Hard Drive Total Capacity Missing

[Badbaw]

Not sure where to post this, but I have Macbook so I'll leave it here.

It was awhile back when I purchased a larger 500 GB hard drive (Western Digital I believe) to replace the smaller capacity HDD. To boot I did notice the HDD had a 500 GB total capacity, but later on I did a fresh install and it reduced it to 465 GB.

Why would this happen? Could it have something to do with the erase security option I chose (Zero Out Data)?

Thanks!

 

[bizzle]

If you are running 10.5 or lower hard drive space is calculated with base 2 and hard drive manufacturers use base 10. 10.6 and higher also use base 10.

 

[Badbaw]

If you are running 10.5 or lower hard drive space is calculated with base 2 and hard drive manufacturers use base 10. 10.6 and higher also use base 10.

What does that mean? I've gone back and forth between 10.6 and 10.5.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

What does that mean? I've gone back and forth between 10.6 and 10.5.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Hard_Drive_Size_Discrepancy

 

[Badbaw]

http://guides.macrumors.com/Hard_Drive_Size_Discrepancy

Got it! But still...

When I first replaced the old HDD for the 500 GB, I was on 10.6, then I downgraded to 10.5 and the total capacity dropped to 465 GB. I upgraded to 10.6 again (don't ask!), but the same value remained, I am almost certain. I am in 10.5 currently.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

What does Disk Utility say in 10.5 and 10.6?

 

[Badbaw]

In 10.5... Total Capacity: 465.8 GB (500,107,862,016 Bytes)

I can't remember exactly what it was in 10.6, but I am almost positive it was a higher value, maybe around 480 GB.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

In 10.5 it's 465.4.

I can't remember exactly what it was in 10.6, but I am almost positive it was a higher value, maybe around 480 GB.

The value for 10.5 is correct. Maybe next time you update to 10.6 again you can tell us.

 

[Badbaw]

The value for 10.5 is correct. Maybe next time you update to 10.6 again you can tell us.

Are you in 10.6? If so, what does yours read as?

 

[AdrianK]

Are you in 10.6? If so, what does yours read as?

In 10.6, my 500GB internal drive showed up as 500GB (before I forced it show base 2 values, base 10 is a con).

 

[simsaladimbamba]

In 10.6, my 500GB internal drive showed up as 500GB (before I forced it show base 2 values, base 10 is a con).

As I am too lazy to search right now, is that hack system wide?

 

[Badbaw]

Chances are I also removed the Boot Camp partition unsoundly, I've seen people complaining about such. But because the 465 GB is true to the base 2 value of a 500 GB HDD, I can't help but think it's just that.

All I care about is ensuring that this somehow won't occur again, when I purchase a new Mac and do a custom install right from the bat, and erase the HDD.

 

[AdrianK]

As I am too lazy to search right now, is that hack system wide?

It works in Finder, but not other apps (eg DaisyDisk). I literally just googled "change finder to base 2" or something like that.

Chances are I also removed the Boot Camp partition unsoundly, I've seen people complaining about such.

Not necessarily 'unsoundly', but when you remove the bootcamp partition you're just left with an unpartitioned space where it was, you need to 'grow' the HFS+ partition to fill the space.
Anyone complaining about it such should understand how it all works.

 

[Chundles]

In 10.5... Total Capacity: 465.8 GB (500,107,862,016 Bytes)

I can't remember exactly what it was in 10.6, but I am almost positive it was a higher value, maybe around 480 GB.

500,000,000,000 bytes = 500GB

500,000,000,000 bytes = 465GiB

10.5 and lower report GiB as GB. 10.6 uses the correct terminology.

HDD manufacturers have always used the correct terminology, if the drive said 160GB you got 160,000,000,000 bytes.