The Great Capacity Swindle

[pyrre]

 :-D

This is because windows (or other OS for that matter) multiply by decimal and not by binary...

one kilo binary byte is 1024 or 2^10
This is basic for what most OS calculate disk size.
But they multiply by 1000 not by 1024 as they should.
so
if you multiply 1024 by 1024 yo get:
1048576 which is the exact amount of binary bytes in one megabyte.
However
if you multiply by 1000:
1024 x 1000 = 1024000
And that is one megabyte calculated by most OS
And again
Binary:
1048576 x 1024 = 1073741824 byte or 1GB
If you multiply this by the expected size of your disk you should get the number of the size of your disk.

But os calculate:
1024000 x 1000 = 1024000000 as 1GB

This is the reason why disks appears to be smaller than they really are. But on a binary level they are the size they should be... However. some of the disk size is occupied by the File Allocation Table and its backup...

EIDT:
(300GB disk = 1073741824 * 300 = well :-) 300GB in binary. my calculator wont go so far.
My 300 GB disk is only 293GB in windows explorer, and in disk manager it is only 279GB... and in the bios post screen it is 298GB)

[pyrre]

All(?) Operating systems that use these storage devices use the 1024 bytes per kB standard.

Yes they do. but when calculating anything above 1KB OS's multiply by 1000 making 1GB 102400Bytes instead of 1047576Bytes.

The SI standards body did us all a big disservice by setting this silly standard. The different named definitions (kiBi) should have been made to the decimal version not the binary.

Well i disagree... the SI standards are made to differ in terms. KB is Kilo Byte and can be interped as 1000 Bytes. In SI standards it is totaly correct. However KiBiByte is Kilo Binary Byte and cannot be interped "the wrong way" it uses the binary number sequence. while KB can be using decimal number. And therefor not entirely correct...

[pyrre]

@jorkany

Quote:

    Yes they do. but when calculating anything above 1KB OS's multiply by 1000 making 1GB 102400Bytes instead of 1047576Bytes.


Wrong.

What is correct then?

Quote:

    Well i disagree... the SI standards are made to differ in terms. KB is Kilo Byte and can be interped as 1000 Bytes.


A kilobyte is 1024 bytes, regardless of any effort by marketing boards to redefine it.

Oh really...
one byte is, one... one kilo is one thousand (1000).
1 byte multiplied by 1000 is still one thousand...
K=1000
B=Byte
there is nothing that say it IS calculated binary or decimal!
That is why KiB or KibiB (kilo binary byte) were invented...
It confused some people...

[pyrre]

@ monami

MBP?

[pyrre]

I remember formatting the amiga disks in a special matter it would give capacity of 1MB...
I don't remember what i used to format the disks in that matter though....