I’ve been busy at work building out a bunch of new servers, when I had to stop and have a laugh at my own expense. When creating new filesystems during OS installation, I usually pick a reasonable size for the OS filesystem and proceed with the install. The part that made me chuckle was the fact that I was creating a 20GB partition, in this case for a Windows Server 2003 installation. Why it that funny? Let me continue…

To be precise, I was creating a 20480MB partition. I’m not exactly sure what compels me to do so, but I always create partitions based on a proper multiple of 1024. I suppose it partly has to do with the fact that I am obsessed with clean servers that are built properly - I like to see that nice clean 20.0GB size listed:

It also really grinds my gears when you tell an OS installer that you want a 20GB filesystem and it creates a 20 Billion Byte filesystem instead. When I tell a computer to give me a 20GB filesystem, I want a 20GB filesystem, NOT a 19.5GB filesystem. I am not amused by misbehaving robots.

It’s always fun to have a good laugh at one’s own neurotic habits.