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From: forrest@orion.sybase.com (Jon Forrest)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: What is difference between Unformatted and Formatted HD capacity?
Message-ID: <12320@sybase.sybase.com>
Date: 12 Apr 91 17:53:44 GMT
References: <1991Apr4.203413.7550@news.larc.nasa.gov> <5994@trantor.harris-atd.com> <1991Apr10.032238.19876@ism.isc.com>
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I have a very simple explaination of this that's based on the metaphor
of a parking lot. If you measure the surface of a newly surfaced
parking lot you'll come up with a measurement of area. In one sense
this is the size of the parking lot but it really isn't a useful
measure. If you tried to park in the lot you wouldn't know where to park
because there are no lines drawn on the lot. Not only couldn't you park but
you couldn't tell anybody where you car was, assuming that you had to
give directions based on locations within the parking lot.

Once the lines have been painted on the surface then things change.
You'd know exactly where you could park your car and you could tell
people where you car is parked, kind of like at airport parking lots.
Since the lines take up space, the amount of usuable space in the
parking lot is less then when it was first built but this overhead
provides something useful.

Think of the unpainted parking lot as an unformatted disk and the
painted parking lot as a formatted disk. This will help you understand
and remember what formatting does.

----
Anything you read here is my opinion and in no way represents Sybase, Inc.

Jon Forrest WB6EDM
forrest@sybase.com
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