Member Avatar for UNE

Could anyone tell me, is it always possible to buy bigger HDD and get smaller storage? like I’ve bought a Samsung HDD 120GB installed and everything and now I only have 111GB storage what could be the problem???

Can someone tell me is that normal or there is something wrong with it??

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Coconut Monkey

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As pointed out, the advertised "120 GB" is measured in decimal (1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes) while Windows traditionally reports sizes using binary gibibytes (1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes) and still labels them "GB". That makes a marketed 120,000,000,000‑byte disk appear as about 111.76 GiB in Windows, so the "111 GB" shown is expected. See Gibibyte for the formal definitions.

Other factors that reduce the reported "available" space are separate from the decimal/binary naming: file system metadata created during formatting, reserved blocks, hidden OEM/recovery partitions, or unallocated partitions left after install. To confirm the raw device size and current partitioning, view Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) or run a couple of commands from an elevated command prompt:

wmic diskdrive get model,size
fsutil volume diskfree C:

Using diskpart then list disk shows disk sizes and any unallocated space as well.

Regarding drive quality (the follow-up from ): reliability is model- and generation-dependent more than brand alone. Samsung made well-regarded SpinPoint consumer drives, but check the exact model, warranty length, and SMART statistics. Manufacturer diagnostic tools or third-party utilities (for SMART) will flag early problems; manufacturers provide their own testers (SeaTools, Data Lifeguard, etc.) for deeper checks.

A historical note: very old systems without 48‑bit LBA could run into the 137 GB addressing limit, which can produce confusing results on larger upgrades; that is not relevant for a 120 GB disk but explains similar reports from older PCs. If the numbers from Disk Management or the raw byte counts don't match the expected advertised size by a large margin, a firmware/driver issue, partitioning problem, or disk defect should be investigated with the vendor diagnostics.

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Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

It's the way the manufacturers define the amount of space on the drive. For them, 1000 bytes = 1Kb, 1000Kb = 1Mb, and so forth. In Windows, 1024 bytes = 1Kb, etc.

So yes, it's normal, and there's nothing wrong with your drive.

Member Avatar for UNE

Thnx man... my HDD is Samsung is it any good.... which are the best HDD brands?

Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

The more popular brands are Western Digital, Seagate and Maxtor.

Are you happy with your drive? ;)

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