160gb hard drive showing up as 111gb?

[SSerino]

So I have my Macbook pro with it's 200 gb hard drive, which shows up with a ~185 gb capacity. This is normal, with the ~15gb for whatever hard drives require that extra space for.

So, my friend just got her 2.4ghz/160 gb white mac book today. I am setting it all up for her and I am seeing something odd. The hard drive has a 160gb hard drive, when I look under "About this Mac" and then "Serial-ata" it shows its formatted capacity at ~149 gb, which is normal. However, here is the problem...When I check info on the Mac hard drive, it is only showing Capacity at 111 gb, same thing in iStat pro.

Has anyone ever experienced this issue before? The comp has a 160gb hard drive, the formatted space is 149 gb, however, the capacity is only 111 gb. Now this this not the AVAILABLE, that is showing at around 90 gb, this is the potential capacity of the drive, and it is only 111 gb.

[chscag]

That's definitely not normal. My 160 Gb drive which has a formatted capacity of 149 Gb had around 138 Gb available when I first turned on my MacBook.

Was the machine new out of the box? Refurbished? Second hand purchase?

It sounds to me like there is another partition on the drive which is taking up that space. Does the computer have Windows on it by chance? Also, are you sure the hard drive is supposed to be 160 Gb and not 120 Gb? The capacity numbers you quoted work out pretty close for a drive size of 120 Gb.

Regards.

[SSerino]

That's definitely not normal. My 160 Gb drive which has a formatted capacity of 149 Gb had around 138 Gb available when I first turned on my MacBook.

Was the machine new out of the box? Refurbished? Second hand purchase?

It sounds to me like there is another partition on the drive which is taking up that space. Does the computer have Windows on it by chance? Also, are you sure the hard drive is supposed to be 160 Gb and not 120 Gb? The capacity numbers you quoted work out pretty close for a drive size of 120 Gb.

Regards.


Definitely not partitioned in any way at all, no windows nothing. We opened the box together and it was like that. It definitely is the 160gb, but it seems like it is formatted for a 120gb.

[MacHappytjg]

if u didnt do anything to it yet put in the dvd and boot from it and well try to erase it and whatnots cause mine had a bad partiton that i could not see until i checked in disk utility and had to re format my whole macbook (it had a kernal attack while partitoning with bootcamp)

ps sorry for my bad spelling and grammar

[chscag]

Definitely not partitioned in any way at all, no windows nothing. We opened the box together and it was like that. It definitely is the 160gb, but it seems like it is formatted for a 120gb.

I "think" what your friend wound up with is a 120 Gb drive instead of the 160 Gb that should have shipped with the machine. In any event, take it back to the Apple store and have them swap it out for another machine. There's no way I would keep the machine or try to trouble shoot it. Let Apple sort it out.

Regards.

[Cave Man]

Can you tell us the drive model number? It will be located under Apple System Profiler, Serial ATA, ICH8 controller.

[SSerino]

ICH8-M AHCI

Hitachi HTS542516K9SA00

Capacity 149.05 gb

So it is the right drive, but its formatted weird.

My friend is gonna bring it back in and either get a new one of have them figure it out.

[Cave Man]

How many partitions does Disk Utility see on the drive?

[MacHappytjg]

How many partitions does Disk Utility see on the drive?

yes mine showed up none on the desktop and i had 2

[SSerino]

How many partitions does Disk Utility see on the drive?

It shows a 149.1 gb hitachi hts... showing total capacity of 149.1 gb
Also shows the Mac HD with only 111.5gb or space

And Matshita DVD-r

[Cave Man]

It shows a 149.1 gb hitachi hts... showing total capacity of 149.1 gb
Also shows the Mac HD with only 111.5gb or space

OK, I think we're making some progress. The drive is the top line in Disk Utility. Below this and indented should be the volume(s). How many volumes are there and what is the capacity of each? Can you post a screen shot of Disk Utility?

[SSerino]

OK, I think we're making some progress. The drive is the top line in Disk Utility. Below this and indented should be the volume(s). How many volumes are there and what is the capacity of each? Can you post a screen shot of Disk Utility?

There are no other volumes. It is just those three I listed. It is so odd. ~30 gb's are just gone.

