Off-Topic > Off-Topic - Tiny Core Lounge

drive sizes

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bmarkus:

--- Quote from: cast-fish on April 19, 2012, 11:20:35 PM ---
it's so unhelpful and confusing...(i think even drive manufacturers write 10gb on a drive when
it isn't it's 9.36gb which is what my HDD is)


--- End quote ---

Manufacturers specify the physical capacity. Usable enduser capacity depends on file system, as every file system has some overhead due to administration. Manufacturers do not know which file system will be installed. It's not marketing.

gutmensch:
Historically looking at all other SI units like KiloGramm, KiloNewton etc. the units KiloByte, MegaByte, GigaByte were wrong since they were computed with 1024 (2^10) instead of 1000 (10^3). So they "invented" KibiByte, MebiByte, GibiByte to name this special "1024" prefix and use KB, MB, GB correctly in its SI meaning (1000, 1000², 1000³) and KiB, MiB, GiB for binary thousand units, but however I personally find the very wide-spread mixture of both unit computations and especially the wrong naming (MB instead of MiB or vice versa) also confusing. And I do believe too, that the main reason hard drive manufacturers adopted the SI units (instead of MiB or GiB, etc.) so quickly was the saving of about 2.5% capacity while keeping the price at the same level ;) So base line is: watch exactly for MiB and MB. I think newer Windows versions name it correctly...

cast-fish:
so interesting...

i have seen MiB mentioned.....all of this info is new to me...

thanks

V

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