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Hard Drive Recovery and Reformat
A little while ago I had my once-trusty XPS 17 have either a software or hard disk failure. Couldn't boot from the hard drive. Couldn't fit it through software means. I bought a new hard drive and recovered my personal working files/data by pulling them off the original hard drive with the drive fitted to a USB 3.0 external drive enclosure and booting the machine via a flavor of Linux from a DVD. Worked fine. Now I will, and have, tightened up my backup/recover process.
I would like the use, or look into using, the original hard drive for back up. It was a bit fiddly to format under Linux or Win 8, but now seems to be in good shape. Full format, NTFS, checked clean for errors, sets up properly/easily/quickly when connecting to the laptop from the external enclosure.
BUT, the drive is 640GB, and what I've got when formatted is 596GB. Seems like a bit discrepancy. Windows reports under drive properties the 640GB, but 596GB available, and 180MB used.
Can anyone tell me why the full 640GB isn't being reported as available. What's going on? How can I tell?
Thanks! Again!
tvr2500m
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October 4th, 2013 16:00
Thanks. I didn't know this, and it seems that it's the first time I've seen this. Looks like I've learned something. I've used computers since the late seventies/early eighties, been involved with software on the business side, and can do some deep diving, but this is new. And I don't recall seeing this kind of thing before, but perhaps I'm forgetting.
Do i have to do the math to confirm? You were good enough to lay it out, but I'm not so sure how to manage those exponents :(
Thanks,
ejn63
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October 4th, 2013 16:00
640 is quoted in decimal (1 decimal gig = 10^9 bytes). Operating systems count in binary (1 gigabyte = 2^30 bytes).
640*(10^9/2^30) = 596 binary gigs -- i.e., what you're seeing is completely normal.
ieee488
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October 4th, 2013 16:00
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/245851-32-hard-disk-label-actual-capacity-difference-excessive