Vista - Stumped

To All Cognoscenti, Greetings!

I've started using a 500 GB external HD for backups under Vista Ultimate.
All the visible folders on it contain a total of about 300 GB. "Computer"
shows about 59 GB free space. Where has the rest disappeared to? I have
"Show hidden files" ticked. I've done a "Disk cleanup." What gives?

With thanks,

Andy

"Andy/Bandi" <kanadaiy@telus.net> wrote in message
news:UPGci.23060$kY6.22522@edtnps82...

> To All Cognoscenti, Greetings!
>
> I've started using a 500 GB external HD for backups under Vista Ultimate.
> All the visible folders on it contain a total of about 300 GB. "Computer"
> shows about 59 GB free space. Where has the rest disappeared to? I have
> "Show hidden files" ticked. I've done a "Disk cleanup." What gives?

What is the "real" capacity of the drive? It may be known as a 500GB but it
probably actually only has capacity for a lot less than that. One of my
drives is known as a 150GB drive but in reality it's only a 136GB drive.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 11:24:37 +1000, "Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com>
wrote:

>What is the "real" capacity of the drive? It may be known as a 500GB but it
>probably actually only has capacity for a lot less than that. One of my
>drives is known as a 150GB drive but in reality it's only a 136GB drive.


All hard drive manufacturers do this. They define 1GB as 1,000,000,000
bytes, while the rest of the computer world, including Windows,
defines it as 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes.

Some people point out that the official international standard defines
the "G" of GB as one billion, not 1,073,741,824. Correct though they
are, using the binary value of GB is so well established in the
computer world that I consider using the decimal value of a billion to
be deceptive marketing.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

465 GB.

"Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:e$GGpU7rHHA.1864@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> "Andy/Bandi" <kanadaiy@telus.net> wrote in message
> news:UPGci.23060$kY6.22522@edtnps82...
>
>> To All Cognoscenti, Greetings!
>>
>> I've started using a 500 GB external HD for backups under Vista Ultimate.
>> All the visible folders on it contain a total of about 300 GB. "Computer"
>> shows about 59 GB free space. Where has the rest disappeared to? I have
>> "Show hidden files" ticked. I've done a "Disk cleanup." What gives?
>
> What is the "real" capacity of the drive? It may be known as a 500GB but
> it probably actually only has capacity for a lot less than that. One of
> my drives is known as a 150GB drive but in reality it's only a 136GB
> drive.
>
> --
> And loving it,
>
> -Q
> _________________________________________________
> Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
> (Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

Thanks for clearing up the mystery of why my so-called 250 GB drive (Vista
Business) is actually only 236 GB. I thought they just liked to round things
off to the nearest fifty. Wayne.
--
Wayne L


"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

> On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 11:24:37 +1000, "Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >What is the "real" capacity of the drive? It may be known as a 500GB but it
> >probably actually only has capacity for a lot less than that. One of my
> >drives is known as a 150GB drive but in reality it's only a 136GB drive.
>
>
> All hard drive manufacturers do this. They define 1GB as 1,000,000,000
> bytes, while the rest of the computer world, including Windows,
> defines it as 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes.
>
> Some people point out that the official international standard defines
> the "G" of GB as one billion, not 1,073,741,824. Correct though they
> are, using the binary value of GB is so well established in the
> computer world that I consider using the decimal value of a billion to
> be deceptive marketing.
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:19:00 -0700, Wayne L <enyawspamnot@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>Thanks for clearing up the mystery of why my so-called 250 GB drive (Vista
>Business) is actually only 236 GB. I thought they just liked to round things
>off to the nearest fifty. Wayne.

You can always tell how big a hard drive really is and what it will
hold by first going to the folder called computer in Windows Explorer,
click a hard drive shown there then right clicking on properties. That
will show you the capacity of the drive in BYTES, plus what is used
and free.

For example my G drive was sold as a 750 GB drive. Windows shows it's
capacity as 698 GB, so on the surface it looks like I was cheated out
of 52 GB. Not really. Because it can hold 750,153,728,000 bytes...
according to Windows.

"Adam Albright" <AA@ABC.net> wrote in message
news:i8m673doujtcb8i53c3t4ph4nu9p5onjh1@4ax.com...

