Western Digital WD2500KS

[FireDK]

Just bought my new PC yesterday, featuring a Western Digital, 250 GB, S-ATA2 HDD. However, I have a problem (or at least I think I have one). When installing Windows XP Pro SP2 (at the partitioning sequence) I only got around 232 GB of aviable space instead of 250 GB as it should be. After Windows was installed, I opened Everest and it said Unformatted Capacity : 238474 MB = 232,88 GB.

My quesation is: is that normal? Should my HDD lose 18 GB just for partition tables or there might be something wrong with the HDD?

My bios says the HDD has 250 GB capacity.

Thanks!

Born from The Dark, in The Black Cloak of Night!
And please excuse my spelling...

 

[FireDK]

Hmmm... I might have found the answer, but I would still like to hear your opinions.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Born from The Dark, in The Black Cloak of Night!
And please excuse my spelling...

 

[paparazi]

This is a very commonly asked question and as you have discovered the reason is just how manufacturers advertise capacity against their actual physical size (depending on how the size is quoted)
Your article correctly describes this phenomonen and it's just one of those things that, once explained is easy to understand.
Not that easy to explain to a customer though lol.

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[kestrel1]

As Paparazi says, this is a very common question. I have more than one drive on my system, but if I check the properties of the drives in My Computer, I get a capacity on my so called 60gb HD of 57.2gb, but it also gives the actual bytes which is 61,483,933,696 bytes, so you can see that this can make a huge difference even on a 60gb drive. Manufacturer's will always go to the nearest round number. It sounds better, doesn't it?

 

[FireDK]

Yes, it does sound better. I just didn't know there could be such a big difference (18 GB) so that's why I was concerned. Thought there may be something wrong with my drive.

Born from The Dark, in The Black Cloak of Night!
And please excuse my spelling...