[MacHappytjg]

just erase and reformat the damn thing and if it doesnt work reinstall leopard and take it back, but thats me usually when i do things its really fast which is kinda bad espically when upgrading an emac :D

[Cave Man]

There are no other volumes. It is just those three I listed. It is so odd. ~30 gb's are just gone.

Can you post a screen shot as I have here? Importantly, click on the drive (not the volumes) and then the Partition tab before taking the screen shot. Crop it down in Preview, please.

[MacHappytjg]

Can you post a screen shot as I have here? Importantly, click on the drive (not the volumes) and then the Partition tab before taking the screen shot. Crop it down in Preview, please.

i use photoshop :D oh and im pretty sure he/she said it was there friends so they might not be at him/hers house to do it

[froggytreafrogg]

So I have my Macbook pro with it's 200 gb hard drive, which shows up with a ~185 gb capacity. This is normal, with the ~15gb for whatever hard drives require that extra space for.

So, my friend just got her 2.4ghz/160 gb white mac book today. I am setting it all up for her and I am seeing something odd. The hard drive has a 160gb hard drive, when I look under "About this Mac" and then "Serial-ata" it shows its formatted capacity at ~149 gb, which is normal. However, here is the problem...When I check info on the Mac hard drive, it is only showing Capacity at 111 gb, same thing in iStat pro.

Has anyone ever experienced this issue before? The comp has a 160gb hard drive, the formatted space is 149 gb, however, the capacity is only 111 gb. Now this this not the AVAILABLE, that is showing at around 90 gb, this is the potential capacity of the drive, and it is only 111 gb.


Firstly, is it a macbook or a macbook pro? If it is just a macbook, most are shipped with a 120gb hard drive. (unless customized differently) ALWAYS, a 120gb hard disk will show up as 111gb. Don't know why. Check to make sure that the disk is a 160. if it is, us should get about 145gb of disk space.

[Cave Man]

Firstly, is it a macbook or a macbook pro? If it is just a macbook, most are shipped with a 120gb hard drive. (unless customized differently) ALWAYS, a 120gb hard disk will show up as 111gb. Don't know why. Check to make sure that the disk is a 160. if it is, us should get about 145gb of disk space.

Had you gone through the thread, you'd see that the OP posted the model number of the drive, which is a 160 gig drive.

[MacHappytjg]

Firstly, is it a macbook or a macbook pro? If it is just a macbook, most are shipped with a 120gb hard drive. (unless customized differently) ALWAYS, a 120gb hard disk will show up as 111gb. Don't know why. Check to make sure that the disk is a 160. if it is, us should get about 145gb of disk space.

well because they cant exactly get it to 120gb so they just round it to the best looking number since there not going to put on a box 111gb, and i belive the base macbook is shipped with 120 then 160 and to 250 i belive as in price to sizes and whatnots

[Cave Man]

well because they cant exactly get it to 120gb so they just round it to the best looking number since there not going to put on a box 111gb,

No, it's because of binary math and how drive capacities are calculated.

[MacHappytjg]

No, it's because of binary math and how drive capacities are calculated.

well i wasnt planning in going in depth but yes, ah how u reminded me when we did binary in school how much i hate it damn u 0, and 1

[squashpro]

That's definitely not normal. My 160 Gb drive which has a formatted capacity of 149 Gb had around 138 Gb available when I first turned on my MacBook.

Was the machine new out of the box? Refurbished? Second hand purchase?

It sounds to me like there is another partition on the drive which is taking up that space. Does the computer have Windows on it by chance? Also, are you sure the hard drive is supposed to be 160 Gb and not 120 Gb? The capacity numbers you quoted work out pretty close for a drive size of 120 Gb.

Regards.

hey chscaq -

what version of leopard did you have installed on your computer when you took it out of the box? I just got the 2.4GHz 160 GB macbook and out of box, I have 149 GB formatted capacity and only 130 GBs available. the only reason I can think of that we'd have an 8 GB discrepancy is maybe you had an older version of leopard (mine came with Mac OS X 10.5.2)? let me know otherwise I may need to trade this one in.

anyone else - ideas?

[HiFiGuy528]

my stock HD was 120GB brand new with only 97.6GB for me to use.

[chscag]

To squashpro:

My version of Leopard was 10.5.1 out of the box. Later versions of Leopard are definitely larger. Your used disk space would appear to be normal.

