[SOLVED] How much free space should be available on a 256gb ssd?

[turnbats]

I have a samsung 256gb ssd.

After a full system format and only windows 10 being updated with minimum other software downloaded, it shows only 202GB free to use on the ssd. - I have even performed disk cleanup to remove all excess files/ system files.

I'm expecting the 256gb ssd to have 235Gb's (ish) free to use aftrer the OS etc. is installed.... HP tech support are telling me that what I'm seeing as only 200gb's of free space to use is normal... but I disagree as I swear it was more when I last did a wipe, and that it has maybe done some sort of weird inaccessible partition and therefore reducing the overall freespace to 201gb.

It does not sit right, with me, that the available space on a 256gb ssd starts at 202gb :/

Has anyone else had a similar experience to this? - happy to put my hands up and give myself a clip on the ear if this is me being completely stupid =p

edit: I made sure no memory was being taken up by system restore etc too.

 

[kanewolf]

I have a samsung 256gb ssd.

After a full system format and only windows 10 being updated with minimum other software downloaded, it shows only 202GB free to use on the ssd. - I have even performed disk cleanup to remove all excess files/ system files.

I'm expecting the 256gb ssd to have 235Gb's (ish) free to use aftrer the OS etc. is installed.... HP tech support are telling me that what I'm seeing as only 200gb's of free space to use is normal... but I disagree as I swear it was more when I last did a wipe, and that it has maybe done some sort of weird inaccessible partition and therefore reducing the overall freespace to 201gb.

It does not sit right, with me, that the available space on a 256gb ssd starts at 202gb :/

Has anyone else had a similar experience to this? - happy to put my hands up and give myself a clip on the ear if this is me being completely stupid =p

edit: I made sure no memory was being taken up by system restore etc too.

Firt thing to remember is that disk drives are sold as 256 * 1,000,000,000 (power of 10) bytes as Gigabytes. But in use that number is divided by 1,074,790,400 bytes resulting in a starting size of 238GB (power of 2). You didn't start at 256, you started at 238.
It is marketing vs binary.

 

[turnbats]

Ahh, see I thought the 238 would have included the OS, not everything starts from 238.

Thank you

(note: i tried to add a screenshot to show a snapshot of the ssd specs in disk management but couldnt get my link to work because im a tech spaz).

Thank you

 

[USAFRet]

For a ~250GB drive, do not go over 200GB actual consumed space.
And the above comment about units is spot on.
A drive advertised as "256GB" is read by Windows as 238GB. With nothing on it at all.

It isn't 'formatting', or software already loaded...simply different units to count with.
Same space either way.


Which is faster, 100mph or 160kph?
Same speeding ticket, just different units.

 

[anticeon]

Samsung EVO 860 and Crucial MX500 have big DDR ram, so i dont mind fill it till full

 

[geofelt]

Good explanations on 228 vs. 250gb capacity ^^
FWIW my 512gb drive shows 475gb capacity.

When a ssd is 90% full, windows this pc display will show the used capacity in red.
That is time to plan on a bigger drive.
As a ssd approaches full, it will lose performance because the ssd will have a harder time finding available free blocks to do an update.
The drive will also lose endurance since more blocks may need to get updates.
Today, ssd devices are cheap enough to let you buy a larger drive than you need in the first place.

 

[alceryes]

If you are overly concerned about performance (like me ), then you also have drive space vs. performance to think about.

Most SSD drives will slow down as you fill them up. If you want to keep your SSD at it's fastest, don't fill it past ~70%. Note that there is nothing wrong with filling it up if you don't mind the performance hit. This is just a characteristic of SSD drives.

 

[USAFRet]

And it's not just SSD's that read differently.
If you buy a "2TB HDD" off the shelf, Windows reports it as "1.81TB".
Gigabyte vs gibibyte
Human vs computer
Base 10 vs Base 2