I have a few questions about my hard drive..

[ichigo1000]

I have a 750GB SSHD. Why does the drive only holds up to 677GB? I know that 1GB is 1000MB and so on, but it would be 698GB.

Also, I have 609 Free from 677GB right now. But I don't get it, because i checked all my files combined is only 39GB..

 

[unksol]

1GB is 1024MB not 1000. a MB is 1024KB. a KB is 1024 bytes. Computers are binary. base 2 systems not base 10. They just advertise drives in base 10.

750,000,000,000/(1024x1024x1024) is 698GB. Then there's some overhead in the file system.

There are also lots of hidden OS files in windows that you aren't counting

 

[mbreslin1954]

You lose some space in formatting overhead and in just creating the NTFS volume.

 

[cub_fanatic]

It is because you formatted it with the default 4,096 bytes allocation unit size. If you want, you can re-format it using a much smaller allocation unit size. You can go as low as 512 bytes when formatting in NTFS. That space will always be reserved for this. On regular drives, a larger AU size is good when you are storing larger files because it makes it easier and faster to access them. But, if you have tons of smaller files, you will be wasting a lot of space with a larger AU size and would probably be better if you lowered it. On an SSD, I doubt you will notice a difference between 512 and 4,096 bytes but that is just my guess.

 

[ichigo1000]

1GB is 1024MB not 1000. a MB is 1024KB. a KB is 1024 bytes. Computers are binary. base 2 systems not base 10. They just advertise drives in base 10.

750,000,000,000/(1024x1024x1024) is 698GB. Then there's some overhead in the file system.

There are also lots of hidden OS files in windows that you aren't counting

I know 1 GB is 1024mb... The market always make 1000MB 1 GB, 1000GB 1TB etc. Why is it only 677GB though, and also, after counting all the files visible from my drive, is only around 40GB.

I have 609 out of 677, which means that 68GB is used. If the "hidden files" made it to 677GB, then what is taking up the extra space to make it take up 68GB instead of 40 GB?

 

[unksol]

you're 750GB drive is around 698GB because of base 10 vs base 2. They advertise them differently then windows counts it. Its 677GB after formatting/overhead. Then there's some extra "missing" because of allocation/hidden files etc.

The point was that this is normal. Nothing is wrong with your drive. Its just how it works.

 

[ichigo1000]

you're 750GB drive is around 698GB because of base 10 vs base 2. They advertise them differently then windows counts it. Its 677GB after formatting/overhead. Then there's some extra "missing" because of allocation/hidden files etc.

The point was that this is normal. Nothing is wrong with your drive. Its just how it works.

Okay, now i get the missing part, but can you explain why its taking up 68GB instead of 40GB? Hidden files are stored in the rest of the missing hard drive space right? So what is taking up the extra 28GB on the visible part of the drive?

 

[cub_fanatic]

you're 750GB drive is around 698GB because of base 10 vs base 2. They advertise them differently then windows counts it. Its 677GB after formatting/overhead. Then there's some extra "missing" because of allocation/hidden files etc.

The point was that this is normal. Nothing is wrong with your drive. Its just how it works.

Okay, now i get the missing part, but can you explain why its taking up 68GB instead of 40GB? Hidden files are stored in the rest of the missing hard drive space right? So what is taking up the extra 28GB on the visible part of the drive?

allocation... I have an external 750GB HDD on my PC right now with nothing on it. It is formatted with 4096 bytes allocation size and there is exactly 698GB out of 698GB available.

 

[unksol]

no... the hidden files are not in the "missing" space. There is no "missing" space. its just not counted the same as its advertised. Then the file system uses some space. So you have 677GB just like it says. Then all the files use that space.

If you look at the drive and it says 68GB is used then 68GB is used. But if you open the drive and select all the files and it says they total up to 40GB that is because you are not selecting/counting the hidden files.

Windows hides a lot of OS files by default so you don't mess up/break windows. The two biggest ones would be the page file and hybernation file. If you have 8GB of RAM then each one of those files is usually 8GB at least. so you just went from 40GB to probably 56GB from just those 2. Its not a problem this is how it should be.

 

[unksol]

cub that's not really allocation... 4096 or 512 won't change that. as I said that's the base 10 vs base 2 which means 750,000,000,000 bytes is 698GB to windows.