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Old July 31st 06, 07:04 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Rod Speed
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Posts: 8,559
Default WD Hard Drive Size Issue

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.


No need.

Microsoft is not using the "wrong units",


Fraid so.

it is the drive manufactures that are presenting
drives sizes which are technically wrong for the
purpose of making the capacity look larger.


Nope, the SI standard is the decimal GBs,
so the hard drive manufacturers are correct.

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


Nope, the SI standard GB is the decimal form.

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.


The article is just plain wrong on that.

And, it absolutely doesn't do anyone any good
to display only one converted value for everything.


That is the SI standard and the hard drive manufactures
make it VERY clear that they are using decimal GBs.

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.


What is ? If 48LBA support is not provided, you will get corruption.