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[dragonshardz]

So, I've a 500GB physical drive. It's got a 116.44GB C:/ partition and a 332.72GB D:/ partition, according to Window's Computer Management.

Now, I may suck at math, but I know that 449.16 != 500. So I look again in the disk management utility, and there's a 16.60GB partition that doesn't have a drive label and is completely empty...

And even then, the numbers don't add up. 465.76GB is not 500GB.

So the question is this:

1.) Do you think it would mess up my computer to delete and reallocate that 16GB partition?

2.) Where's the missing 34.24GB?

[lordnincompoop]

My 500GB drives have 465GB too. Remember that drivemaker's GBs are different from real GBs; they tend to round off to numbers of 1000, etc. instead of 1024. There also has to be space for the formatting and filesystem plus a bunch of other stuff, leaving you with that much usable space.

[Footkerchief]

That's the partition the government uses to spy on you.

[Fossaman]

My brother-in-law who works tech support claims that windows runs better if it has a small, empty partition like that to play with. I have no idea if that's true or not, but it seems reasonable.

[lordnincompoop]

My brother-in-law who works tech support claims that windows runs better if it has a small, empty partition like that to play with. I have no idea if that's true or not, but it seems reasonable.

Nah, not really. If it's a separate HDD though, sure. Remember that a partition is simply a sectioned-off bit of HDD, which you'll get when you install stuff anyway(sorta).

[Virex]

There could be a hidden partition that the drive manufacturer used to store all kinds of settings on. It's where stuff is read from when you do a factory reset.


Also, the file system of a disk doesn't need it's own partition, it's first entry is kept on a specific track and sector (and it contains information about where to find the rest), which is a much lower level definition then the division of a disk in partitions. I would guess that the information about partitions themselves is stored in the file system.

[dragonshardz]

Right, so, not having as much space as the manufacturer claims is normal.

So, about that strange partition...

[lordnincompoop]

There could be a hidden partition that the drive manufacturer used to store all kinds of settings on. It's where stuff is read from when you do a factory reset.


Also, the file system of a disk doesn't need it's own partition, it's first entry is kept on a specific track and sector (and it contains information about where to find the rest), which is a much lower level definition then the division of a disk in partitions. I would guess that the information about partitions themselves is stored in the file system.

It'd still take up space though.

[Sean Mirrsen]

If your computer is a prefab rig, or especially a laptop (especially an Acer laptop, like mine, also with a 500GB drive), then the hidden partition is there to replace a Windows Recovery Disk. It's used to restore the system to factory defaults in the event of a horrible system-wide disaster.

As for the missing gigabytes, well that's marketing for you. 500 GigaBytes is actually just that, 5.000.000.000 Bytes. A real GigaByte is called a GibiByte, or GigaBinaryByte, and is 1.073.741.824 Bytes. So a 500GB hard drive is just a 465.7GiB hard drive.

[dragonshardz]

Yup, it's a laptop.

Meh. No biggie, I suppose.

[malimbar04]

Yup, it's a laptop.

Meh. No biggie, I suppose.

they do tell you in their sneak little way. Generally  you can find "1 GB =1,000,000, bytes, actual formatted capacity less".
Standard metric is base 10, with incriments in 1,000,
Binary metric is base 2, withincriments of 2^10 = 1,024

What's more evil is your internet speed. 5 mb per second is really 5 megaBITS, not 5 megaBYTES. a megabit is 1/8th the size of a megabyte

And yeah, separate recovery partitions are a cheap way to reduce costs (no recovery CD), with the problem that it doesn't ever save you in case of a failed hard drive.

[lordnincompoop]

This bothers me very much, actually. with 500GB drives, we lose 47GB. With 1TB drives, we lose 93GB. With 2TB drives, we lose 186GB.

Does nobody notice this? Don't you miss those GBs you never had? Don't you feel even a little bit ripped off?

[Dasleah]

This bothers me very much, actually. with 500GB drives, we lose 47GB. With 1TB drives, we lose 93GB. With 2TB drives, we lose 186GB.

Does nobody notice this? Don't you miss those GBs you never had? Don't you feel even a little bit ripped off?

considering it's under 10c per gigabyte, not really, no

i mean wow, i pay 100 bucks and only get 907GB! how terrible and crippling for my need to store large amounts of uncompressed touhou music

[Urist Imiknorris]

You mean large amounts of uncompressed touhou porn? I know your hobbies, sicko.

[Dasleah]

You mean large amounts of uncompressed touhou porn? I know your hobbies, sicko.

ha ha you're a funny guy

i mean, compressed porn? what's the point ha ha