Understanding Digital Storage Units
Digital storage is measured in bytes and their multiples. The binary system (used by computers) counts in powers of 1,024: 1 KB = 1,024 bytes, 1 MB = 1,024 KB, and so on. This is because computers use binary addressing, making powers of 2 natural boundaries.
The distinction between binary and decimal prefixes causes a well-known discrepancy: a "1 TB" hard drive advertised by manufacturers (using 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes) shows as approximately 931 GB in an operating system (using 1 GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes). This converter uses binary prefixes to match how computers actually measure storage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 1 KB equal to 1000 or 1024 bytes?
This converter uses binary prefixes where 1 KB = 1,024 bytes. This matches how operating systems report file sizes and how memory is addressed. Some storage manufacturers use decimal prefixes (1 KB = 1,000 bytes) per the SI standard, which is why a "500 GB" hard drive may show as approximately 465 GB in your operating system.
How many gigabytes are in a terabyte?
Using binary prefixes, 1 terabyte (TB) equals 1,024 gigabytes (GB). This means a 2 TB hard drive holds 2,048 GB of data. For reference, 1 TB can store approximately 250,000 photos, 500 hours of video, or 6.5 million document pages.