Why is 1 Terabyte 1000gb and not 1024?

[MoonKnightSpidey]

A quick google search didn't explain, so can LTT?

[XTankSlayerX]

Because 8 bits is one byte... Right?

[Godlygamer23]

It depends on what's doing the calculation. Hard drive companies calculate it as 1000GB, while Windows calculates it as 1024GB. This applies universally, not just with terabytes.

[Glenwing]

A quick google search didn't explain, so can LTT?

These conventions aren't something unique to computer storage.

1 MegaWatt is 1000 KiloWatts, not 1024. 1 TeraWatt is 1000 GigaWatts, not 1024.

1 GigaHertz is 1000 MegaHertz, not 1024.

1 Kilometer is 1000 Meters, not 1024.

1 MegaOhm is 1000^2 Ohms, not 1024^2.

Why would a TeraByte be 1024 and not 1000 GigaBytes?

[Xenift]

Well from what i heard it is because no one can make a perfect 1tb hdd.

Which means they go over it just in case.

Ssd dont have this issue i think.

[KemoKa]

Because Tera is a Base10 prefix. The Base 2 denomination is TEBI-byte. That's why you see hard drives with more than 1 trillion bytes, but not more than a thousand GB or million MB or billion KB or whatever. It's better for the average consumer, because humans use Base 10 for everything. Base 2 prefixes only make sense to people like us.

 

Base 2 is like this
 

Kibi

Mebi

Gibi

Tebi

Pebi

Exbi

Zebi
Yobi

[PlayStation 2]

1 terabyte is actually 1024 gigabytes. It's interpreted as 1000GB because it's much simpler to the consumer.

[PlayStation 2]

Technically, a 1TB HDD is just an estimate. For Western Digital, their company policy dictates that per 1TB hard drive, that the actual storage size must be between a 972GB and 1012GB. This differs per hard drive, just like every processor is not clocked at the same speed, and may run faster/hotter/etc. than others. 

 

So, to answer your question it's a question of the code that computers use to operate. They use an eight-bit system, based mostly off binary, so this results in a standard data processing rate, similar to the metric system, which is why they don't operate in powers of two, instead of doubles. 

This.

Toshiba does ~930GB for a 1 TB hard drive.

[Godlygamer23]

Why would a TeraByte be 1024 and not 1000 GigaBytes?

It can be calculated that way.

[MoonKnightSpidey]

A quick google search didn't explain, so can LTT?

Not sure where my teacher got the info, but she said

1024 bytes in a megabyte

1024 megabytes in a gigabyte

1000 gigabytes in a terabyte

[Oshino Shinobu]

It's basically due to Terabyte and Tebibyte (and others (mega/mebi, giga/gibi and so on) becoming synonymous. 

 

1Terabyte (TB) is 1000 Gigabytes (GB). 1Tebibyte (TiB) is 1024 Gibibytes (GiB). Tera is a decimal system (base 10) and Tebi is a binary system. 

 

Drives are quoted in Decimal, but hardware uses binary, hence why 1000GB drives show as less than that, as they are actually being read and shown in GiB. We can work with base 10 systems easier, which is why it is what is quoted as. 

 

That's how I understand it, at least. Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

[Syntaxvgm]

256 GB SSD and a 2 TB HDD. Oh, no, wait. That is the marketing size. The actual size, of course, is 238 GB and 1.81 TB.

It's not a marketing size. You are wrong. It's even taught wrong, it's a common thing not to know the reason behind this

 

 

 

The only reason 1 GB is 1000 MB is because IEC is retarded. This wasn't true till 98

a GiB is 1024MB, that's where the two units come together

 

No, it's 1024 MiB, and it's a retarded idea that I refuse to accept and I much prefer the traditional measurement.

They don't "come together"

1 Gib= 1024 MiB

1 MiB = 1024 KiB

1 KiB = 1024 Bytes

Think of it this way, GiB/MiB/KiB is exactly the same as the traditional 1024 conversion that a lot of people still use 16 years later.

 

What?? I thought it was SI because of all Kilo and Giga can you elaborate please..

 

Long story short, it was on a 1024 scale, because that's just computer convent. Then IEC in their infinite wisdom decided it had to match SI.

