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    where the heck is all my harddrive

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by TGeorge824, Mar 1, 2008.

  1. TGeorge824

    TGeorge824 Notebook Guru

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    so i got a new MBP (pre update) w/ a 160GB HDD. Once I started it up and looked at the free space it said that there was only like 140GB or 135 GB i cant quite remember. Anyways Ive probbly put about 3 gigs of stuff on it so far and I was just wondering is that how much space OS X takes up??? If not how can I clean this out? Thanks
     
    TGeorge824, Mar 1, 2008
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  2. Chris27

    Chris27 Notebook Deity

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    That sounds about right. The HDD companies "cheat" on their sizes as they count a kilobyte as 1000 bytes instead of 1024.
     
    Chris27, Mar 1, 2008
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  3. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    if a hard drive manufacturer claims there hard drive is 160 GB, they are using SI units. If you convert that number to binary (computers use binary) then you end up with 149 GB. In other (just as complicated) terms, your computer manufacturer says 1 Gig = 10^9 bytes, whereas your computer, which has to use binary, says 1 Gig = 2^30 bytes. OS X can take up anywhere from a few gigs (3 or 4) for the basic installation, up to twice or 3 times that with every printer driver known to man (installed by default, kind of cool actually), language translations, and other extras that take up space. plus, ilife can take several gigs to itself with all the content for garageband, etc. plus you used a few gigs yourself.

    thats where the heck all your hard drive space went. good luck.
     
    masterchef341, Mar 1, 2008
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  4. Robgunn

    Robgunn Notebook Evangelist

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    They use the SI standard to measure their storage instead of binary usage.

    Binary: 20^10 = 1024 kibibit
    SI : 10^3 = 1000 Kilobit

    So, this is what happens.

    HD Manufacturer:
    160 * 10^9 = 160,000,000,000 bits

    Your OS:
    160,000,000,000 bits * 2^(-30) =~ 149GB

    So when they multiply by 1000 and then your OS divides by 1024...an extra 24 is divided in every time and it adds up to "lost" storage.

    They play unit games to report bigger storage and just advertise it as 160GBytes. I'm surprised they haven't been sued for it by now. You would think they would be required to report the binary measurement on the box. Instead they usually have some small disclaimer in 0.5 font size explaining the size difference.

     
    Robgunn, Mar 1, 2008
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  5. TGeorge824

    TGeorge824 Notebook Guru

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    yeah ive seen those, im surprised I didnt spot it. Oh well. Yeah I agree with you Robgunn, I'm surprised that there hasnt been much outcry. It is a little shady, but technically they have done nothing wrong. Oh well. I can deal.
     
    TGeorge824, Mar 1, 2008
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