Question: 160GB HD = 125GB usable space?

I recently purchased a WD1600JB for use with my old P4 1.6 system.
After creating partition and installing XP, I noticed XP only
recognize the HD as being 125GB. I double checked in CMOS/BIOS and the
drive was picked up as 160GB.

Is this normal to lose so much room? and for what? In the past when I
had a 40GB HD, XP recognized it as 38.x GB drive.



Thanks...

Hmmm I've often wondered about this: my '256MB' Memory Stick Pro holds only
237MB and my 60GB Maxtor HD holds only 55GB - your case sounds a little
extreme, but it might *just* be possible that it's normal: but losing almost
25% of your HD is unacceptable. It is well known that formatting any storage
device causes it to lose its capacity (A floppy is 2MB unformatted but
formatted for Windows only holds 1.4MB). I don't really know any more than
that, maybe read up by searching on Google.


"need4greed" <> wrote in message
news: om...
>I recently purchased a WD1600JB for use with my old P4 1.6 system.
> After creating partition and installing XP, I noticed XP only
> recognize the HD as being 125GB. I double checked in CMOS/BIOS and the
> drive was picked up as 160GB.
>
> Is this normal to lose so much room? and for what? In the past when I
> had a 40GB HD, XP recognized it as 38.x GB drive.
>
>
>
> Thanks...

Your BIOS on that older motherboard, and Win XP without SP1, will only
recognize up to 137GB unformatted on the harddrive. That equals about 125GB
formatted.

--
DaveW



"need4greed" <> wrote in message
news: om...
>I recently purchased a WD1600JB for use with my old P4 1.6 system.
> After creating partition and installing XP, I noticed XP only
> recognize the HD as being 125GB. I double checked in CMOS/BIOS and the
> drive was picked up as 160GB.
>
> Is this normal to lose so much room? and for what? In the past when I
> had a 40GB HD, XP recognized it as 38.x GB drive.
>
>
>
> Thanks...

So if I use an XP with SP1 or SP2, I should be able to get more? Or is
the older motherboard the bottleneck? (It is a few years old, 2000 or
2001 I think).

Thanks

"DaveW" <> wrote in message news:<Nhq1d.43103$D%.23238@attbi_s51>...
> Your BIOS on that older motherboard, and Win XP without SP1, will only
> recognize up to 137GB unformatted on the harddrive. That equals about 125GB
> formatted.
>
> --
> DaveW
>
>
>
> "need4greed" <> wrote in message
> news: om...
> >I recently purchased a WD1600JB for use with my old P4 1.6 system.
> > After creating partition and installing XP, I noticed XP only
> > recognize the HD as being 125GB. I double checked in CMOS/BIOS and the
> > drive was picked up as 160GB.
> >
> > Is this normal to lose so much room? and for what? In the past when I
> > had a 40GB HD, XP recognized it as 38.x GB drive.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks...

need4greed wrote:
> I recently purchased a WD1600JB for use with my old P4 1.6 system.
> After creating partition and installing XP, I noticed XP only
> recognize the HD as being 125GB. I double checked in CMOS/BIOS and the
> drive was picked up as 160GB.
>
> Is this normal to lose so much room? and for what? In the past when I
> had a 40GB HD, XP recognized it as 38.x GB drive.
>
>
>
> Thanks...

This is mainly because Microsoft Windows does not go on the same base
unit as hard drive manufacturers.

Windows uses true gigabytes (base 2), while hard drives are advertised
in gibibytes (base 10). Gibibytes are smaller, but because they have
the same prefix (G), they are still telling the truth. You just don't
know it.

Windows XP only recognizes up to 137 GB (unformatted) UNTIL you install SP1.

--
DaveW



"LilBlackDemon" <> wrote in message
news:O1DJd.60$...
> need4greed wrote:
>> I recently purchased a WD1600JB for use with my old P4 1.6 system.
>> After creating partition and installing XP, I noticed XP only
>> recognize the HD as being 125GB. I double checked in CMOS/BIOS and the
>> drive was picked up as 160GB.
>>
>> Is this normal to lose so much room? and for what? In the past when I
>> had a 40GB HD, XP recognized it as 38.x GB drive.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks...
>
> This is mainly because Microsoft Windows does not go on the same base unit
> as hard drive manufacturers.
>
> Windows uses true gigabytes (base 2), while hard drives are advertised in
> gibibytes (base 10). Gibibytes are smaller, but because they have the
> same prefix (G), they are still telling the truth. You just don't know
> it.