External Hard Drive Question!

[Adokimus]

I had a quick question regarding a seagate hard drive I just bought. I bought an internal 320 GB disk, and an enclosure so that I could use it as an external HD over USB. When I went to format it to FAT32, it only reads as 298 GB. Is this normal? Is there any way that I can get it to read the entire disk, assuming that it's all there?

And, no, there is no bundled software or operating system already on the disk... it's completely blank.

Help!



Thanks,

Ado

 

[66217]

Yeah, it is normal.

My "120GB Hard Drive" is in fact only 111GB. I really don't understand the reason, but it is like that.

 

[Spikeanator6982]

the reason..as i understand it..is.. well..the computer says 1024MB is one GB. And hard drives are made as 1000MB being one GB. I believe that is the reason for all the "disclaimers" when you are looking into hardrives.

also..ram is made as 1024MB being one GB. Why is ram and hard drives different?...beats me.but i feel smart knowing..that is..if i am right.

Brad

 

[seenew]

It's normal, but the gap isn't usually that big. I could see them marketing it as a 300GB HDD, but not 320...

 

[dextertangocci]

It's normal, but the gap isn't usually that big. I could see them marketing it as a 300GB HDD, but not 320...

The bigger hard drives get, the bigger the gap will be.

 

[DoFoT9]

lol this is one thing you will just have to understand and put up with

HDD companies work in bits
computers work in bytes
so to calculate the actual you have to find out the total bits, divide by 8 and then you will have the actual size.
well both are the actual size.just in different forms.

 

[JurgenWigg]

Just to reiterate: the bigger the hard drive, the bigger the gap. It's unfortunate. So, while a 40 gb hd loses 3, and a 80 gb HD will only lose like 6 gbs, 120 will only lose 9, but then something like 320 will lose a whole bunch more. I can't even calculate how much a 1 TB HD loses!

 

[DoFoT9]

Just to reiterate: the bigger the hard drive, the bigger the gap. It's unfortunate. So, while a 40 gb hd loses 3, and a 80 gb HD will only lose like 6 gbs, 120 will only lose 9, but then something like 320 will lose a whole bunch more. I can't even calculate how much a 1 TB HD loses!

one would loose 125gb, or close to it