Can some one explain this better?

[Bubble99]

Quote This is why drives seem to shrink when plugged into windows. Windows is measuring a base ten volume with larger base two units and then displaying the base two size with base ten units. Plug that same drive into a Mac or Linux computer and it will report as the correct size. There’s no scam by drive makers. Quote

What do they mean windows is measuring a base ten volume not measuring a base two volume? I thought windows measuring Gigabyte …..What happen to base two counting?

 

[Chuckeee]

I was originally taught a Kilobyte (KB) is 2^10 Bytes which equals 1024 Bytes. But some marketers (who don’t understand math) say kilo means 1000 so a KB is a 1000 bytes. This crazy logic was then applied Megabytes (MB) and Gigabytes (GB).

 

[adrianlondon]

I think this only bothers people older than around 35-40

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte

it is confusing, especially as one is meant to use kB for 1000 bytes and KB for 1024 bytes, but most people use KB for both. And MB is used for both. I don't see KiB or MiB used.

I guess they simplified it because people didn't understand ^2. Plus, "kilo" does actually mean 1000. It was only 1024 because of binary bits.

 

[jz0309]

Been like this for at least a decade for hard drives, you get a 500GB drive, not 512, a 1TB and not 1.024 etc etc… Marketeers decision.

 

[Bubble99]

Been like this for at least a decade for hard drives, you get a 500GB drive, not 512, a 1TB and not 1.024 etc etc… Marketeers decision.

I got a 256 SSD that what it shows on the package. But in windows it shows 237 GB.

 

[UliBaer]

256 GB * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 = 256,000,000,000 bytes (Drive manufacturer calculation)
256,000,000,000 bytes / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 238.418 GB ~ 238 GB (correct calculation)

[edit] Windows is right!

 

[winxmac]

How storage capacity is measured on Apple devices

Some apps and operating systems, such as iOS 10 and earlier and OS X Leopard and earlier, report storage capacity using the binary system.

What are Kibibytes (KiB), Mebibytes (MiB), and Gibibytes (GiB)?

They are a different set of storage units used to express/measure file sizes. On the surface, Kibibytes, Mebibytes, and Gibibytes might seem similar to Kilobytes Gigabytes, Terabytes, Petabytes and Exabytes – and often used interchangeably – but they are not the same.

Linux distributions always used base 10 or decimal system [10^3 = 1000] in representing drive storage capacity

Windows versions always used base 2 or binary system [2^10 = 1024] in representing drive storage capacity
[I only started checking this since Windows 2000 and I think Microsoft never used base 10 or decimal system, but you can do further research]

iOS and macOS previously used base 2 or binary system [2^10 = 1024] in representing drive storage capacity but switched to base 10 or decimal system [10^3 = 1000] since iOS 11 and OS X Snow Leopard and still uses it today

 

[Bubble99]

Linux distributions always used base 10 or decimal system [10^3 = 1000] in representing drive storage capacity

Windows versions always used base 2 or binary system [2^10 = 1024] in representing drive storage capacity
[I only started checking this since Windows 2000 and I think Microsoft never used base 10 or decimal system, but you can do further research]

iOS and macOS previously used base 2 or binary system [2^10 = 1024] in representing drive storage capacity but switched to base 10 or decimal system [10^3 = 1000] since iOS 11 and OS X Snow Leopard and still uses it today

So 256 SSD is base 10 decimal system and is not proper size of the SSD but base two system showing 237 GB is proper size. And windows is showing the proper size?

Than what is the difference of Gigabyte vs Gibibyte?

 

[mfram]

Gibibyte vs Gigabyte is an example of a long-sordid fight over naming conventions of units of bytes. This Wikipedia article attempts to summarize it.

Guess it depends on how old-school you are. I'm old enough to not be amused by the hard driver manufacturers forcing the switch to base-10 units in marketing terms. As mentioned above, it seems Windows still uses the binary convention. At least M$ made one good choice.

There's also the issue that SSD internally need extra storage capacity to maintain data integrity in the drive. Some SSD manufacturers exposed this fact and others didn't. In other words even if there's 256*1000*1000*1000 storage in the drive, some of it must be kept in reserve to deal with NAND storage issues. So the effective storage size might be more or less depending on how they specify it. There were 240 gigabyte SSD drives marketed to expose this issue.