Why am I not able to use more of my hard drive?

[tominator89 0]

I have a 200gig drive and I'm only allowed to use 186gig of it. What happened to the remaining 14gig?

[2GOLD 0]

I have a 200gig drive and I'm only allowed to use 186gig of it. What happened to the remaining 14gig?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Isn't that for your operating system and maybe key programs needed?

[tominator89 0]

I have a 40gig drive that i boot off of with the OS and programs. The 200 was installed as a secondary slave drive for storage.

[Guest Leelee]

It's like that with all hard drives... why?

 

Manufacturers use 1000MB/GB. Windows uses 1024MB/GB. Why they do this, I do not know. But, it adds up to a lot, especially with a 200GB drive.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

It's like that with all hard drives... why?

 

Manufacturers use 1000MB/GB.  Windows uses 1024MB/GB.  Why they do this, I do not know.  But, it adds up to a lot, especially with a 200GB drive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well the manufacturers are wrong for starters, but most of them put the disclaimers on the boxes about the differences.

[Guest Leelee]

I think it's quite wrong, I know there's even been lawsuits about it.

[tominator89 0]

Yeah, I knew about this before I installed but I didn't think that I would lose 14 gig worth of space.

[Guest Fook]

Manufacturer's viewpoint: 200 * (10^9) / (1000^3) = 200 (1000^3 = 1000 b * 1000 kb * 1000 mb)

 

Windows' viewpoint: 200 * (10^9) / (1024^3) = 186 (Approx.) (1024^3 = 1024 b * 1024 kb * 1024 mb)

 

That's why you only get 186 gb instead of 200.