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64gb?

A

Allenz

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 1, 2010
58
3
Hello, I received my 64GB iPhone yesterday and I have a question and cannot find the answer. The formatted capacity is 57GB and I would like to know why. The 64GB iPod touch is formatted at 59GB and same with the 64GB iPad.

As far as I know, 64GB has always formatted out to 59GB. So where is the extra 2GB gone and how can I get it back? Is the just my phone or is everyone else's phone missing 2GB as well? Mine is white if that means anything (it shouldn't)

Being honest, this was mainly the reason I upgraded from the regular 4. I want as much capacity as possible so I'm a little disappointed with 2GB missing. Thank you.
 
Allenz said:
What do you mean by that?
Click to expand...


I can't explain it, but storage, flash or fixed is never the advertised amount.

In your situation, you might have been from a bad batch. I'd like to see others results in order to determine whether it is a faulty batch or is somehow standard.

I've noticed that Toshiba chips have less formatted capacity than Samsung chips. Could explain why.
 
Last edited:
64 gb

It is not 64 GB but 64,000,000,000 Bytes. That converted into GB is 59.6 GB.

Calculation:
64,000,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 59.6

~2 GB missing is the OS
 
t0mbola said:
It is not 64 GB but 64,000,000,000 Bytes. That converted into GB is 59.6 GB.

Calculation:
64,000,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 59.6

~2 GB missing is the OS
Click to expand...

can the OS really be 2Gb? Pretty sure the downloads are around 500-700Mb?

Maybe the extra Gb's are for Siri?
 
Thanks for the replies. I am still having a hard time understanding why it is 2GB less. It cannot be the OS or Siri. iTunes is telling me its 57GB TOTAL, not available. Before os or anything I add to my phone. That's what I'm not understanding. There is 2GB missing.

If it said 59GB total but only 57 available (due to os etc, even then I would question 2 whole GB taken by an os) I guess I wouldn't complain but thats not the case.
 
It's the dissonance of digital vernacular. Humans think in a base 10 numbered system (arabic) while computers think in base 2 numbered system (binary).

One gigabyte in binary is 1,073,741,824 bytes (2^30), but in arabic it’s only 1,000,000,000 bytes (10^9), which is a difference of 73,741,824 bytes (~70MB).

When talking about storage size in gigabytes a hard drive's capacity as reported by the OS will always be about 7% less than what is advertised by the hard drive manufacturer.

Then subtract a gig or so for the OS.
 
What everyone is saying is good, but does not answer the thread question. This device shows less than other devices of similar or same capacity.
 
Allenz said:
Thanks for the replies. I am still having a hard time understanding why it is 2GB less. It cannot be the OS or Siri. iTunes is telling me its 57GB TOTAL, not available. Before os or anything I add to my phone. That's what I'm not understanding. There is 2GB missing.

If it said 59GB total but only 57 available (due to os etc, even then I would question 2 whole GB taken by an os) I guess I wouldn't complain but thats not the case.
Click to expand...

That total size reported is the size of the partition, not all the flash memory. The OS with Siri could very well be taking up that extra space.
 
Ok, so the iPad 64GB comes out to 59GB and the iPod 64GB comes out to 59GB but the iPhone 64GB comes out to 57GB? All with iOS 5.

I am still not understanding how this is possible.
 
Allenz said:
Ok, so the iPad 64GB comes out to 59GB and the iPod 64GB comes out to 59GB but the iPhone 64GB comes out to 57GB? All with iOS 5.

I am still not understanding how this is possible.
Click to expand...

iOS 5 is a different size on different devices. It's that simple. There is no hidden meaning to this, we only get 57.42 gigs of usable space.

It's entirely possible, but a bit doubtful, that the 4s has a hidden "recovery" partition as well though - since it's the first device to ship with iOS 5 (and no need to connect to a PC/Mac to set it up) native.

