How can I get the effective capacity of a disk?











up vote
0
down vote

favorite
1












I want to clone on block level a harddisk to SSD.



The source disk is a 500GB Seagate (ST500LT012-1DG142). The Lenovo solution center on W10/64 shows an effictive capacity of 465,76 GB. I don't know, if I can trust the number.



As target disk I would like to buy the Crucial MX500 500GB (CT500MX500SSD1).



The cloning will fail, if the target disk is smaller than the source disk. How can I check the effective capacity of the disks upfront, so that the sizes will fit?










share|improve this question




























    up vote
    0
    down vote

    favorite
    1












    I want to clone on block level a harddisk to SSD.



    The source disk is a 500GB Seagate (ST500LT012-1DG142). The Lenovo solution center on W10/64 shows an effictive capacity of 465,76 GB. I don't know, if I can trust the number.



    As target disk I would like to buy the Crucial MX500 500GB (CT500MX500SSD1).



    The cloning will fail, if the target disk is smaller than the source disk. How can I check the effective capacity of the disks upfront, so that the sizes will fit?










    share|improve this question


























      up vote
      0
      down vote

      favorite
      1









      up vote
      0
      down vote

      favorite
      1






      1





      I want to clone on block level a harddisk to SSD.



      The source disk is a 500GB Seagate (ST500LT012-1DG142). The Lenovo solution center on W10/64 shows an effictive capacity of 465,76 GB. I don't know, if I can trust the number.



      As target disk I would like to buy the Crucial MX500 500GB (CT500MX500SSD1).



      The cloning will fail, if the target disk is smaller than the source disk. How can I check the effective capacity of the disks upfront, so that the sizes will fit?










      share|improve this question















      I want to clone on block level a harddisk to SSD.



      The source disk is a 500GB Seagate (ST500LT012-1DG142). The Lenovo solution center on W10/64 shows an effictive capacity of 465,76 GB. I don't know, if I can trust the number.



      As target disk I would like to buy the Crucial MX500 500GB (CT500MX500SSD1).



      The cloning will fail, if the target disk is smaller than the source disk. How can I check the effective capacity of the disks upfront, so that the sizes will fit?







      hard-drive ssd






      share|improve this question















      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited Nov 18 at 16:39

























      asked Nov 18 at 11:57









      musbach

      4011411




      4011411






















          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes

















          up vote
          1
          down vote



          accepted










          The effective capacity of disks is reported in a binary(base2) format. It will be lower than the given size in a decimal(base10) format. The size itself is the same, even if Windows and others report it in different ways.
          Check out this nice article by Seagate on the given topic.



          In short - both disks are 500GB disks and will have the same effective capacity (as reported by Windows). If vendors started reporting sizes with mixed formats, that would be very confusing.



          Edit: The link also provides a way to calculate the size.



          Capacity Calculation Formula

          Decimal capacity / 1,048,576 = Binary MB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,073,741,824 = Binary GB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,099,511,627,776 = Decimal TB capacity

          Example:
          A 500 GB hard drive is approximately 500,000,000,000 bytes (500 x 1,000,000,000).

          500,000,000,000 / 1,048,576 = 476,837 megabytes (MB) = 465 gigabytes (GB)


          Not having the disk on hand would make it hard to confirm; but during my experience with cloning disks (30-40 drives) I've never had a problem when purchasing drives of the same given size (or larger ofcourse) and cloning. More than half of the drives I've cloned were a simple change from a HDD to SSD with the same size.






          share|improve this answer























          • @KamilMaciorowski - Thanks for the constructive feedback. As his reported size equals the 500GB example in the article, and if one assumes the 3TB drive further down in the list only has one partition it adds up. I've cloned plenty of drives (30-40) and never had the issue arise when the disks sizes reported by vendor in a base10 format match. Not having the disk on hand only leaves the calculations left, which would equal the same size given the input is 500GB for both disks.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 13:54






          • 1




            My point is this 500GB may be a rounded value in any case; the exact capacities may differ (I've seen such pair of disks). Cloning on a block level will indeed fail if the target drive is smaller, this is a potential issue the OP wants to avoid.
            – Kamil Maciorowski
            Nov 18 at 14:05










          • That's news to me, as I've never seen a clone fail between various disks from different vendors and different sizes. Good to know the problem does exist though. Thanks for the enlightenment.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 14:53











          Your Answer








          StackExchange.ready(function() {
          var channelOptions = {
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "3"
          };
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
          createEditor();
          });
          }
          else {
          createEditor();
          }
          });

          function createEditor() {
          StackExchange.prepareEditor({
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          convertImagesToLinks: true,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: 10,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader: {
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          },
          onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          });


          }
          });














           

          draft saved


          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f1376430%2fhow-can-i-get-the-effective-capacity-of-a-disk%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown

























          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes








          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes








          up vote
          1
          down vote



          accepted










          The effective capacity of disks is reported in a binary(base2) format. It will be lower than the given size in a decimal(base10) format. The size itself is the same, even if Windows and others report it in different ways.
          Check out this nice article by Seagate on the given topic.