> You can always tell how big a hard drive really is and what it will
> hold by first going to the folder called computer in Windows Explorer,
> click a hard drive shown there then right clicking on properties. That
> will show you the capacity of the drive in BYTES, plus what is used
> and free.
>
> For example my G drive was sold as a 750 GB drive. Windows shows it's
> capacity as 698 GB, so on the surface it looks like I was cheated out
> of 52 GB. Not really. Because it can hold 750,153,728,000 bytes...
> according to Windows.

You were cheated. That's 750 _billion_ bytes not 750 _giga_ bytes as
advertised.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

Thank you Adam, you are correct. I have 249,997,291,520 bytes shown (which
is pretty darn close to the advertised 250 GB, but right beside it reads 232
GB.
-- I could swear it used to read 236 GB but that's a mystery for another day.
Why would Microsoft understate something?
Wayne L


"Andy/Bandi" wrote:

> 465 GB.
>
> "Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e$GGpU7rHHA.1864@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> > "Andy/Bandi" <kanadaiy@telus.net> wrote in message
> > news:UPGci.23060$kY6.22522@edtnps82...
> >
> >> To All Cognoscenti, Greetings!
> >>
> >> I've started using a 500 GB external HD for backups under Vista Ultimate.
> >> All the visible folders on it contain a total of about 300 GB. "Computer"
> >> shows about 59 GB free space. Where has the rest disappeared to? I have
> >> "Show hidden files" ticked. I've done a "Disk cleanup." What gives?
> >
> > What is the "real" capacity of the drive? It may be known as a 500GB but
> > it probably actually only has capacity for a lot less than that. One of
> > my drives is known as a 150GB drive but in reality it's only a 136GB
> > drive.
> >
> > --
> > And loving it,
> >
> > -Q
> > _________________________________________________
> > Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
> > (Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)
>
>

"Wayne L" <enyawspamnot@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:44C36C90-681E-4A0F-B383-B61D399BEF65@microsoft.com...

> Thank you Adam, you are correct. I have 249,997,291,520 bytes shown (which
> is pretty darn close to the advertised 250 GB, but right beside it reads
> 232
> GB.
> -- I could swear it used to read 236 GB but that's a mystery for another
> day.
> Why would Microsoft understate something?

Microsoft haven't understated anything: the disk manufacturers _overstate_
the capacity. Just remember that there are 1024 bytes in a kilobyte and not
1000. To say that your disk is 250 _giga_ bytes (GB) is to say that it is
250 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024 = 268,435,456,000 bytes so you (and everyone else)
have been ripped off by 18,438,164,480 bytes. When disk manufacturers say
"giga" they mean "billion" but the two are actually quite different in
reality.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

To add to my previous post - I am certain now that when I bought my computer
it was 238 GB, then it was 236 GB and now it says 232 GB. The bytes remain
constant however. What does this mean? Thanks, Wayne
--
Wayne L


"Wayne L" wrote:

>
> Thank you Adam, you are correct. I have 249,997,291,520 bytes shown (which
> is pretty darn close to the advertised 250 GB, but right beside it reads 232
> GB.
> -- I could swear it used to read 236 GB but that's a mystery for another day.
> Why would Microsoft understate something?
> Wayne L
>
>
> "Andy/Bandi" wrote:
>
> > 465 GB.
> >
> > "Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:e$GGpU7rHHA.1864@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> > > "Andy/Bandi" <kanadaiy@telus.net> wrote in message
> > > news:UPGci.23060$kY6.22522@edtnps82...
> > >
> > >> To All Cognoscenti, Greetings!
> > >>
> > >> I've started using a 500 GB external HD for backups under Vista Ultimate.
> > >> All the visible folders on it contain a total of about 300 GB. "Computer"
> > >> shows about 59 GB free space. Where has the rest disappeared to? I have
> > >> "Show hidden files" ticked. I've done a "Disk cleanup." What gives?
> > >
> > > What is the "real" capacity of the drive? It may be known as a 500GB but
> > > it probably actually only has capacity for a lot less than that. One of
> > > my drives is known as a 150GB drive but in reality it's only a 136GB
> > > drive.
> > >
> > > --
> > > And loving it,
> > >
> > > -Q
> > > _________________________________________________
> > > Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
> > > (Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)
> >
> >