Why a New 320GB PS3 Hard Drive shows 263GB of 298GB Available?

I just upgraded my 80GB PS3 hard drive to 320GB from Wester Digital (Scorpio). After formatting the new 320GB hard drive using the PS3 System Settings, and before restoring any of my backups, it came up showing 263GB Free Space of 298GB Available. Although I'm happy with all that free space that I have now, but does anybody know why it doesn't show more Free and Available space? I mean when I bought a 320GB hard drive, I thought I'd have 320GB or close to it.

first off the reason for it being 298 instead of 320 is the fact that machines read in binary and hdd manufactures use decimal. here's a good post i found somewhere to explain it

1,000,000,000 decimal bytes = Decimal GB
1,073,741,824 decimal bytes = Binary GB

So you can make this equation:

(1,000,000,000 decimal bytes / Decimal GB) = (1,073,741,824 decimal bytes / Binary GB)


The equation shows that one Decimal GB = 0.931 Binary GB

Since the hard drive size that is printed on the retail package is a count of the bytes reported in units of Decimal GB, your computer will show the hard drive size at about 93% of that value because it counts the same amount of decimal bytes but reports the total in units of Binary GB.


So, what you should expect the computer to show as the total size of your 100GB hard drive is:

100 Decimal GB * 0.931 Binary GB / Decimal GB = 93 Binary GB (approximately) OR a 320 * 0.931 = 297.92 hence why the hdd is only 298GB and not 320

and then after that the ps3 itself acquires space for the system.

yea the same thing happened to me , i upgraded my hardrive to 250gigs and after installing it i had 205 gigs. what ever i still have 200 gigs lol

psn id:M18MIRO

I just upgraded my 80GB PS3 hard drive to 320GB from Wester Digital (Scorpio). After formatting the new 320GB hard drive using the PS3 System Settings, and before restoring any of my backups, it came up showing 263GB Free Space of 298GB Available. Although I'm happy with all that free space that I have now, but does anybody know why it doesn't show more Free and Available space? I mean when I bought a 320GB hard drive, I thought I'd have 320GB or close to it.

hfeghali

first off the reason for it being 298 instead of 320 is the fact that machines read in binary and hdd manufactures use decimal. here's a good post i found somewhere to explain it

1,000,000,000 decimal bytes = Decimal GB
1,073,741,824 decimal bytes = Binary GB

So you can make this equation:

(1,000,000,000 decimal bytes / Decimal GB) = (1,073,741,824 decimal bytes / Binary GB)


The equation shows that one Decimal GB = 0.931 Binary GB

Since the hard drive size that is printed on the retail package is a count of the bytes reported in units of Decimal GB, your computer will show the hard drive size at about 93% of that value because it counts the same amount of decimal bytes but reports the total in units of Binary GB.


So, what you should expect the computer to show as the total size of your 100GB hard drive is:

100 Decimal GB * 0.931 Binary GB / Decimal GB = 93 Binary GB (approximately) OR a 320 * 0.931 = 297.92 hence why the hdd is only 298GB and not 320

and then after that the ps3 itself acquires space for the system.

Borkil

That was a good in depth post. Also want to add the PS3 uses FAT 32 as the partition table which is not very efficient and uses more space.