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Question

Actual Amount Of Storage

Feb 22, 2012 1:51AM PST

On my current computer I have 2 drives:
(1) 320GB (actually says 298GB total free)
(2) 200GB (actually says 186GB total free)
That gives me a total of 484GB
If I get a computer with a 1TB hard drive how much space will actually have free????

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Is that in binary or real bytes?
Feb 22, 2012 3:34AM PST

A Tera-Watt is 10^12 Watts or 1 000 000 000 000 Watts.

A Tera-Byte is often represented in 2 decimal values so you have to find which system the drive maker is reporting it in.

For now, the usual 1 TB drive has 1 000 000 000 000 bytes which you get a little less for your data files since your FILE SYSTEM does eat some space.
Bob

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Answer
You may be able to calculate this easily yourself
Feb 22, 2012 3:35AM PST

There will be some fuzziness to drive capacity due to the nature of binary counting and formatting overhead so what it says on the box won't be what you'll necessarily see. If the drive's manufacturer doesn't provide that data for you, I think that what you've observed on your existing drives might offer a clue. My beat up calculator finds that your actual numbers are about 93% of your projected numbers. So multiply .93 X the 1TB spec and I'll bet you'll be darn close.