Question SSD with linux installed appears to have smaller size

modeonoff

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Jul 16, 2017
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Hi, I have just upgraded the storage of my desktop computer. Now I have 2x2TB SSD. One for Windows and one for Linux. How come under Windows 10, the size of the SSD that has Linux installed appears to be much smaller?
 

britechguy

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Jul 2, 2019
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My own experience indicates that the TH forums do not support attachments of any kind (which I think is a shame, but I don't run the site). A picture is worth a thousand words, and not self-hosting those posted often ends up breaking the historical record over time when the third party sources get purged or go out of existence altogether.

Photos need to be hosted elsewhere, and can be inserted inline in a message using the Insert Picture control (looks like a small landscape picture between the link and emoji controls) and providing the URL.
 

modeonoff

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Jul 16, 2017
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Please try the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/183206770@N08/08rNc4

Both C and D drives are 2TB. C has Windows 10 installed while D has Linux installed. Why it is 3.99GB rather than near 2TB?

Before I made the original post, disk managerment also showed similar error about the 2nd nvme SSD. However, it seems that now it is showing the info correctly.

BTW, is losing about 137GB of a brand new 2TB SSD normal?
 

modeonoff

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Jul 16, 2017
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You've not "lost" anything.
it is simply a difference in reporting units.

Base 10 vs Base 2
Human vs Computer
Gigabyte vs Gibibyte
1024 vs 1000

2TB will display in Windows as 1.81TB.


Which is faster, 62mph or 100kph?

Just curious, why Windows reported 2TB as 1.81TB?

I don't know if this is related. For the past 30 years, it seems to be that whenever I format a drive, the storage device size gets smaller with each format. What is happening?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Just curious, why Windows reported 2TB as 1.81TB?
As said, that is simply a difference in reporting units.
Base 10 vs Base 2.

The human thinks in terms of "1k = 1,000 (One Thousand)". Base 10.
The computer thinks in terms of "1k = 1,024". Base 2.

So while the advertising monkey writes "1TB" (1,000 gigabytes) on the side of the box, the computer and its base 2 brain reads that as 931 gigabytes.

There was even a lawsuit over that, long ago.
 
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modeonoff

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Jul 16, 2017
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As said, that is simply a difference in reporting units.
Base 10 vs Base 2.

The human thinks in terms of "1k = 1,000 (One Thousand)". Base 10.
The computer thinks in terms of "1k = 1,024". Base 2.

So while the advertising monkey writes "1TB" (1,000 gigabytes) on the side of the box, the computer and its base 2 brain reads that as 931 gigabytes.

There was even a lawsuit over that, long ago.


Thank you very much for the clarification. I went to a google converter and entered 2 Terabyte. It returned 1.82 Tebibyte!

Back to Post #6, why Windows reported that the 2TB SSD with Linux installed is 3.99GB rather than 2Terabyte or 1.8Tebibyte?