One of the biggest sources of confusion in having a computer is the stated capacity of storage. I had a computer that was supposed to have a 40 GB hard drive, except when you went into my computer, it said 37.5 Gb. Now I have a computer that was advertised on the company's website as having a 640 GB hard drive. But when you go into computer, it says 595.2 GB. What's going on?
Now it's not that I need that extra 45 GB. I just want to know why the discrepancy. Here's the story. It's hard to follow so bear with me. The computer industry & the hard drive manufacturers use different methods. The hard drive industry uses the definitions of the International System of Units (SI), which is powers of 1000. To quote Wikipedia "a 500 gigabyte hard drive holds 500 000 000 000 bytes". However, the computer industry, including information found on your operating system, XP or 7 uses "binary unit", which is 2³°. This means a gigabyte, instead of meaning 1 000 000 000 bytes, instead means 1 073 741 824 bytes, or 1024=2¹°. That's how you end up with this confusion.
One of the excuses is because memory has become so cheap. That's why we have 640 GB hard drives, instead of just a few MB. But according to Wikipedia, there have been a number of lawsuits, mostly against manufacturers of flash sticks. But this still doesn't answer the question. Why, if hard drive makers use SI, why do Microsoft & Apple list binary? It confuses the average consumer who never heard of these terms. To argue this is the standard is nonsense. The industry changes overnight. Why not make sure every one is using the same standards?
Now it's not that I need that extra 45 GB. I just want to know why the discrepancy. Here's the story. It's hard to follow so bear with me. The computer industry & the hard drive manufacturers use different methods. The hard drive industry uses the definitions of the International System of Units (SI), which is powers of 1000. To quote Wikipedia "a 500 gigabyte hard drive holds 500 000 000 000 bytes". However, the computer industry, including information found on your operating system, XP or 7 uses "binary unit", which is 2³°. This means a gigabyte, instead of meaning 1 000 000 000 bytes, instead means 1 073 741 824 bytes, or 1024=2¹°. That's how you end up with this confusion.
One of the excuses is because memory has become so cheap. That's why we have 640 GB hard drives, instead of just a few MB. But according to Wikipedia, there have been a number of lawsuits, mostly against manufacturers of flash sticks. But this still doesn't answer the question. Why, if hard drive makers use SI, why do Microsoft & Apple list binary? It confuses the average consumer who never heard of these terms. To argue this is the standard is nonsense. The industry changes overnight. Why not make sure every one is using the same standards?
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