          In short - both disks are 500GB disks and will have the same effective capacity (as reported by Windows). If vendors started reporting sizes with mixed formats, that would be very confusing.



          Edit: The link also provides a way to calculate the size.



          Capacity Calculation Formula

          Decimal capacity / 1,048,576 = Binary MB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,073,741,824 = Binary GB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,099,511,627,776 = Decimal TB capacity

          Example:
          A 500 GB hard drive is approximately 500,000,000,000 bytes (500 x 1,000,000,000).

          500,000,000,000 / 1,048,576 = 476,837 megabytes (MB) = 465 gigabytes (GB)


          Not having the disk on hand would make it hard to confirm; but during my experience with cloning disks (30-40 drives) I've never had a problem when purchasing drives of the same given size (or larger ofcourse) and cloning. More than half of the drives I've cloned were a simple change from a HDD to SSD with the same size.






          share|improve this answer























          • @KamilMaciorowski - Thanks for the constructive feedback. As his reported size equals the 500GB example in the article, and if one assumes the 3TB drive further down in the list only has one partition it adds up. I've cloned plenty of drives (30-40) and never had the issue arise when the disks sizes reported by vendor in a base10 format match. Not having the disk on hand only leaves the calculations left, which would equal the same size given the input is 500GB for both disks.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 13:54






          • 1




            My point is this 500GB may be a rounded value in any case; the exact capacities may differ (I've seen such pair of disks). Cloning on a block level will indeed fail if the target drive is smaller, this is a potential issue the OP wants to avoid.
            – Kamil Maciorowski
            Nov 18 at 14:05










          • That's news to me, as I've never seen a clone fail between various disks from different vendors and different sizes. Good to know the problem does exist though. Thanks for the enlightenment.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 14:53















          up vote
          1
          down vote



          accepted










          The effective capacity of disks is reported in a binary(base2) format. It will be lower than the given size in a decimal(base10) format. The size itself is the same, even if Windows and others report it in different ways.
          Check out this nice article by Seagate on the given topic.



          In short - both disks are 500GB disks and will have the same effective capacity (as reported by Windows). If vendors started reporting sizes with mixed formats, that would be very confusing.



          Edit: The link also provides a way to calculate the size.



          Capacity Calculation Formula

          Decimal capacity / 1,048,576 = Binary MB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,073,741,824 = Binary GB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,099,511,627,776 = Decimal TB capacity

          Example:
          A 500 GB hard drive is approximately 500,000,000,000 bytes (500 x 1,000,000,000).

          500,000,000,000 / 1,048,576 = 476,837 megabytes (MB) = 465 gigabytes (GB)


          Not having the disk on hand would make it hard to confirm; but during my experience with cloning disks (30-40 drives) I've never had a problem when purchasing drives of the same given size (or larger ofcourse) and cloning. More than half of the drives I've cloned were a simple change from a HDD to SSD with the same size.






          share|improve this answer























          • @KamilMaciorowski - Thanks for the constructive feedback. As his reported size equals the 500GB example in the article, and if one assumes the 3TB drive further down in the list only has one partition it adds up. I've cloned plenty of drives (30-40) and never had the issue arise when the disks sizes reported by vendor in a base10 format match. Not having the disk on hand only leaves the calculations left, which would equal the same size given the input is 500GB for both disks.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 13:54






          • 1




            My point is this 500GB may be a rounded value in any case; the exact capacities may differ (I've seen such pair of disks). Cloning on a block level will indeed fail if the target drive is smaller, this is a potential issue the OP wants to avoid.
            – Kamil Maciorowski
            Nov 18 at 14:05










          • That's news to me, as I've never seen a clone fail between various disks from different vendors and different sizes. Good to know the problem does exist though. Thanks for the enlightenment.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 14:53













          up vote
          1
          down vote



          accepted







          up vote
          1
          down vote



          accepted






          The effective capacity of disks is reported in a binary(base2) format. It will be lower than the given size in a decimal(base10) format. The size itself is the same, even if Windows and others report it in different ways.
          Check out this nice article by Seagate on the given topic.



          In short - both disks are 500GB disks and will have the same effective capacity (as reported by Windows). If vendors started reporting sizes with mixed formats, that would be very confusing.



          Edit: The link also provides a way to calculate the size.



          Capacity Calculation Formula

          Decimal capacity / 1,048,576 = Binary MB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,073,741,824 = Binary GB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,099,511,627,776 = Decimal TB capacity

          Example:
          A 500 GB hard drive is approximately 500,000,000,000 bytes (500 x 1,000,000,000).

          500,000,000,000 / 1,048,576 = 476,837 megabytes (MB) = 465 gigabytes (GB)


          Not having the disk on hand would make it hard to confirm; but during my experience with cloning disks (30-40 drives) I've never had a problem when purchasing drives of the same given size (or larger ofcourse) and cloning. More than half of the drives I've cloned were a simple change from a HDD to SSD with the same size.






          share|improve this answer














          The effective capacity of disks is reported in a binary(base2) format. It will be lower than the given size in a decimal(base10) format. The size itself is the same, even if Windows and others report it in different ways.
          Check out this nice article by Seagate on the given topic.



