Solved How can I gain available storage on an external drive?

As far I remember from my teens ,in computers science, always the 2 to the power of n is used because of the bit. Anyway for me the real fact is that a Windows formatted 1TB disk leaves to me 931GB and that is all matters for me.

MiguelAngel11 said:

As far I remember from my teens ,in computers science, always the 2 to the power of n is used because of the bit. Anyway for me the real fact is that a Windows formatted 1TB disk leaves to me 931GB and that is all matters for me.

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You get it

MiguelAngel11 said:

As far I remember from my teens ,in computers science, always the 2 to the power of n is used because of the bit. Anyway for me the real fact is that a Windows formatted 1TB disk leaves to me 931GB and that is all matters for me.

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Ditto! It's been interpreted that way forever . . .

MisterEd said:

The problem is that I can only find that number in a Samsung FAQ and not anywhere else.

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The problem is you. The 93% number is explained right there in that Wikipedia article I linked in my first reply to this thread.

hdmi said:

The problem is you. The 93% number is explained right there in that Wikipedia article I linked in my previous reply to you.

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Samsung FAQ said:

Samsung SSDs conform to the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials (IDEMA) standard, which classifies approximately 93 percent of their actual physical memory capacity as usable space for storage.

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Wikipedia article said:

The difference between units based on decimal and binary prefixes increases as a semi-logarithmic (linear-log) function—for example, the decimal kilobyte value is nearly 98% of the kibibyte, a megabyte is under 96% of a mebibyte, and a gigabyte is just over 93% of a gibibyte value.

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It may be true but is not conclusive. The problem is that Samsung only gave a general statement and did not specifically say how they got that number. Besides 93% only works for gigabyte. No matter for me this does not matter. No court has ever ruled that drive manufactures are doing anything wrong in using the decimal form of Gigabyte. So there is no point in arguing otherwise.

BTW, before you try to preach to me you need to get a masters degree in Computer Science like I have.

Back in the question of the OP there is nothing you can do to get more space from your 8TB disk. You have to accept the fact that the actual capacity of the disk (in binary), is always smaller than the nominal (in decimal).

The posts are going round in circles now.

Time for @caffeine to mark this as solved.

MisterEd said:

Samsung FAQ said:


Wikipedia article said:


It may be true but is not conclusive. The problem is that Samsung only gave a general statement and did not specifically say how they got that number. Besides 93% only works for gigabyte. No matter for me this does not matter. No court has ever ruled that drive manufactures are doing anything wrong in using the decimal form of Gigabyte. So there is no point in arguing otherwise.

BTW, before you try to preach to me you need to get a masters degree in Computer Science like I have.

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AFAIK the main idea behind the IDEMA formula was for the manufacturers to agree on staying within a 0.02% margin for drive capacities specified in GB. So, a gigabyte is just over 93% of a gibibyte value as stated in the Wikipedia article, and, the IDEMA formula was deemed to be a close enough approximation of that.

According to this same Wikipedia article, in 2019 the court in California ruled that the manufacturers did nothing wrong. So the problem is you, the consumer. It wasn't me who was trying to preach on anything (it was the Sex Pistols... ), but as a matter of fact I do have a formal degree in Computer Science, even though that does not make me feel like I am superior (nor does anything else, but anyway... ).

OAT said:

I tried it and it works.
I was able to do a restore on a VM.
There was a compatibility pop-up asking me if it worked OK, which I acknowledged.

Keep in mind that many modern apps now do not use the registry as they are mostly XML based.

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You have to love VMs. You can do all sorts of testing. If something goes awry, just a few mouse clicks can return you to a previously saved stable condition.