[X4U] External HD: 750 gig to 699 when formatted. Why???

[Shawn King]

On 5/24/09 1:27 PM, "Germain M." <germain_m at videotron.ca> wrote:

> Hello,
> I bought a SimpleTech 750gig external HD. It was Windows formatted in
> the first place. Once mounted, info window showed the drive had 699
> gig free. As suggested in the instruction manual (and as should be
> done) anyway), I reformated the drive Mac OS Extended journaled.
> Still 699 gig free. Is there a way te recover this huge amount of
> lost gig?

Unfortunately no, because, and this will sound odd - it's not "lost".

> What are they used for and by what (whom)?

Nothing and no one.

> Are there some  
> hidden Windows programs and files left on the HD.

Nope.

> If so, how to et 
> rid of them to recover that space?

You can't. It's a little bit of oddness between the way the OS "counts" and
the way the HD manufacturer "counts".

According to Ars Technica, the OS tracks hard drive capacity in terms of
base 2 numbers. So 1MB is usually equal to 1,024KB, and 1GB is equal to
1,024MB. But hard drive manufactures have for years used more common base 10
counting, so 1MB equals 1,000KB, 1GB equals 1,000MB, as so on.

<http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/06/more-of-those-snow-leopard-enhanc
ements-and-refinements.ars>

That accounts for the discrepancy. The good news is that Snow Leopard will
adopt the same convention and you should get that space back.
-- 
Shawn King
Host/Executive Producer
Your Mac Life
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com