          In short - both disks are 500GB disks and will have the same effective capacity (as reported by Windows). If vendors started reporting sizes with mixed formats, that would be very confusing.



          Edit: The link also provides a way to calculate the size.



          Capacity Calculation Formula

          Decimal capacity / 1,048,576 = Binary MB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,073,741,824 = Binary GB capacity
          Decimal capacity / 1,099,511,627,776 = Decimal TB capacity

          Example:
          A 500 GB hard drive is approximately 500,000,000,000 bytes (500 x 1,000,000,000).

          500,000,000,000 / 1,048,576 = 476,837 megabytes (MB) = 465 gigabytes (GB)


          Not having the disk on hand would make it hard to confirm; but during my experience with cloning disks (30-40 drives) I've never had a problem when purchasing drives of the same given size (or larger ofcourse) and cloning. More than half of the drives I've cloned were a simple change from a HDD to SSD with the same size.







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited Nov 18 at 13:59

























          answered Nov 18 at 12:50









          xstnc

          641310




          641310












          • @KamilMaciorowski - Thanks for the constructive feedback. As his reported size equals the 500GB example in the article, and if one assumes the 3TB drive further down in the list only has one partition it adds up. I've cloned plenty of drives (30-40) and never had the issue arise when the disks sizes reported by vendor in a base10 format match. Not having the disk on hand only leaves the calculations left, which would equal the same size given the input is 500GB for both disks.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 13:54






          • 1




            My point is this 500GB may be a rounded value in any case; the exact capacities may differ (I've seen such pair of disks). Cloning on a block level will indeed fail if the target drive is smaller, this is a potential issue the OP wants to avoid.
            – Kamil Maciorowski
            Nov 18 at 14:05










          • That's news to me, as I've never seen a clone fail between various disks from different vendors and different sizes. Good to know the problem does exist though. Thanks for the enlightenment.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 14:53


















          • @KamilMaciorowski - Thanks for the constructive feedback. As his reported size equals the 500GB example in the article, and if one assumes the 3TB drive further down in the list only has one partition it adds up. I've cloned plenty of drives (30-40) and never had the issue arise when the disks sizes reported by vendor in a base10 format match. Not having the disk on hand only leaves the calculations left, which would equal the same size given the input is 500GB for both disks.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 13:54






          • 1




            My point is this 500GB may be a rounded value in any case; the exact capacities may differ (I've seen such pair of disks). Cloning on a block level will indeed fail if the target drive is smaller, this is a potential issue the OP wants to avoid.
            – Kamil Maciorowski
            Nov 18 at 14:05










          • That's news to me, as I've never seen a clone fail between various disks from different vendors and different sizes. Good to know the problem does exist though. Thanks for the enlightenment.
            – xstnc
            Nov 18 at 14:53
















          @KamilMaciorowski - Thanks for the constructive feedback. As his reported size equals the 500GB example in the article, and if one assumes the 3TB drive further down in the list only has one partition it adds up. I've cloned plenty of drives (30-40) and never had the issue arise when the disks sizes reported by vendor in a base10 format match. Not having the disk on hand only leaves the calculations left, which would equal the same size given the input is 500GB for both disks.
          – xstnc
          Nov 18 at 13:54




          @KamilMaciorowski - Thanks for the constructive feedback. As his reported size equals the 500GB example in the article, and if one assumes the 3TB drive further down in the list only has one partition it adds up. I've cloned plenty of drives (30-40) and never had the issue arise when the disks sizes reported by vendor in a base10 format match. Not having the disk on hand only leaves the calculations left, which would equal the same size given the input is 500GB for both disks.
          – xstnc
          Nov 18 at 13:54




          1




          1




          My point is this 500GB may be a rounded value in any case; the exact capacities may differ (I've seen such pair of disks). Cloning on a block level will indeed fail if the target drive is smaller, this is a potential issue the OP wants to avoid.
          – Kamil Maciorowski
          Nov 18 at 14:05




          My point is this 500GB may be a rounded value in any case; the exact capacities may differ (I've seen such pair of disks). Cloning on a block level will indeed fail if the target drive is smaller, this is a potential issue the OP wants to avoid.
          – Kamil Maciorowski
          Nov 18 at 14:05












          That's news to me, as I've never seen a clone fail between various disks from different vendors and different sizes. Good to know the problem does exist though. Thanks for the enlightenment.
          – xstnc
          Nov 18 at 14:53




          That's news to me, as I've never seen a clone fail between various disks from different vendors and different sizes. Good to know the problem does exist though. Thanks for the enlightenment.
          – xstnc
          Nov 18 at 14:53


















           

          draft saved


          draft discarded



















































           


          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f1376430%2fhow-can-i-get-the-effective-capacity-of-a-disk%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown





















































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown

































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown







          Popular posts from this blog

          Probability when a professor distributes a quiz and homework assignment to a class of n students.

          Aardman Animations

          Are they similar matrix