HD and RAM size not being reported properly

From the Western Digital website:


Determining drive capacity can be confusing at times because of the different measurement standards that are often used. When
dealing with Windows and Mac based systems, you will commonly see both decimal measurements and binary measurements of a drive's
capacity. In either case, a drive's capacity is measured by using the total number of bytes available on the drive. As long as the
drive displays the correct number of bytes (approximate), you are getting the drive's full capacity.


Decimal vs. Binary:
For simplicity and consistency, hard drive manufacturers define a megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes.
This is a decimal (base 10) measurement and is the industry standard. However, certain system BIOSs, FDISK and Windows define a
megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes. Mac systems also use these values. These are binary (base 2)
measurements.


To Determine Decimal Capacity:
A decimal capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,000,000,000 using
base 10).


To Determine Binary Capacity:
A binary capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,073,741,824 using
base 2).
This is why different utilities will report different capacities for the same drive. The number of bytes is the same, but a
different number of bytes is used to make a megabyte and a gigabyte. This is similar to the difference between 0 degrees Celsius and
32 degrees Fahrenheit. It is the same temperature, but will be reported differently depending on the scale you are using.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------Â*-----


Various Drive Sizes and their Binary and Decimal Capacities


Drive Size in GB Approximate Total Bytes Decimal Capacity
(bytes/1,000,000,000)
Approximate Binary Capacity (bytes/1,073,724,841)
10 GB 10,000,000,000 10 GB 9.31 GB
20 GB 20,000,000,000 20 GB 18.63 GB
30 GB 30,000,000,000 30 GB 27.94 GB
40 GB 40,000,000,000 40 GB 37.25 GB
60 GB 60,000,000,000 60 GB 55.88 GB
80 GB 80,000,000,000 80 GB 74.51 GB
100 GB 100,000,000,000 100 GB 93.13 GB
120 GB 120,000,000,000 120 GB 111.76 GB
160 GB 160,000,000,000 160 GB 149.01 GB
180 GB 180,000,000,000 180 GB 167.64 GB
200 GB 200,000,000,000 200 GB 186.26 GB
250 GB 250,000,000,000 250 GB 232.83 GB


The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is
installed
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

Why doesn't my Windows PC recognize the whole 4GB of memory I installed?
http://www.crucial.com/kb/answer.aspx?qid=4251

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


---------------------------------------------------------------

"Rick" wrote:

I have two issues. First, I have clean installed Vista 32 bit on a newly
formatted 750 GB internal SATA drive (HD was formatted by Vista during set
up). I also have a 750 GB external hard drive installed via USB as a backup
file, it is not on a RAID array, etc., it is simply a slave HD. My
motherboard is a new EVGA, and the BIOS is set to automatic, all values are
default values for the BIOS, and I have not flashed the BIOS ever. The BIOS
recognizes the internal HD as a Large 133 ATA that is 750 GB in size during
POST, but when Vista finally loads, it recognizes both the internal drive and
the external drives as only being 698 GB in size. Secondly, I now have 4 MB
of DDR2 RAM installed, I read all the previous posts regarding loading Vista
with only 2 MB of RAM first as there is a difficulty in it recognizing
anything over 3 MB of RAM, etc. So, I installed Vista with only 2 MB of RAM
first, and then downloaded the patch KB 929777 from Windows update that is
supposed to alleviate this problem. I then added the remaining 2 MB of RAM,
however after all of this, it is only showing 2.75 MB of RAM being
recgonized. How can I get Vista to 1) recognize the full size of both hard
drives and 2) getting Vista to increase or recognize the size of the RAM that
is installed.

Rick

From Popular Mechanics

Hard-Drive Capacity Math: Tech Clinic
By Carolyn Wilsey
Published in the January 2007 issue.

