suggestions on freeing up space on HDD ?

[menefreghista]

My ps3 took up ONLY 2.5gigs the first time it started up & formatted its base 20gb HDD. Lately i upgraded to a 320gb HDD and it swallowed a full 35gigs instead (263 out of 298)

Why should a console capable of running on 2.5 GB need to suck up another 32.5 gigs ?

there's got to be a way to get my wasted HDD back ... any ideas ?
Thanks :)

[killers72888]

im not completely 100% sure on this but some companies that make hard drives taker larger amounts of formatted space than other companies or maybe there bigger the hard drive is the more it takes up too? but i do know that my xbox 360 has 20 gigs and it only left me with a little more than 12gigs and yea i was pissed cause thats almost 8gig gone :( i wanna get a bigger hd for my ps3 but i dont know if its worth it yet.

[Yip-Man]

When formatting a new drive - Sony reserve 5 - 10 % ish of the drive for OS and formware type stuff. so the larger the drive the larger the reserve needed..

[mcav]

2 things.

The console reserves a part of the hard drive, this is true regardless of hard drive size.

But despite it being explained time and time again on these boards, it needs to be explained again that a hard drive's advertised space in gb is not only it's unformated capacity, but each gigabyte is is in fact a lie. 1 megabyte is 1024 kilobytes. 1 gigabyte is 1024 megabytes. In hard drive spec they seem to ignore the extra 24 megabytes and call a gigabyte a straight 1000 megabytes. Your console sees it correctly and only counts a gigabyte as 1024 megabytes. The larger the hard drive, the larger the gap between advertised an actual.

[Graham]

There are topics on this already - try a search first in future!

Still, as I'm here, it's all very simple. Forget any overhead that the PS3 takes, as soon as you format a drive, you lose about 7% of the drive space. This is because drive manufacturers work to base 10, where 1GB = 1000MB. However, most operating systems work to base 2, where 1GB = 1024MB. Therefore:

320 GB x 1000 = 320,000 MB
320,000 MB x 1000 = 320,000,000 KB
320,000,000 KB x 1000 = 320,000,000,000 B

320,000,000,000 B / 1024 = 312,500,000 KB
312,500,000 KB / 1024 = 305,176 MB
305,176 MB / 1024 = 298 GB

So, as you can see, just by formatting, you have lost 22GB, or 6.9% of the quoted space. Then the PS3 takes its share, which also appears to be propotionate to the size of the drive you use. The bigger the drive, as said below I just noticed, the bigger the gap (although consistent as a percentage).

[hindahouse]

There are topics on this already - try a search first in future!

Still, as I'm here, it's all very simple. Forget any overhead that the PS3 takes, as soon as you format a drive, you lose about 7% of the drive space. This is because drive manufacturers work to base 10, where 1GB = 1000MB. However, most operating systems work to base 2, where 1GB = 1024MB. Therefore:

320 GB x 1000 = 320,000 MB
320,000 MB x 1000 = 320,000,000 KB
320,000,000 KB x 1000 = 320,000,000,000 B

320,000,000,000 B / 1024 = 312,500,000 KB
312,500,000 KB / 1024 = 305,176 MB
305,176 MB / 1024 = 298 GB

So, as you can see, just by formatting, you have lost 22GB, or 6.9% of the quoted space. Then the PS3 takes its share, which also appears to be propotionate to the size of the drive you use. The bigger the drive, as said below I just noticed, the bigger the gap (although consistent as a percentage).

Hmm... i think we have the reason! anything with numbers in is correct! Very good! :D

[Bostonmess]

What type did you get? How much and where from?

[menefreghista]

thanks for the unnecessary Math lesson & the reminder to use the Search function (without which i would have never upgraded my HDD or updated the firmware to begin with):rolleyes:

I am familiar with the HDD's advertised capacity v/s its formatted capacity
320 gb turning into 298 gb is NOT the issue :neutral:

the issue is why does ps3's firmware that uses only 2.5 gigs of my 20gb HDD want to use 35 gigs instead ... WTF does it need those extra 32 gb for & how do i get them back ? 8)

to put it loosely, an XP installation takes up 3 gigs and 3 gigs only regardless of HDD size - 20gb, 120gb, 320gb ... imagine how much they'd suck up if MS worked like Sony :shock:

[menefreghista]

anyone ... ?

i'd REALLY like my 30+ GB back, wonder if a disk image would work from a 20gb to a 320gb ?

