I bought a 250gb external hard drive but the capacity is only 232gb?

Question

I recently bought a 250gb 2.5 external hard drive but when I right click on it and press properties, it only has a total space of 232gb. Why is this? Should I get a refund?

Answer 1

All 3 answers above me are wrong. It's because computers count in adifferent method to us. In our counting method, its 250GB, in binary (computer method) you will loose arund 7.5% of the total capacity. Always. Theres nothing you can do about it.

@dancincing smirf: binary does have something to do with it, its the reason why they chose 1024.

Answer 2

The 18gb your 'missing' is already used up on the hard drive.

It contains the necessary files to install the hard drive when you run it, keep a log and just basically operate.

Don't worry your 250gb hard drive is actually a 250gb, just 132gb of available space; all hard drives are like this.

Answer 3

ur hardrive has software(firmware) that makes it run and so the computer can reckonsize it just like my 4gig ZEN that 3.7gig but sometimes they will say oh 232gigs is closer enough to 250 so lets say it is

Answer 4

You already  know the answer to this.......you are just trying to find out if we are all as IT savvy as you are!

I've got news for you Sport..........we are all streets ahead of you in every way!

IN SHORT,  we don't know!

Just go get a 275 Gb drive instead and you'll get the missing Gb's you are so frenetic about !

Isn't that right fellow Answerers ?

Answer 5

The simple answer: it's differences in the way a "gigabyte" is stated by the drive maker, and calculated by the computer software.

The long answer:

1 Gigabyte = 1000 Megabytes = 1000000 Kilobytes = 1000000000 Bytes

1 Gibibyte = 1024 Mebibytes = 1048576 Kilobytes = 1073741824 Bytes

The hard drive you bought is 250 Gigabytes, which is 250,000,000,000 Bytes (it will say this on the product's packaging).

However, computers report drive sizes in the computer number system (the Gibibyte, Mebibyte etc), which makes it show as approx 232 Gibibytes. Problem is, computer software will usually say "Gigabytes" (or GB) when what they actually mean is "Gibibytes" (GiB). That's where the confusion comes from.

The reason computers count in multiples of 1024, is because in binary (the way computers operate, because it can be represented physically with "voltage on" (1) and "voltage off" (0)), there are 1024 combinations of numbers that can be made with exactly ten binary digits (0000000000 to 1111111111). Whereas the number 1024 is an oddly-represented number (1111101000).

When computers were created, the differences between 1000 and 1024 were close enough to use the existing kilo, mega, giga etc number prefixes, and not notice (or care about) the difference. If you used the word "kilobyte", people assumed you meant 1024 bytes, even though technically it should have meant 1000 bytes.

However, as we go up orders of magnitude and numbers like gigabyte, terabyte and petabyte are more common, that difference between 1000 and 1024 gets bigger and bigger. And eventually, it becomes more noticeable. Like say, when you buy a 250GB hard drive, and 18GB of it seems to be "missing". Thus, the "gibi", "mebi" etc prefixes were invented by international engineering groups to eliminate this confusion. Unfortunately, even today, software continues to say "GB" when it means "GiB".

Answer 6

that happens with all storage media including HDD. They keep stuff in it etc etc. its normal.

Answer 7

Simon is wrong binary has nothing to do with it. When you buy SDRAM it is actually 1024MB versus the typically stated 1GB the difference being due to a binary difference (2^10)=1024.  

No you should not get a refund. The difference is due to the software on the disk that allows it to operate and to be recognized by your computer.

Answer 8

it is 250gb but stuff is already in it u know software and programs and junk when u buy it.