In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Tom wrote:

On Jul 31 2006, Arno Wagner wrote:

Just installed SP1. (Different topic but my son says he's heard some
not too good things about SP2.) Now I get 149.05 gig. It said, as I
reformatted it, that the size was 152,625. Just confused why it's not
closer to 160 gig. Any input?

That size is correct. Microsoft uses the wrong units:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

I would suggest you re-read the article. Microsoft is not using the
"wrong units", it is the drive manufactures that are presenting drives
sizes which are technically wrong for the purpose of making the capacity
look larger.

Acftually they are required to use SI units and prefixes
by law in the civilised world (not the US, it seems).

Arno


Microsoft on the other hand, is showing you the correct
actual values in Giga-Bytes and Bytes.

Using the articles value of 30,064,771,072 Bytes, it could also be
binary converted to read as:

29,360,128 Mega-Bytes
28,672 Kilo-Bytes
28 Giga-Bytes

All of these equal the same amount. The article talks about this, and
how the drive manufactures try to confuse some people. And, it
absolutely doesn't do anyone any good to display only one converted
value for everything.

Side note: If you do not install SP2, Windows will destroy your data
at some point, unless you only use the first 128GB of the drive. It is
a knowen issue.

That's a load of crap.

--

Tom