Size of a re-formatted HD

[analogdino]

Hi All,
I'm new here... always wanted a source of current PC expertise so I can stop bothering my IT friends! BTW, my first PC ran DOS 1.0 and I used to know those systems!
I have just scrapped a not-so-old, slow laptop. Rather than physically destroy the HD for personal data security, I have chosen to repurpose it on an office PC as an extra HD space.
Here's what I've done to date:

1. Purchased a SATA to USB docking station (ORICO brand, uses a 12V, 2A wall wart)
2. Connected to Win10 tower PC USB port.
3. Plugged in the old HD and formatted it to effectively delete all data and old OPSYS.

It all works! I can make folders, paste files and retrieve all. It may be useful...
However, the HD is marked "320 GB". The formatted "usable size" that I see is only 144 GB... still useful, of course.
I expected some reduction due to internal disk organization. but not this much.
The so-called "allocation size" (name?), presented at formatting, was 4096 bytes, in an optional range from 512 byte to a lot more KB (but I forget the range.)
Does this affect formatted size?
If so, should I re-format and select a different number?
Many thanks for all replies.
Cheers,
Roger

 

[beers]

What does your partition table look like?

Disk capacity is sold in base10 figures even though to leverage data on it you need base2 numbers.

Gigabytes (capacity on the sticker) to Gibibytes (capacity in Windows) is roughly ~93.1% so you should expect about 298 GiB usable.

Check out the partition scheme in Disk Management. Since you already wiped the file system you should be able to repartition it to your liking.

 

[johnb35]

As Beers said, check disk management, I bet you have unpartitioned space on that drive that just needs to be merged with the first partition. Or its possible the second partition was formatted in a way that windows doesn't recognize it.

 

[analogdino]

Interesting, but not understood!
I went into "disk management", but the options were too arcane for me to follow.
I did reformat K (again)... but no change (none expected.)
However, in "This computer" I now see for the first time (I think!) two "new" HD's are shown... one is called "External HDD (k" (it's 144GB) and the other is called "Ext HD (J" (it's 127 GB)... both names I recall putting in during my "installation activities"! They are the same hardware.
Obviously (to me anyway...), the drive has split itself into two logical drives with different names... one (K is 144GB and one (J is 127GB, totaling 271GB, which is close enough to the 93% expected by moderator "beers" for a formatted 320GB drive (actually 85%).
So, how do I get either of the logical J: or K: drives (same hardware) to become one drive (any letter), which is easier to use than two?
Thanks and cheers,
Roger

 

[johnb35]

Easiest way is to delete both partitions as long as there is no data on them that you need. Once both are deleted, you just make it one big drive.

 

[beers]

The so-called "allocation size" (name?), presented at formatting, was 4096 bytes, in an optional range from 512 byte to a lot more KB (but I forget the range.)
Does this affect formatted size?

Just delete the existing partitions and you can make a new big one and give it whatever letter you want.

The block size traditionally has been the file system reserving a minimum of that size of space to store any file in a chunked format (data larger than x chunks gets x+1 chunks). So if you chose a 32KB chunk and wrote a file with a single character in it, it would consume 32KB. The general advantage would be more contiguous block data for a traditional hard drive (SSD wouldn't really care) but you lose out on storage space in environments that have a lot of small files that are significantly smaller than the chunk size.

I always just use the OS default.

 

[analogdino]

I've given up on this for now!
I now have two external logical drives of 127GB and 144GB respectively. They are "in the same box"... odd, but no big deal for me! Both now have separate icons on my desktop with clear names, viz: Ext_A_127GB and Ext_B_144GB, so are easily it available for any use.
Thanks for all the help but, for now, I've got to get on with my analog life!
Cheers,
Roger

 

[Pupp]

I always recommend using a disk wipe program to at least write zeros to the entire drive, although scrambling is better, at least write zeros to the entire drive. It's far better than a Windows format, even a "full" format.