Why 4GB RAM actually have the capacity of 3.7 GB.similar 2GB (1.8 GB)

Replies

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  [Prototype]

  As per manufacturers convention, 1GB = 1000 MB as opposed to 1024 MB thats originally present. Hence you loose 24 MB per GB of space.
• 

  ABCD ABCD

  [Prototype]

  As per manufacturers convention, 1GB = 1000 MB as opposed to 1024 MB thats originally present. Hence you loose 24 MB per GB of space.

  What do you answer for this?
  Hard Disk Capacity: 465.76GB for 500GB Hard Disk
  You can check yours, and reply.
  
  Your answer is wrong.
• 

  [Prototype]

  mreccentric

  What do you answer for this?
  Hard Disk Capacity: 465.76GB for 500GB Hard Disk
  You can check yours, and reply.
  
  Your answer is wrong.

  You need to go down the table, 1 MB = 1000 KB, 1 KB = 1000 B and so on... There's loss at every stage.
  
  Calculate that and you'll land on something convincing. Over this, the available disc space also depends the type of formatting you've done.
  
  On the side note, there's a polite way to criticize someone instead saying like that. Looks pretty rude & disrespecting.
• 

  ABCD ABCD

  [Prototype]

  You need to go down the table, 1 MB = 1000 KB, 1 KB = 1000 B and so on... There's loss at every stage.
  
  Calculate that and you'll land on something convincing. Over this, the available disc space also depends the type of formatting you've done.
  
  On the side note, there's a polite way to criticize someone instead saying like that. Looks pretty rude & disrespecting.

  You're right now buddy. I scratched my head about this some months ago. But, i'm sure that the Hard Disk capacity use different concept. Because, the disk capacity is not dependent on formatting, it only comes into role when you place a file in that hard disk. Ask me, if you want further explanation.
  
  Sorry if you felt me being rude. It was not intentional, sometimes i talk like that. Depends on mood.
• 

  rahul69

  [Prototype]

  You need to go down the table, 1 MB = 1000 KB, 1 KB = 1000 B and so on... There's loss at every stage.
  
  Calculate that and you'll land on something convincing. Over this, the available disc space also depends the type of formatting you've done.
  
  On the side note, there's a polite way to criticize someone instead saying like that. Looks pretty rude & disrespecting.

  Dude!! that is not the case, some memory in case of RAM is "hardware reserved", and hence the available memory is less.
  In HDD similar is the case. The NTFS file system creates many files to store Master File Tables and directory entries, so the memory is less (If u format using FAT32 u will get full memory, but NTFS trades that memory for better speed and security).
  And lastly, the concept that u told 1MB=1000KB etc. is used in case of Internet Providers, so hope it clears all doubts!!😀
• 

  [Prototype]

  mreccentric

  You're right now buddy. I scratched my head about this some months ago. But, i'm sure that the Hard Disk capacity use different concept. Because, the disk capacity is not dependent on formatting, it only comes into role when you place a file in that hard disk. Ask me, if you want further explanation.
  
  Sorry if you felt me being rude. It was not intentional, sometimes i talk like that. Depends on mood.

  Its alright!
  
  Well, the formatting thing, I've noticed it on the Flash drives. I realized it shouldn't be valid on HDD.
  
  Just for everyone, Your 1 GB = 0.931 GB of Manufacturer. How do you arrive at that? Well, 1,000,000,000 / (1024 x 1024 x 1024) which if you multiply with your HDD capacity will give you the actual space available for storage.
• 

  [Prototype]

  rahul69

  Dude!! that is not the case, some memory in case of RAM is "hardware reserved", and hence the available memory is less.
  In HDD similar is the case. The NTFS file system creates many files to store Master File Tables and directory entries, so the memory is less (If u format using FAT32 u will get full memory, but NTFS trades that memory for better speed and security).
  And lastly, the concept that u told 1MB=1000KB etc. is used in case of Internet Providers, so hope it clears all doubts!!😀

  Nopes, take out your HDD and check its surface. They generally write a note in small font, 1 GB - 10000... bytes
  
  Yes you're correct about the reservation of memory on RAM which I forgot to mention.
• 

  rahul69

  [Prototype]

  Nopes, take out your HDD and check its surface. They generally write a note in small font, 1 GB - 10000... bytes
  
  Yes you're correct about the reservation of memory on RAM which I forgot to mention.

  But here is doubt : According to u, "Your 1 GB = 0.931 GB of Manufacturer" and I calculated for my HDD and it came out that for each 1GB, I was getting 0.956 GB, so how did Manufacturer gave higher than expected??👀
  Is it that these limits are applied approximately?
• 

  ABCD ABCD

  reservation of memory? can some one elaborate?
  So is this the reason why 1gb is equivalent to 1000mb? and remaining 24 is reserved?? confused.
• 

  [Prototype]

  rahul69

  But here is doubt : According to u, "Your 1 GB = 0.931 GB of Manufacturer" and I calculated for my HDD and it came out that for each 1GB, I was getting 0.956 GB, so how did Manufacturer gave higher than expected??👀

  The point here is, its not 1024 MB. I may have did a mistake somewhere. Why so much paranoid about that?
• 

  [Prototype]

  mreccentric

  reservation of memory? can some one elaborate?
  So is this the reason why 1gb is equivalent to 1000mb? and remaining 24 is reserved?? confused.

  No, leaving the calculation aside, the OS reserves memory for PCI BUS and other devices in RAM which is not alloted for user operation.
• 

  rahul69

  mreccentric

  reservation of memory? can some one elaborate?
  So is this the reason why 1gb is equivalent to 1000mb? and remaining 24 is reserved?? confused.

  The hardware reservation which I talked about is the memory reserved by OS for system tasks eg. working of Device Drivers and BIOS. This is not related to 1GB=1000MB thing.
• 

  Anoop Kumar

  Guys its nothing to do with system reserved and blah blah...
  Its Decimal and binary system
  here is calculation:
  

   Decimal    :    Binary
  1 Kilobyte (10^3) =  1024 Bytes (2^10)
  1 Megabyte =  1048576 Bytes (2^20)
  1 Gigabyte =    1073741824 Bytes (2^30)

  It's just confusion of conversion of 10 (decimal) system to binary system.
  That means Kilobyte in decimal : 10^3=1000 is equivalent to binary : 2^10=1000
  
  Companies advertise their product in binary system near to some simplest form like 4GB, 20GB or 500GB.
  A 4GB pendrive actually contains 4101767168 Bytes in binary which decreased to 3.82007GB in decimal.
  That is the reason when you buy 500GB which contains actual close to ~500GB in binary.
  and when you convert to decimal form it will be:
  
  ((500(HDD Size)*10^9) / (2^30) ) = 465.661287308 GB in decimal system.
  
  here is the link to convert into Byte to GB
  
  #-Link-Snipped-#
• 

  Scorpion007

  it is right that our calculation is in decimal and computer calculate in binary (2^n). but there is also another reason exist when we check the capacity of RAM in system it is less because at same time system is consuming it to run many unseen process to system works. it is my personal point of view #-Link-Snipped-#
• 

  rikil

  In addition to @Scorpion007's view, there is a need of addressing space for file systems on memory. My 16GB pendrive needs 90 MB additionally.