Run "Monolingual" and get some of that space back. It's free.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13031

Or this application for $12.95:

http://www.xslimmer.com/

Regards.

[SevenInchScrew]

Can you post a screen shot as I have here? ... Crop it down in Preview, please.
I know this is a little late, as this topic is a couple months old, but I thought this tip could be of use.

When doing screen grabs in OSX, there are a few ways to do it. The first is the full screen grab. To do this, click "Command-Shift-3". You will get a full grab of the entire screen, with dock and menu bar.

Next is the selective area grab. This is done with "Command-Shift-4". It will bring up some cross hairs, and you can select the precise area you want. Saves time from taking a full screen grab and cropping it down. You can now do it all in one step.

The last, and one I use most often, which would have worked great in this situation, is the select window grab. You do this one just like the last one by clicking "Command-Shift-4". But now, instead of selecting an area of the screen, hit the space bar. The cross hairs will change to a camera. And, when you move the cursor over different windows, it highlights them. Then, when you click, it takes a grab of that window, and that window only. And as a bonus, OSX even adds a nice little drop shadow.

Like I said, I know this topic is a bit old, and what not. But, I just wanted to put that info out there, hoping people might get some use out of it.

(Here's a quick shot to show what I mean)

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/1683/picture1te5.png

[kage207]

That's definitely not normal. My 160 Gb drive which has a formatted capacity of 149 Gb had around 138 Gb available when I first turned on my MacBook.

Regards.

Same here and I just got mine last week~

[squashpro]

Same here and I just got mine last week~

kage207 - what version of leopard came installed on your computer? chscaq says he/she had mac os x 10.5.1 out-of-box; the same for you or did your's come with 10.5.2? if it came with the latter, it would seem that I may be getting cheated off 8 GBs of my hard drive so please, let me know.

thank you chscaq for clarifying!

[kage207]

Um, I don't remember exactly what version I did the system updates right away. I think I had 10.5.2 but thinking about how much space I had was 131.9 I think. Not positive. :confused:

[squashpro]

Um, I don't remember exactly what version I did the system updates right away. I think I had 10.5.2 but thinking about how much space I had was 131.9 I think. Not positive. :confused:

kage207 --

I'm not understanding. first you said your numbers were 160 Gb drive/formatted capacity 149 Gb/138 Gb available when you first turned on your computer. then you say you believe you started with 10.5.2 and started with 131.9 GBs available.

do you mean to say that you started with leopard 10.5.2 and after updates ended up with 131.9 GBs of space? OR do you mean to say that your first assessment was incorrect and that you started with leopard 10.5.2 and numbers closer to mine (160GBs/149GB formatted/130GB available)? you can check on your operating system by clicking on the apple in the upper left hand corner - about this mac - and your version # should be listed right there.

let me know, thanks!

[alphaod]

kage207 - what version of leopard came installed on your computer? chscaq says he/she had mac os x 10.5.1 out-of-box; the same for you or did your's come with 10.5.2? if it came with the latter, it would seem that I may be getting cheated off 8 GBs of my hard drive so please, let me know.

thank you chscaq for clarifying!

I don't think anyone got cheated. Yes 10.5.2 is a bigger than 10.5.1, but not by 8GB.

[squashpro]

I don't think anyone got cheated. Yes 10.5.2 is a bigger than 10.5.1, but not by 8GB.

alphaod -- can you think of what accounts for the difference in starting available GBs? if 10.5.2 is bigger than 10.5.1 but not by 8 GBs, what accounts for the rest of the difference? wouldn't this mean that I am potentially getting cheated (based on the reasoning you provide)?

further, I know of people with leopard 10.5.4 whose libraries and system take up between 11GB-16 GB ... a variation, true, but both take up less space than 10.5.2 on my system.

I'm not claiming to be a computer expert, but something still seems fishy.

[alphaod]

alphaod -- can you think of what accounts for the difference in starting available GBs? if 10.5.2 is bigger than 10.5.1 but not by 8 GBs, what accounts for the rest of the difference? wouldn't this mean that I am potentially getting cheated (based on the reasoning you provide)?

Not much, but it's possible a hibernation file or two could have robbed space; possibly temp files? Forgotten downloads…

It's fishy, but I wouldn't define it as being cheated. How would this even benefit Apple to piss off users?