Your hard drive is advertised as having a 60GB capacity, but your computer
shows only 55.8GB. What gives? The discrepancy is the result of having two
methods of measuring memory. Computers are binary, or "base two,"
mathematical systems, and in a binary world a kilobyte is 1024 bytes (2 to
the 10th power). When computers were new, the geekerati referred to this as
a "kilo." Noncomputer folks, however, understood kilo to mean thousand, and
thought that 1000 bytes should equal a kilobyte. So, two different
measurements of hard drive space were born. In 1998, the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) weighed in, defining 1 "gigabyte" as 1
billion bytes. Hard disk manufacturers agree, marketing their products using
the rounder decimal value instead of the binary system. So, your drive is
labeled as decimal ("giga") and your PC reads binary (IEC's term, "gibi").
Either way, you're getting the same bunch of bytes.

Reader Comments
3. check your math, its all about convertions...
you have the conversion exactly backwards and wrong. they are advertising in
base ten,(kilo = 1000) so in the pc system, a gig equals (1024 * 1024 *1024
= 1073741824) because there is 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, 1024 KB in a MB,
and 1024 MB in a GB. so the math works perfectly, no screwing, robbing, just
stupid people, like you, who cant do math. 60,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 =
55.879 GB

2. RE: Hard-Drive Capacity Math: Tech Clinic
They are not lying unless they tell you that you that the 60GB is base 16.
They all advertise in base 10. If they didn't their competitor would, and
they would lose sales to people who don't read fine print about why the
drive sizes look different for the same price. They would only change if
every one of them were absolutely required to. About the math, you have the
right idea but 1024pc=1000non is not a general formula for all magnitudes of
numbers, so to throw a little gas on your fire, the number you wanted was
64,424,509,440. Which would be 60GiB (60*2^10). The best thing you can do to
alleviate the problem is to tell your friends, when everyone knows it won't
be a problem anymore. Happy fuming about truth in advertising.

1. RE: Hard-Drive Capacity Math: Tech Clinic
This makes no sense at all. If a PC kilobyte is 1024 bits and a non-PC
kilobyte is 1000 bits, then there should be MORE space on a hard drive
advertised at 60 gig, not less. By your above comments, a 60 gig drive (60
billion bits) should actually have 61440000000 bits (or 61.44 billion bits)
if you use the idea that 1024 PC bits = 1000 non PC bits. What it is
actually happening is that the manufacturer is lying saying that there is 60
gig when there is actually only 55 gig on the hard drive.



--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)



"Rick" <Rick@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:048D3DF0-F859-4D2A-844F-12964FAE0EB7@microsoft.com...

>I have two issues. First, I have clean installed Vista 32 bit on a newly
> formatted 750 GB internal SATA drive (HD was formatted by Vista during set
> up). I also have a 750 GB external hard drive installed via USB as a
> backup
> file, it is not on a RAID array, etc., it is simply a slave HD. My
> motherboard is a new EVGA, and the BIOS is set to automatic, all values
> are
> default values for the BIOS, and I have not flashed the BIOS ever. The
> BIOS
> recognizes the internal HD as a Large 133 ATA that is 750 GB in size
> during
> POST, but when Vista finally loads, it recognizes both the internal drive
> and
> the external drives as only being 698 GB in size. Secondly, I now have 4
> MB
> of DDR2 RAM installed, I read all the previous posts regarding loading
> Vista
> with only 2 MB of RAM first as there is a difficulty in it recognizing
> anything over 3 MB of RAM, etc. So, I installed Vista with only 2 MB of
> RAM
> first, and then downloaded the patch KB 929777 from Windows update that
> is
> supposed to alleviate this problem. I then added the remaining 2 MB of
> RAM,
> however after all of this, it is only showing 2.75 MB of RAM being
> recgonized. How can I get Vista to 1) recognize the full size of both
> hard
> drives and 2) getting Vista to increase or recognize the size of the RAM
> that
> is installed.
>
> Rick

Richard:
Thanks, I did the math, and it works out to 698 GB exactly. End of
question, end of problem. Thank you for your help.

