hard drive problem

The hard drive manufacturers give hard drive sizes in unformatted size. Formatting the drive uses some space for creating the files system, the master boot record and other overhead. 111GB is probably all the usable space that is available on the drive once it is formatted.

Harddrive makers use the formula 1000 megs = 1 gig. In reality there 1024 megs that = 1 gig. Since Microsoft uses the 1024 meg method it allway shows less than the harddrive makers write on their drives. Hopes this helps, Frank

Tried FDISK then formating ?

I believe stroke311 was right.
Most of the HD manufacturer (including Seagate) uses disk capacity based on
1 GB=1000 MB=1000000 KB=1000000000 B.
Partition Magic and others (including Windows) may use a convention of
1 GB=1024 MB=1024*1024 KB=1024*1024*1024 Bytes.

So, 120GB = 120000000000 Bytes or 120000000000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 111.8 GB, Which is what you got.

Reference: http://tinyurl.com/2z322

Yes in general every products of 1000 KB actually is 1024 KB and thus the result of 118 GB instead of 120 GB

I've installed many hard drives...I work in IT...It is normal to see less than 120GB on a drive because 60, 80, 100GB drives are often less than an actual size 120GB given to the buyer. here's a link from wired news that explains-
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0%2C1367%2C60505%2C00.html

I, for one, can't believe that garbage that Seagate has on their website.

Yes, numerous people answered this incorrectly and some got it right...binary vs decimal. 120GB isn't 120GB due to 1,000k vs 1,024 and so on.

And I know manufactures have been doing this for years and years. But the Seagate website actually talks about pre and post formatting...that's embarrassing...I hope that lawsuit goes thru successfully.

I can understand "rounding", but to blanantly lie is a whole other story.

How many partitions (more overhead). 80 G unpartitioned 77-78 G, 2-partions 35.4 and 30.8 (66.2), Need explicit data and capabilities on specific OS installatio and partition. HD manufactures need to stop lying and give specific specs with each OS.

The larger the drive the more the overhead.

My 200gig wound up 186gig after formating

Lee

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