Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!mips!prls!philabs!linus!nixbur!nixpbe!peun11!josef From: josef@nixpbe.UUCP (Moellers) Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi Subject: Re: How big is a disk "Mbyte" or "MByte"? Message-ID: Date: 9 Aug 90 06:26:31 GMT References: <1990Aug2.220848.1506@Solbourne.COM> Sender: news@nixpbe.UUCP Lines: 29 >In article <9471> Eric Smith at goofy.Apple.COM writes: >In article <134023.285> paul@paul.Solbourne.COM >(Paul Orland)(Me) writes: >> >> As discussed in this forum previously, this is *not* true with disk >>drives. >> 1 Megabyte of disk space = 1,000,000 bytes (10^6), not 1024^2. > >As discussed in this forum previously, there is no consensus as to >whether a magabyte of disk space is 1000^2 or 1024^2 bytes, but for >consistency with RAM most people seem to use 1024^2. If you talk about >1K of disk space, you probably mean 1024 bytes, since 1024 probably has >a simple ratio to your sector size, whereas 1000 probably doesn't. If >you start from that reasoning, a megabyte of disk space is either >1024*1024 or 1024*1000. The latter doesn't seem to make much sense. Well, compare the figures: A disk drive with a capacity of 162529280 bytes is either - 162.5 MBytes (where 1MB = 10^6 Bytes) or - 155 MBytes (where 1MB = 1024^2 Bytes). Now, if You read "Our disk drive has 162.5 MB capacity", doesn't that sound better that "Our disk drive has 155 MB capacity"? There's definitely a 7.5 MBytes difference in these figures! -- | Josef Moellers | c/o Nixdorf Computer AG | | USA: mollers.pad@nixbur.uucp | Abt. PXD-S14 | | !USA: mollers.pad@nixpbe.uucp | Heinz-Nixdorf-Ring | | Phone: (+49) 5251 104662 | D-4790 Paderborn |