Rick

"Richard Urban" wrote:

> From Popular Mechanics
>
> Hard-Drive Capacity Math: Tech Clinic
> By Carolyn Wilsey
> Published in the January 2007 issue.
>
> Your hard drive is advertised as having a 60GB capacity, but your computer
> shows only 55.8GB. What gives? The discrepancy is the result of having two
> methods of measuring memory. Computers are binary, or "base two,"
> mathematical systems, and in a binary world a kilobyte is 1024 bytes (2 to
> the 10th power). When computers were new, the geekerati referred to this as
> a "kilo." Noncomputer folks, however, understood kilo to mean thousand, and
> thought that 1000 bytes should equal a kilobyte. So, two different
> measurements of hard drive space were born. In 1998, the International
> Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) weighed in, defining 1 "gigabyte" as 1
> billion bytes. Hard disk manufacturers agree, marketing their products using
> the rounder decimal value instead of the binary system. So, your drive is
> labeled as decimal ("giga") and your PC reads binary (IEC's term, "gibi").
> Either way, you're getting the same bunch of bytes.
>
> Reader Comments
> 3. check your math, its all about convertions...
> you have the conversion exactly backwards and wrong. they are advertising in
> base ten,(kilo = 1000) so in the pc system, a gig equals (1024 * 1024 *1024
> = 1073741824) because there is 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, 1024 KB in a MB,
> and 1024 MB in a GB. so the math works perfectly, no screwing, robbing, just
> stupid people, like you, who cant do math. 60,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 =
> 55.879 GB
>
> 2. RE: Hard-Drive Capacity Math: Tech Clinic
> They are not lying unless they tell you that you that the 60GB is base 16.
> They all advertise in base 10. If they didn't their competitor would, and
> they would lose sales to people who don't read fine print about why the
> drive sizes look different for the same price. They would only change if
> every one of them were absolutely required to. About the math, you have the
> right idea but 1024pc=1000non is not a general formula for all magnitudes of
> numbers, so to throw a little gas on your fire, the number you wanted was
> 64,424,509,440. Which would be 60GiB (60*2^10). The best thing you can do to
> alleviate the problem is to tell your friends, when everyone knows it won't
> be a problem anymore. Happy fuming about truth in advertising.
>
> 1. RE: Hard-Drive Capacity Math: Tech Clinic
> This makes no sense at all. If a PC kilobyte is 1024 bits and a non-PC
> kilobyte is 1000 bits, then there should be MORE space on a hard drive
> advertised at 60 gig, not less. By your above comments, a 60 gig drive (60
> billion bits) should actually have 61440000000 bits (or 61.44 billion bits)
> if you use the idea that 1024 PC bits = 1000 non PC bits. What it is
> actually happening is that the manufacturer is lying saying that there is 60
> gig when there is actually only 55 gig on the hard drive.
>
>
>
> --
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>
>
>
> "Rick" <Rick@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:048D3DF0-F859-4D2A-844F-12964FAE0EB7@microsoft.com...

> >I have two issues. First, I have clean installed Vista 32 bit on a newly
> > formatted 750 GB internal SATA drive (HD was formatted by Vista during set
> > up). I also have a 750 GB external hard drive installed via USB as a
> > backup
> > file, it is not on a RAID array, etc., it is simply a slave HD. My
> > motherboard is a new EVGA, and the BIOS is set to automatic, all values
> > are
> > default values for the BIOS, and I have not flashed the BIOS ever. The
> > BIOS
> > recognizes the internal HD as a Large 133 ATA that is 750 GB in size
> > during
> > POST, but when Vista finally loads, it recognizes both the internal drive
> > and
> > the external drives as only being 698 GB in size. Secondly, I now have 4
> > MB
> > of DDR2 RAM installed, I read all the previous posts regarding loading
> > Vista
> > with only 2 MB of RAM first as there is a difficulty in it recognizing
> > anything over 3 MB of RAM, etc. So, I installed Vista with only 2 MB of
> > RAM
> > first, and then downloaded the patch KB 929777 from Windows update that
> > is
> > supposed to alleviate this problem. I then added the remaining 2 MB of
> > RAM,
> > however after all of this, it is only showing 2.75 MB of RAM being
> > recgonized. How can I get Vista to 1) recognize the full size of both
> > hard
> > drives and 2) getting Vista to increase or recognize the size of the RAM
> > that
> > is installed.
> >
> > Rick

>
>