[Leica] stupid computer question

[hlritter at bex.net (Howard Ritter)]

Because different manufacturers and different individuals and  
different computer operating systems use the terms kilobyte,  
megabyte, and gigabyte differently. To some, a kB is 1000 bytes; to  
others it is 1024 (2^10) B. To some, a MB is 1000^2 (1,000,000) B, to  
others 1000 x 1024 (1,002,400) B, and to others 1024^2 (1,048, 576)  
B. A GB can be 1000^3 (1,000,000,000), 1024^3 (1,073,741,824), 1000 x  
1024^2 (1,048,576,000), or 1000^2 x 1024 (1,024,000,000) B.

(In practice, I think the definitions commonly in use are either  
powers of 1000 or powers of 1024, not a gemisch of both, though I  
might be wrong. So, 1000 or 1024; 1,000,000 or 1,048,576; and  
1,000,000,000 or 1,073,741,824.)

If you divide 320 by 1,073,741,824 you get 298.023..., showing that  
the drive manufacturer (strictly speaking, its marketing department)  
considers a GB to be 1000^3 or one billion (American, one thousand  
million British) B while your computer's OS uses the strict  
definition of a GB as 1024^3, or 1,073,741,824 B. Byte inflation at  
work.

--howard


On Jun 6, 2007, at 10:14 PM, leo wesson wrote:

> why does an empty 320 gig drive mount as having 298 gig available?
>
> Leo
>
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