I don't have a 4s seed to compare, but the seed size for iOS 5 for iPad 2 is 724 megs, where as the 3gs is 684. Not a large difference, but there also isn't a big missing feature like Siri.
 
ct2k7 said:
I doubt the iPhone has a different file system to the iPod Touch/iPad. Different block size? Maybe, given its a different chip altogether.
Click to expand...

Well, iOS devices will all use the same. I meant more if he was comparing non-iOS devices to it for some odd reason.

I need to stop reading forums when I first wake up in the morning :p
 
/dev/toaster said:
Well, iOS devices will all use the same. I meant more if he was comparing non-iOS devices to it for some odd reason.

I need to stop reading forums when I first wake up in the morning :p
Click to expand...

Ah:) it's evening here, but it'll morning for me in a few weeks!
 
ct2k7 said:
Mist be the newer, slower Toshiba chips.
Click to expand...

For the love of all that is holy, PLEASE tell me you are joking. The chip's clock speed has nothing to do with how much storage space is on a device.

Let me break it down for you: 64gb actually = 59.6. Then subtract the OS or Apple apps (around 2gb) and you'll get down to 57. 2 gb for an OS like iOS isn't really that much. For comparison's sake, Windows 7 takes up 10.5gb. One standard dvd holds just under 5gb. We're talking about less than half a dvd's worth of data. I don't know what about this is so hard to understand.
 
Allenz said:
Ok, so the iPad 64GB comes out to 59GB and the iPod 64GB comes out to 59GB but the iPhone 64GB comes out to 57GB? All with iOS 5.

I am still not understanding how this is possible.
Click to expand...

Me neither, and none of the posts so far convince me. I smell rat.
 
hushmartin said:
For the love of all that is holy, PLEASE tell me you are joking. The chip's clock speed has nothing to do with how much storage space is on a device.

Let me break it down for you: 64gb actually = 59.6. Then subtract the OS or Apple apps (around 2gb) and you'll get down to 57. 2 gb for an OS like iOS isn't really that much. For comparison's sake, Windows 7 takes up 10.5gb. One standard dvd holds just under 5gb. We're talking about less than half a dvd's worth of data. I don't know what about this is so hard to understand.
Click to expand...


You are not understanding tho. Why are you deducting "around 2GB" for the OS from the formatted capacity of 59.6? If the formatted capacity was 59.6 I would have never made this thread. lol. The formatted capacity in question is 57.4, so deduct the OS from that which leaves even less. (and as far as I know, the OS etc is part of what iTunes labels "other" in the yellow part of the graph, and that is only 1.1GB, again, which is being deducted from my 57GB, not 59GB)

So basically, what Im saying is the CAPACITY is what I have a problem with, not the FREE SPACE. iTunes is reporting 57GB TOTAL, BEFORE iOS or anything is loaded and it should be 59GB.

I don't know how else to explain it. I think a few people get what I am saying. I want to know why and it is NOT the OS or Siri.
 
I have the following:
iPhone 3GS 32 GB - showing 28.3 GB capacity
iPhone 4S 32 GB - showing 28.2 GB capacity

The 3GS had a bigger capacity before iso5 was instal.

Not that i am particularly bothered.

As couple of year ago (snow leopard i think) they changed the way the make read this, one of my drives is 320GB and reads as 319.73GB. I know traditionally they dont read what they are.
D
 
hushmartin said:
For the love of all that is holy, PLEASE tell me you are joking. The chip's clock speed has nothing to do with how much storage space is on a device.

Let me break it down for you: 64gb actually = 59.6. Then subtract the OS or Apple apps (around 2gb) and you'll get down to 57. 2 gb for an OS like iOS isn't really that much. For comparison's sake, Windows 7 takes up 10.5gb. One standard dvd holds just under 5gb. We're talking about less than half a dvd's worth of data. I don't know what about this is so hard to understand.
Click to expand...

Where did I attribute the read/write speeds to storage? They are not clock speeds either.

2GB is currently too big for iOS 5. The capacity in About does not take account into iOS + apps; it shows the full capacity of the chip.
 
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