that's only a major issue with FAT or FAT32. NTFS uses the MFT.... I have two drives, a 40 and a 100 GB, the MFT size is 52MB and 42 MB respectively... that's not much.

(Find your MFT size by right-clicking My Computer, Manage, go into Disk Defragmenter, hit Analyze, then View Report. If you care. Probably not. :grin2: )

[Kid Afrika]

OK, so formatting is not the issue, but you still have to admit that the lawsuit is bullshit.

Again, if one manufacturer was doing it, it would be something to take issue with. But, when it's the standard for measuring hard disk size, you kind of have to accept it.

Afterall, if they give you the formula for how they come up with the disk size, they're not exactly lying to you. They're really just rounding the number to make it more user-friendly.