formatting new HD

[Apexdisco]

I've just formatted two hard drives for use in external HD enclosures.

The first one is labeled as 250GB but when I formatted it, it only showed up as 232GB. I thought maybe just slightly off similiar to what is seen in memory.

The second drive I just bought tonight and is supposed to be a 320GB drive. When I formatted it, it only showed up as 300GB. I'm using NTFS.

What am I doing wrong here?

 

[another110]

Nothing. That space you can't use is for the table of contents, more or less. It's a percentage on every disk.

 

[D90DC]

If all else fails go to the Borg for Fat32 and NTFS information
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/winntas/tips/techrep/dualboot.mspx?mfr=true

 

[az_max]

it's bits vs bytes. the HD mfr's give the spec that gives them the greatest number of data. The OS and BIOS report the drive differently, plus the file system overhead.

my 40gb (Wd's measure) is 38139mb (M$'s measure) on my work PC. 37.25GB after formatting (39,991,275,520 bytes).

http://compreviews.about.com/od/storage/a/ActualHDSizes.htm

 

[Apexdisco]

it's bits vs bytes. the HD mfr's give the spec that gives them the greatest number of data. The OS and BIOS report the drive differently, plus the file system overhead.

my 40gb (Wd's measure) is 38139mb (M$'s measure) on my work PC. 37.25GB after formatting (39,991,275,520 bytes).

http://compreviews.about.com/od/storage/a/ActualHDSizes.htm

Ding, Ding, Ding!!! We have a winner.

Seriously, thanks for all the responses. This makes the most sense however.

 

[another110]

LOL!! I guess I should go find a new job.

 

[nateb006]

I'd toss a few partitions on that bad boy ... Even NTFS isn't real fond of managing a drive of that size.