It's not that they are wrong, but changing it after so long just leads to confusion, even now.

 

Which is wrong and a misconception and I wouldn't because a lot of people say it, Barnacules did it and I corrected him so did other people like newegg TV if it's wrong I will correct them it doesn't matter and a lot of forum members know that a 1 GB is 1000MB which dare I say are a tech community.

 

Thing is the majority of the tech community are older and grew up on the traditional definition, then in 98 some small groups of people decided to change that all.

Barnacules wasn't really wrong either- not only did he learn and start programming likely before the definition change, but as far as I know windows still uses the 1024 conversion. This is why a lot of people plug in drives and think the drive uses a lot of space up formatting or whatever. It doesn't. It's just on a 1000MB=1GB, and windows is not as far as I remember.

1 TB = 0.909495 TiB, and windows uses the TiB definition for TB

Yes you are right only MS does this Linux,OSX use decimal not binary and show it as decimal, Win uses binary units and shows them as decimal and that where a lot of problems happen like seeing HDD smaller than advertised.

im studying engineer in hardware, and they taught us that 1GB is indeed 1024MB.

And they are wrong. Sorta. Since 98.

I was taught that too.

then what is the real size of MB in 1GB?, so i can make a ruckus in my school for false information.

Well according to IEC and IEEE it is 1000 MB, which is 1000 KB, which is 1000 bytes.

1 GiB is 1024 MiB, and so on

That's pronounced Gibibyte, and sounds just as retarded as it looks. 

Drives use the new SI standard, both becuase it's an IEEE standard as of like 2000 or something like that. 

It was adopted by drive manufacturers For a few reasons

1.for mechanical drives at least (I can't speak for SSDs), the SI units make sense. It's not like memory

2. It's an IEEE standard, and if putting a mini dildo on your drive is a IEEE standard, you better do it or it's WRONG. Or something. Anyway they keep up to "code" with these standards, else the server market might catch on fire or something.

3. The new SI standard makes it look bigger. Would you rather market a  100 GB drive or a 93 GB drive?

 

Of course not everyone adopted. MS didn't for example. 

Have your professor/classmates do this:

Add up all of the size for the partitions in windows for a drive. I'll do mine

647GB, 495GB, 720GB

Those are the 3 partitions on my 2TB drive, those are all rough numbers, rounding down like in explorer for simplicity's sake.

As one volume, that would add up to 1862GB, which is not 2TB obviously. A LOT of techies will tell you it has to do with the formatting or windows or something, which is a load of shit. 

Windows just uses the old GB, now referred to as GiB.

If I take 1862GiB and convert it to GB (google will do this for you, their converter is correct) I get 1999.31, which without rounding down on the partition sizes and counting the ~100MiB system reserved partition would be 2TB or pretty damn close to it.

 

You'll also notice that windows has an area in file properties similar to this:

Size

Size on disk

The size on disk is their way of trying to bridge the gap. 

[i was wrong here, size on disk DOES NOT account for the new SI measurement.]

Now when it comes to memory and some other things, most manufacturers use the 1024 standard written as GB. That's a whole different story. 

This is a really confusing thing and this adaption of the SI units really muddied things up

[Oshino Shinobu]

Not sure where my teacher got the info, but she said

1024 bytes in a megabyte

1024 megabytes in a gigabyte

1000 gigabytes in a terabyte

1000 Megabytes in a Gigabyte.

 

1024 Mebibytes in a Gibibyte.

 

They're used synonymously, so neither is really wrong. 

[TetraSky]

Technically, a 1TB HDD is just an estimate. For Western Digital, their company policy dictates that per 1TB hard drive, that the actual storage size must be between a 972GB and 1012GB. This differs per hard drive, just like every processor is not clocked at the same speed, and may run faster/hotter/etc. than others. 

 

So, to answer your question it's a question of the code that computers use to operate. They use an eight-bit system, based mostly off binary, so this results in a standard data processing rate, similar to the metric system, which is why they don't operate in powers of two, instead of doubles. 

My 1TB WD Black drive is only 931GB.

[givingtnt]

These conventions aren't something unique to computer storage.

