Just Got...

Yes and no, I realised after I'd posted that I forgot to multiply and then divide by an extra thousand for the proper figures but other than that it is right. MiB and MB are distinct amounts (1024Kibibytes and 1000kilobytes respectively) so depending on how strictly you define it then you want to use the different terms.

Please dont promote this utterly stupid MiB and GiB rubbish. Kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes et al are calculated as powers of 2 and always have been. Just because the storage manufacturers prefer to use powers of 10 because it makes their products seem larger doesn't suddenly redefine the standard. All other measures of storage, such as memory, still use the correct powers-of-2 values and all OSes report storage in terms of these values.

The storage manufacturers attempt to redefine a long-established standard is offensive and arrogant tbh.
 
I'd say that's fairly accurate. Just for the record my drives read their total size as:

2x 300GB = 279GB each (2 different manufacturers)
4x 500GB = 465GB each (3 different manufacturers)
 
Please dont promote this utterly stupid MiB and GiB rubbish. Kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes et al are calculated as powers of 2 and always have been. Just because the storage manufacturers prefer to use powers of 10 because it makes their products seem larger doesn't suddenly redefine the standard. All other measures of storage, such as memory, still use the correct powers-of-2 values and all OSes report storage in terms of these values.

The storage manufacturers attempt to redefine a long-established standard is offensive and arrogant tbh.

All other measures of 'storage' and Windows are wrong. A kilometre is a 1000 metres, not 1024. Linux reports storage space correctly in GiB's. It's people stuck in their ways of using the generic term of GB's that adds confusion (and all other companies promoting memory in Giga, etc.)
 
I think this thread needs to be concluded with WERE ALL WRONG! (yes me too, and capitals needed).

Someones screwing as all over! i say its a ploy based on both the hard drive makers and the strange people that created filesystems so that they are both wrong and none of us can plan how much we need, thus always needing even more drives......

Probably
 
All other measures of 'storage' and Windows are wrong. A kilometre is a 1000 metres, not 1024. Linux reports storage space correctly in GiB's. It's people stuck in their ways of using the generic term of GB's that adds confusion (and all other companies promoting memory in Giga, etc.)

Utter rubbish. The terms have nothing to do with the SI units such as kilogram, they just share the same prefix. Whilst this is often used as an excuse for "normalising" the computer terms, it's specious.

Basically, before the storage manufacturers started trying to redefine everything, all the terms were defined as powers of two and there were no problems. Their definitions don't just change because a minority thinks they should. I did a computer science degree 20 years ago and ALL these terms were clearly defined as their powers-of-two values. The GiB & MiB terms didn't even exist and all capacity was defined in terms of the correct powers-of-two values, be it floppy disks, hard drives, memory or tapes.

As for Linux, if this does report in GiB then that's pathetic and merely a naming change. All original Unix systems used the correct powers-of-two values, just like all other proper operating systems do. The Linux idiots have obviously fallen into the same trap you have of trying to look "cool and hip" by adopting the "funky new names" :rolleyes:

As for your assertion that we're "stuck in our ways", that's laughable. You make it sound like the old terms were retired in favour of two new ones, one for each definition. That's not the case. The perpetrators have tried to usurp the standard GB term from under our feet for their own purposes and then tried to give us the GiB to replace it with. Pathetic.

If they really wanted to disambiguate the terms they'd have left the GB to mean what it's always meant and introduced a new term for the powers of ten values, thus reducing confusions. But of course the hard drive manufacturers wouldn't hear of such a thing as they'd be forced to 'fess up about their smaller drives, just as the old CRT monitor manufacturers were forced to stop selling screens as 17" or 19", when in reality you couldn't see this much display.
 
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It may not have anything to do with SI units and everything to do with the metric prefixes which define a kilo as a 1000 times the base unit and not 2^13. This was recognised by the IEC who implemented the standard of 'bi' after the first syllable of the decimal prefix in 1998. 10 years ago. Even if it has been ignored by the marketing teams of memory (etc) it is still the standard none the less and using the incorrect term doesn't help matters.

Adding a new term for powers of 10's? Change something that has been a standard for 200 years. That will add even more confusion. The best method would be for the marketing departments to correctly define the size of their products. And it is the HDD manufacturers who are the ones that are right. (Albeit the ones who have created the confusion in the first place...)


And lol and trying to be "cool and hip" on a computer forum. :p I rarely use the term GiB but at least acknowledge it's existence and correctness. It should always be referred to when someone asks about the smaller size of HDD's.
 
My Linux box certain reports in 1024's not 1000's (or I've got one F*ing HUGE hard drive).

I thought it the ISO favoured the 1000's approach to keep it in line with the rest of humanity. It's wrong of course, but if standards had to be right MS office woulda dissappeared in puff of logic years ago :D

Kilo means 1000 not 1024, so the term "kilobyte" MEANS 1000bytes, whether it is used to stand for 1024 or not.
How's your ancient Greek people? Want to work out the correct prefix for 1024 of something?

BTW, MiB and GiB, not seen these before. MiB I assume is short for "Mi(llion)B(ytes)", but GiB???? Gizillion Bytes? ;)
(could also be GodzIlla's Ba**s)
 
BTW, MiB and GiB, not seen these before. MiB I assume is short for "Mi(llion)B(ytes)", but GiB???? Gizillion Bytes? ;)
(could also be GodzIlla's Ba**s)

Giga Binary Byte, you skip the second "i" when expressing it in short. I'm not going any further into a debate on the pointlessness of the terms though, I had enough of that in a different debate yesterday.
 
It gets worse when people speak in these terms. Kibibytes, mibibytes and gibibytes. It appears to be an acquired speech defect.
 
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