24
This formula calculates a number representing the total number of bytes
(characters) that can be stored on the hard drive. This is a decimal number, to
convert this number to the decimal equivalent of the binary Megabytes (MB)
or Gigabytes (GB), this value must be divided by the decimal value of a binary
MB or GB. The decimal equivalent of 1 MB (2
20
) is 1,048,576 and 1 GB (2
30
) is
1,073,741,824. Example for a 3.5 GB hard drive:
6,800 * 16 * 63 * 512 = 3,509,452,800 bytes or 3.5 GB using 10
6
or decimal
values
The equivalent in binary MB is 3,509,452,800 / 1,048,576 = 3,346 MB
The equivalent in binary GB is 3,509,452,800 / 1,073,741,824 = 3.268 GB
160GB shows roughly ~150GB
200GB shows roughly ~186GB
250GB shows roughly ~237GB
Note: Disk size may differ for different products. The above space shown is
for reference purpose only. Please check with hard drive manufacturer for
more details on drive space.
Q: My Hard Drive is showing 2 drives which are 191GB one is 45GB
respectively but I ordered a single 250GB hard drive
A: This is common because the hard drive is formatted to FAT32 files system
which only supports the maximum capacity of 200GB per partition. Therefore
a 250GB hard drive formatted to FAT32 can only be done by formatting to
200GB and 50GB respectively.
Q: My Hard Drive is showing only 137GB but I ordered a larger hard drive
This is very common if you did not update your Windows 2000/XP to the
latest service pack. For Windows 98SE/ME there is a driver for supporting
large hard drives for the designated brand of hard drive used, like Maxtor,
Seagate, Western Digital. If this does not help, the only easy way is to format
your hard drive in Windows 2000/XP in FAT32 but in at least 2 evenly divided
partitions for full detection.
