harddrive and capacity

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by niallerc, Sep 26, 2010.

  1. niallerc

    niallerc Member

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    Hi
    have a basic question - i'm sorry if it's simplistic
    and it's being YEARS since i bought a computer

    i bought a desktop from **** recently
    the harddrive was meant to be 160gigs (no partition)
    in "my computer" it's showing 139gigs
    so... there's a 21gig gap!
    i was onto technical/customer support and was told that this is normal for a harddrive, as bad sectors effectively formatted out (or along those line)
    i tried to get them to email me the quality information around this or what they told me verbally, but after 2 weeks and a number of follow up calls, i get the feeling i'm being fobbed off

    i can appreciate that 160gig... you might get 159gigs or even 155
    but surely 21gig gap of bad sectors indicates a bad harddrive?
    the bios at least shows a part number of a 160gig harddrive
    but... i didn't so much pay for a 160gig harrdrive...
    i paid for 160gigs of useable space, at least that's my understanding

    My question
    would this be classed as a bad harddrive due to the % of bad sectors?
    has anybody had a simular issue?
    do we commonly accept when we buy harrdrives that the we will never get the space we pay for?

    after paying over 1k i expected more
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2010
  2. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    when i do properties on my laptop's 160gig hd, it shows 160,031,014,912 bytes & beside that it shows 149gig. is there a 2nd partition that has your system recovery? what windows & what service pack in that windows as in window xp sp3 or vista sp1? 1000 pounds, euro or dollars as seems awfully high with only a 160gig hd? what came with that computer as in printer, monitor or what?
     
  3. niallerc

    niallerc Member

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    hi ddp
    thanks for the reply

    it's 1000euro... i just never see the point in really large harddrives and i have an external 1Tb that i store stuff on(or do i have a 1Tb...must check to see how much that really is!!)
    it's not partitioned (as i requested)
    it's an i5 processor... 21" HD monitor... 4gig ram... a few other things (at work now and can't remember!)...
    i probably did over pay... but i bought a de** in '96 or 97, i think i got rid of it in 2002 after a lighning strike (and it still powered up!!).. a quality machine, (only 2 gig harddrive)... i just associated de** with quality from then... now i question this, more from their support group than anything else so far

    i understand that 160,031,014,912 bytes is 149gigs... but a gig's a gig's a gig
    surely if you paid for a 160gig, you should have 160gigs not 149?
    actually their support supervisor actually tried since there's 1024bytes in a kilobyte etc etc... that 139gigs was pretty much 160gigs... i completely understand what he was trying to say but what a load of b*****
    and i really wanted that in writing, which they're not providing (strangely)

    i would be interested to know if anyone else has had a simular experience, as it seems like an obvious customer complaint and it seems like i'm missing something
     
  4. KillerBug

    KillerBug Active member

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    160GB drive = 160000000000 bytes = 149.01GB usable, assuming a perfect drive...the last 10 missing GB might be a recovery partition or some other hidden partition on the drive...or it might just be blank space.
     
  5. pcrepair

    pcrepair Regular member

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    click start
    right click on my computer
    click manage
    click disk management
    this will tell you about your drives

    sad to say a 'salesmens' gig is in bits and no-one wants to be first to 'tell the truth' because everyone would think their drives were smaller and buy the 'bigger' ones
     

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