PS4 Actually Only Comes With 408GB of HDD Space

The stock drive is 500GB.

https://twitter.com/cjcool804/status/400315951520165888

323GB free + 84GB games + 100MB other = 408GB.

Applications is only the three games. Nothing else installed/deletable.

https://twitter.com/cjcool804/status/400316029995581440

As others have pointed out, 500GB is a marketing number. The OS sees GB (and MB, KB) in chunks of 1024 compared to a straight 1000 multiplier. e.g. 1GB = 1024MB, not 1000MB as marketing reports.

Thus, 500GB /(1.024^3) = 465 "real" GB.

1.024 is the ratio factor which is cubed because it's used three times: Bytes in KB (1024 vs 1000), KB in MB (1024 vs 1000), and MB in GB (1024 vs 1000).

That means 465 - 408GB leaves 57GB reserved on the drive. Not all of that may necessarily be occupied. There is likely a swap partition, the OS, reserved space for game clip sharing, etc.

Not that it's a big deal at all (408GB is more than enough to begin with, plus you can always expand storage), but I remember how cows made a big deal about how the space available with the Wii U was not as much as advertised. I wonder if we'll see them call Sony out on the same issue now, or if we'll see their legendary hypocrisy in full force again.

3 games? Which 3?

Same thing with last gen consoles and the WiiU,

Does it allow external hard drives for extra storage?

Yes I'm not a big fan of hard drive manufacturers reporting gigabytes based on 1000 as opposed to 1024 megs per gig, kilobytes per meg, bytes per kilobyte. I think this has been going on for about ten years now?

As for the already utilised capacity, well on any boot drive its typical to have an OS.

Still interesting though, still pretty good free space. About what I'd expect.

Agreed. No big deal here.

I always just thought that was expected. I want to upgrade mine, I have a 1tb in my ps3, maybe it'll be possible to get something bigger in the PS4.

False advertising.

my 1tb hdd does the same thing.

I'm gonna need a bigger hard drive with all these mandatory installations. I'm looking at over 140 gigs worth on launch day alone.

imagine all those apps on X1, probably comes with a 250gb lol. This is really bad news tho

So?

no but u can just buy a 2TB or 4TB HDD and replace the 500GB one in your PS4, and you're good to go :)

@silversix_: well we at least have external hdd support, good luck buddy lol

@II_Seraphim_II: unless something changed recently, you can't do that

Using this to white knight the WiiU and its 32GB, huh. I have said all along 500GB isn't enough.

standard practice these days sadly

You can change it out. Multiple sites show how to do it.

ITT: we learn how HDD space and calculations work.

Fun fact: You don't get the advertised amount in usable HDD space. Ever.

http://www.howtogeek.com/123268/

Geez now you tell us. Preorder cancelled.

Why are you surprised?

It's always been like this when it comes to hard drives and computer storage. Computers don't do math like we humans do.

Almost 100gb short is kind of a big deal.

@Heil68: yes but there is a size restraint which I think maxes put at 1tb or 1.5

No, but you can upgrade the internal hard drive.

Which is the opposite of what the Xbox One and Wii U allow, so all three offer good storage solutions, on the whole.

Edited: drive height size

No you can't, it will only take the 9.5 mm drives.

Also the limit is 'only' 1.5 TB as of right now, if I am not wrong.

Ohhh,so defensive sunshine,sorry I interrupted your sony sausage sucking marathon,carry on then!

I think the 1TB drives available right now are 5400 rpm, I’m not sure what the PS4 stock drive is but if it is a 7200 rpm, then I think the 750GB is your only option.

Nope, which really sucks. I'd much rather use an external on top of the internal than have to swap out the hard drive.

This is always the case with HDDs.

It's a HDD. You've got to be pretty naive if you thought you'd be getting 500GB.

With the memory size of those games, that 323GB is gonna go by quick.

Someone doesn't know how formatting working.

Standard fair with electronics actually. The SSD on my laptop is 500GB but I can only use about 450GB of it. Same thing with my phone and tablet.

Char i'm sorry. But this thread is silly.

Does anybody really not know that when they sell you 500 gigs it's really like 400-450.

XB1 has the advantage here - games with only 720p art assets have smaller install sizes than games with 1080p assets.

Lems get a VICTORY!

lol

Not Surprising since it needs to format which requires space from the hdd. sucks but it is what it is.

This isn't news. Every gadget i have does this. My laptop has 468gbs and not 500gb

My phone memory is 14.6gb not 16gb

*Available space. They never say that the phones come with for example, 3GBs of available space, they say the phone has 32GB harddrive or flash space which is true. Did you not forget that failed court case that one women had with Dell and Apple.

It's not "short". Every HDD you ever buy will come with less space when completely empty than advertised.

Point of information: hard drive manufacturers define 1TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. Operating systems, however, recognize 1TB as 1,099,511,627,776 bytes (2^40). So you always get less usable space than is advertised on any hard drive.

In addition, some space is reserved or the OS. Additional space is alloted for caching. The PS3, for example, reserved 10% of the HDD as a cache. Presumably the PS4 does as well.

So for example, if you had a 2TB HDD, it will give you right around 1.8GB (~1,860GB) of free space as a formatted, bare drive. Then the PS4 would most likely reserve about 186GB of that available space (10%) of it for caching + another 5 or 6 GB for the OS and apps. In this example, the system would show your 2TB HDD would have 1.6TB free for installing a games after installation.

This will be a reality with the One as well. Everyone understand?

Needs more power.

The drive should read as 466GB(a typical 500GB fomated with FAT32), so Sony must have a hidden partition for the remaining 58 GB.

No,I know how that works,I simply mean that with an already fairly small HDD for apparently 40/50+ GB games having almost 100GB less than what most people were discussing as being the thing is kind of a big deal. I always assumed it had more than 500GB and the 500 would be the actual available space,not the whole thing including virtual partitions in that number.

ghost is about 90 gigs on the ps4 :/

I'd hope the system comes with a lot of Memory.

Have you seen the requirement install sizes for most of it's games?

@Mario1331:

Seriously? It's about 25GB on PC, and a bit more on Xbox One, for some reason.

I'll give you a hint to that answer - no, he's pulling it outta his behind.