1GB of disk space is finally 1GB of disk space!

[Subway]

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article...7/11/01/231250

Seagate has agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleges that the company mislead customers by selling them hard disk drives with less capacity than the company advertised. The suit states that Seagate's use of the decimal definition of the storage capacity term "gigabyte" was misleading and inaccurate: whereby 1GB = 1 billion bytes. In actuality, 1GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes — a difference of approximately 7% from Seagate's figures. Seagate is saying it will offer a cash refund or free backup and recovery software.

Fredi

[RUSHVision]

Glad to hear it. I got a 320GB hard drive from them that is in reality only capable of holding about 290 gigs. 30 gigs is not what I would call an insignificant difference.

[Subway]

It is to note that every harddisk manufacturer is liable to this. I hope they are all forced to change now.

Fredi

[Genesis F5]

Not only to hard drive manufacturers, but to computer manufacturers as well (who don't tell you that a few gigs are being taken up by a partition containing data that could easily be put on a DVD.).

[EVPohovich]

Yeah, my "500GB" external is truly only 465.52GB, that's close to a 35GB discrepancy. Hell, I still have a laptop with a HDD around that...

[Genesis F5]

Although Seagate denies each of the plaintiff's claims and feels that no one deserves compensation for its actions

*Writes Seagate off of my list of companies to buy hardware from.

What a **** attitude. How are they going to deny it? It says right on the box, 320GB. Put it into any machine and you'll get the "usable" size. Surely being in the hard drive business, they see that it's intentionally misleading. When you buy a hard drive that says 320GB, you want 320GB.

[hanratty21]

*Writes Seagate off of my list of companies to buy hardware from.

But this is an industry standard. Every manufacturer does it...so they are all to blame...or not. If everyone is doing it, and it's not some super secret technology they are using (everyone in this post has seen this "phenonenon" for themselves at least once) then is it really THAT much of a travesty of justice. To be honest, I've never even given it much thought...I've always known to expect about 5-10% less drive space than advertised. Are all Quarter Pounders exactly .25 lbs? Is that before or after frying all the fat out of it? Is that with bun or without? I truly don't think Seagate or any other manufacturer was trying to dupe anyone here. My car doesn't EVER get the advertised MPG on it. I am pretty sure my milk goes bad before the date on the carton. I also think that my cable bill costs way more than the nice saleslady on the phone told me it would.

I am not saying they don't need fair practices, but this is hardly a subversive act against all consumers. If I am not mistaken, wasn't Seagate also the first HD manufacturer to offer a 5 yr unconditional warranty?

[RUSHVision]

Oh, I knew about it before I bought it from reading the newegg reviews. It was still a good deal, even at the reduced storage amount. And yep, Seagate just might offer the best warranties of all the manufacturers. I would prefer a little more truth in advertising, though.

[Genesis F5]

Oh, I know Seagate isn't the only offender. I just don't like that they're acting as if they're making it up. I remember how miffed I got when I first figured out the HD size wasn't matching the size I remembered paying for (namely because I needed close to the exact amount.)

I just think Seagate could have said "you're right, the size was misrepresented on the box." and maybe take the lead in getting some truth in advertising.

Edit: Rushvision seems to think so too.

[silverx2]

i cant wait to go to bestbuy and get my new 365.75 gb drive tomorow!

[yasunobu13]

Considering at the heart of this is the manufacturer's ability to make up new definitions for commonly used terms you'd think it would be considered outright misleading from when the rend started or that other businesses would be following suit.

That quarter pounder at least weighed a quarter pound at some point in time. They didn't advertise it as a quarter pound where one pound is equal to 10 ounces.

[ihoss.com]

But will they put 465.52GB or 500GiB on it now?

[Subway]

4Tb (terabits) obviously, the bigger the better.

Fredi