Comments on: Western Digital is less of a space waster with new hard drive formatting architecture http://www.thinkpads.com/2009/12/14/western-digital-is-less-of-a-space-waster-with-new-hard-drive-formatting-architecture/ ThinkPads & IdeaPad news, reviews and deals Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:31:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Chrishttp://www.thinkpads.com/2009/12/14/western-digital-is-less-of-a-space-waster-with-new-hard-drive-formatting-architecture/comment-page-1/#comment-6830 Chris Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:07:10 +0000 http://www.thinkpads.com/?p=3331#comment-6830 "Once upon a time doing IT support as a part time job, and always for family & friends, I can recall the numerous questions about why their hard drive didn’t have all the GB it was supposed to."I think perhaps those friends, family and you do not understand the prefixes for binary multiples:http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.htmlFactor Name Symbol Origin Derivation 210 kibi Ki kilobinary: (210)1 kilo: (103)1 220 mebi Mi megabinary: (210)2 mega: (103)2 230 gibi Gi gigabinary: (210)3 giga: (103)3 240 tebi Ti terabinary: (210)4 tera: (103)4 250 pebi Pi petabinary: (210)5 peta: (103)5 260 exbi Ei exabinary: (210)6 exa: (103)6Examples and comparisons with SI prefixes one kibibit 1 Kibit = 210 bit = 1024 bit one kilobit 1 kbit = 103 bit = 1000 bit one mebibyte 1 MiB = 220 B = 1 048 576 B one megabyte 1 MB = 106 B = 1 000 000 B one gibibyte 1 GiB = 230 B = 1 073 741 824 B one gigabyte 1 GB = 109 B = 1 000 000 000 B “Once upon a time doing IT support as a part time job, and always for family & friends, I can recall the numerous questions about why their hard drive didn’t have all the GB it was supposed to.”

I think perhaps those friends, family and you do not understand the prefixes for binary multiples:

http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

Factor Name Symbol Origin Derivation
210 kibi Ki kilobinary: (210)1 kilo: (103)1
220 mebi Mi megabinary: (210)2 mega: (103)2
230 gibi Gi gigabinary: (210)3 giga: (103)3
240 tebi Ti terabinary: (210)4 tera: (103)4
250 pebi Pi petabinary: (210)5 peta: (103)5
260 exbi Ei exabinary: (210)6 exa: (103)6

Examples and comparisons with SI prefixes
one kibibit 1 Kibit = 210 bit = 1024 bit
one kilobit 1 kbit = 103 bit = 1000 bit
one mebibyte 1 MiB = 220 B = 1 048 576 B
one megabyte 1 MB = 106 B = 1 000 000 B
one gibibyte 1 GiB = 230 B = 1 073 741 824 B
one gigabyte 1 GB = 109 B = 1 000 000 000 B

]]>