[mcav]

There are topics on this already - try a search first in future!

Still, as I'm here, it's all very simple. Forget any overhead that the PS3 takes, as soon as you format a drive, you lose about 7% of the drive space. This is because drive manufacturers work to base 10, where 1GB = 1000MB. However, most operating systems work to base 2, where 1GB = 1024MB. Therefore:

320 GB x 1000 = 320,000 MB
320,000 MB x 1000 = 320,000,000 KB
320,000,000 KB x 1000 = 320,000,000,000 B

320,000,000,000 B / 1024 = 312,500,000 KB
312,500,000 KB / 1024 = 305,176 MB
305,176 MB / 1024 = 298 GB

So, as you can see, just by formatting, you have lost 22GB, or 6.9% of the quoted space. Then the PS3 takes its share, which also appears to be propotionate to the size of the drive you use. The bigger the drive, as said below I just noticed, the bigger the gap (although consistent as a percentage).

So a longer version of what i said then

[Theft]

Yeah, same thing happened to me, I bought a 200gb drive and it left me with 167gb. Which you know...still isn't that bad... lol

[kalishnikov]

thanks for the unnecessary Math lesson & the reminder to use the Search function (without which i would have never upgraded my HDD or updated the firmware to begin with):rolleyes:

I am familiar with the HDD's advertised capacity v/s its formatted capacity
320 gb turning into 298 gb is NOT the issue :neutral:

the issue is why does ps3's firmware that uses only 2.5 gigs of my 20gb HDD want to use 35 gigs instead ... WTF does it need those extra 32 gb for & how do i get them back ? 8)

to put it loosely, an XP installation takes up 3 gigs and 3 gigs only regardless of HDD size - 20gb, 120gb, 320gb ... imagine how much they'd suck up if MS worked like Sony :shock:

I don't think you properly read the posts above you, when the new HDD formats you lose between 7-10% of it's space due to internal formating. You cannot get it back.

Personally, I'd right it off and have fun with the other 290ish gigs... :)

[Zabuza]

but i do know that my xbox 360 has 20 gigs and it only left me with a little more than 12gigs and yea i was pissed cause thats almost 8gig gone :(

That's probably because they already put a lot of videos on your 360 hard drive. I know I had a lot of stuff like a Justice League episode and a UFC All Access episode that came with my xbox. Just gotta clear the stuff you don't really want. After clearing the hard drive of everything there should be at least 15gb for you to use.

[menefreghista]

I don't think you properly read the posts above you, when the new HDD formats you lose between 7-10% of it's space due to internal formating. You cannot get it back.

Personally, I'd right it off and have fun with the other 290ish gigs... :)


i hear ya, bud ... totally cool on the internal format bit
however this 30+ gig grab by Sony's firmware is excessive IMO

if i can't find a solution, i'll be swapping the drives back & use my notebook to store my media instead. After all, 30 gigs is worth 30 minutes of 720p home movies

[coolguy]

you lose like 10 gigs right off the bat.. or dependng on the size of the drive.
i put in a 160 hard drive, after i formated it says i have 149 gigs left

[Cross]

Stick the drives in your computer and you'll still notice a loss. Its a numbers game, bigger the drive, larger the descrepency. This isn't a ps3 thing, its a hardware number thing vs software number thing.

[ScottPattison]

the Guy just doesnt get it.... the bigger the HDD the bigger the loss if it annoys you that much go back to 40GB....MORON

[menefreghista]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=377 @ dealer cost + local sales tax thanks to a friend of mine who works @ WD down in OC ;)

What type did you get? How much and where from?

[David912]

get an external hard drive and keep your saved games, music, and videos on it. There is no need to play with the inside of your ps3