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Question

losing gigs(gone, not used!)

Apr 9, 2012 2:26AM PDT

my pc and external HDD are supposed to be 350 and 670 gigs but are displayed as 285 and 596. When i first got them, 2 years ago, they were at 307 and 640 after basic installed programs. what is going on?!?!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Could be many things.
Apr 9, 2012 2:54AM PDT

From the NTFS table has grown to something else. There are articles about the table growth and Redmondites are always unsettled when you bring it up.

But let's do the the math to convert from 640 BILLION BYTES to binary GB.

Before I do that, read Customer Confusion at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte

OK, 640,000,000,000 bytes works out to be

640 000 000 000 / (2^30) = 596.046448

So nothing looks wrong here for the 640 Billion Byte drive.

Can you share the make, model number as I didn't find any 670 Billion Byte drive offered.
Bob

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640 gb
Apr 9, 2012 3:30AM PDT

my external HDD is a wd my book 690(?) gb

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There is a 690 in the specs.
Apr 9, 2012 3:35AM PDT
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640
Apr 9, 2012 4:38AM PDT

i guess its the 640, but why is it down to 596, not 596 free, 596 period?

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We covered the math, consumer confusion.
Apr 9, 2012 4:46AM PDT

And now that we know this, we can't get 596 free because the file system needs some space too.

Do you need to learn about file systems now?
Bob

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640
Apr 9, 2012 5:01AM PDT

as long as i can be sure there's not something wrong. im not cumputer savy so are you saying that over time the ystem files are getting bigger?

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Let's look at a filing cabinet?
Apr 9, 2012 5:07AM PDT

My filing cabinet seems to me could hold 5,000 sheets of paper according to it's about the depth of 10 reams of paper (500 x 10).

However if I use manila folders to organize my paper, I can't put all 5,000 sheets in because the folders take up space too.

I think there are thousands of web sites about this so I'll use a simple analogy.
Bob

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<640
Apr 9, 2012 5:18AM PDT

oh,ok, that makes sense,so how do i clean out any empty folders and things like that? keep in mind im uneducated when it comes to this.

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Bookkeeping
Apr 9, 2012 5:37AM PDT

If you run a chkdsk on the disk (from the command prompt: chkdsk x: if it's drive x) it will report the use of every cluster. It will even tell you how big a cluster is.

Kees

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Be simple about this.
Apr 9, 2012 5:47AM PDT

I've seen folk work weeks to delete 10 megabytes. Frankly my view is this.

Disk space is too cheap to worry about a folder that empty ate 4 kilobytes of my space.

What matters to me is organizing and backup. It's not a matter of if it fails, but when.

Here's a note on organizing.
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/spring-cleaning/declutter-your-computer-in-three-minutes/article2392184/?service=mobile

Let's skip to the best advice (according to me!)

"placing them in their proper place as you use them, those long-term costs are suddenly cut,"

This is the method I use. As I use my files I move them where they should be and over time, I can find my stuff.
Bob

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Re: from 640 to 596
Apr 9, 2012 4:46AM PDT

That's what Bob explained above.

There are 2 kinds of GB. One that's being sold (that's smaller, so there are more of it) and one that's being used by Windows (that's larger, so there are less of it).

Kees

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<640
Apr 9, 2012 5:03AM PDT

sorry kees, that made no sense to me

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Retry
Apr 9, 2012 5:31AM PDT

The gigabytes Windows reports are 7,3% bigger than the gigabytes the maker of the disk sells you. So there fit 7,3% less on the disk.

The gigabytes the maker of the disk sells you are 7,3% smaller than the gigabytes Windows reports. So they can sell you 7,3% more gigabytes.

But if you start counting the bytes from 1 for all 596 of Windows gigabytes, you'll end with byte 639.950.127.104. That's practically 640.000.000.000, isn't it. So it's a trifle more, approximately the 596.046448 Windows GB that's exactly 640 of the makers GB.

Kees

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7.3%
Apr 9, 2012 5:44AM PDT

oh wow, thats crazy, but thank you for the info thats explains alot.