1 MegaWatt is 1000 KiloWatts, not 1024. 1 TeraWatt is 1000 GigaWatts, not 1024.

1 GigaHertz is 1000 MegaHertz, not 1024.

1 Kilometer is 1000 Meters, not 1024.

1 MegaOhm is 1000^2 Ohms, not 1024^2.

Why would a TeraByte be 1024 and not 1000 GigaBytes?

because a byte is composed of 8 bits. not 10

 

here's the math : 

one bit is a 0 or a 1

a byte is composed of 8 bits, giving 256 possible options of value

when you calculate in binary (aka base 2) so its 1²   2² 4² 8² 16² etc..

 

a kilobyte is 1024.   8x128 = 1024

 

then from there they go by x10

 

wich is why we have 1/2/4/8/16/32/64/128/256.... gb     alwaise double  2tb is actually 2048gb   not 2000

[givingtnt]

My 1TB WD Black drive is only 931GB.

thats cus your os is using the rest

[Syntaxvgm]

thats cus your os is using the rest

no, it's not. Not at all. Common misconception. Refer to my above post with all of the quotes. 

[Syntaxvgm]

Because you have wOS and/or System Updates pre-installed. The 972GB drive is minimum base install for a 100% off-the-shelf clean drive. Plus, you're forgetting about WD's built-in cloud software that's on the drives, so that could take up a lot of space as well.

no noooo nooo

1000 GB = 931.3 GiB

You also need to see above 

[das affe]

Not sure where my teacher got the info, but she said

1024 bytes in a megabyte

1024 megabytes in a gigabyte

1000 gigabytes in a terabyte

1024bytes in a kilobyte 

kilo=thousand.

[Oshino Shinobu]

thats cus your os is using the rest

That's not true. It's because the system will read and display the drive in GiB. 1000 Megabytes = 0.931 Gibibytes

[Syntaxvgm]

That's not true. It's because the system will read and display the drive in GiB. 1000 Megabytes = 0.931 Gibibytes

^

seriously it's like no one reads what we posted. 

I think it's time I make a really nice and clear guide about this subject so we can all just link to it. 

[Glenwing]

It can be calculated that way.

Your app is simply wrong

The keepers of the SI conventions (BIPM) in fact refuse to recognize "1TB = 1024GB" as correct usage of the tera-, giga-, etc prefixes. Not that they exactly "own" the tera- and other prefixes per se, but still worth noting.

The 1TB hard drive showing up as 931.3GB in Windows is not because 1TB is an estimate. Every single 1TB drive you own will show up as exactly 931.3GB in Windows. This is because Windows is displaying the units incorrectly.

The hard drive is specified in TeraBytes, where 1TB = 1,000,000,000,000 Bytes (1000^4). Windows counts in binary units, so a GigaByte in Windows is not 1000^3 Bytes, which would read the 1TB drive as 1000GB. Instead in Windows, "GB" is a shorthand for a group of 1,073,741,824 Bytes, or 1024^3 Bytes. In a 1 trillion-Byte drive, there are exactly 931.3 groups of 1,073,741,824 Bytes, hence 931.31 Windows "GB"s, although the rest of everyone else uses the notation "GiB" for this, since "Giga" unambiguously stands for 1,000,000,000 in literally every other area of measurement ever.

If you plug a 1TB hard drive into OS X or most major Linux distributions, it will be read correctly as 1000GB (OS X) or 931.3 GiB (Linux). Windows is basically counting in meters and reporting the number with "yards" on the end instead of the unit it's actually measuring in.

[Glenwing]

My 1TB WD Black drive is only 931GB.

Your 1TB drive is 1TB, not 931GB. Windows just displays the numbers/units wrong. Plug your drive into a Mac or Linux system and you'll see it displayed correctly.

[Godlygamer23]

[removed]

Which I referenced in my original post and just misapplied it. You're correct.

[TetraSky]

Because you have wOS and/or System Updates pre-installed. The 972GB drive is minimum base install for a 100% off-the-shelf clean drive. Plus, you're forgetting about WD's built-in cloud software that's on the drives, so that could take up a lot of space as well.

thats cus your os is using the rest

 

No.. I'm pretty sure my OS is on my SSD, and that there is nothing related to WD on my drive as I've often formatted it and even performed a low level format on it before, meaning it's 100% the actual capacity. I use it just for my games and it is 931GB.