[SOLVED] Windows 11 using Gibibyte, not Gigabyte

[Perene]

Using: Windows 11.

I thought all filesizes and the hard drive were measured in Gigabytes, but despite Windows claiming this is the case, they are all measured in Gibibytes. Since that's the case, why Windows omits the "i" in the middle of these units?

For example, I selected 9 files with 6 GB (in fact, GiB, not GB!) each, and Windows says:

54,0 GB (57.982.059.738 bytes)

Using a calculator (to convert bytes to Gibibytes) the end result is:

54.000001156703 GiB

Now, if we do this to GIGABYTES (pay attention to this word), this is what we end up with:

57.982059738 GB

**

My 1 TB SSD is reported this way by Windows (never mind the rest reserved for partition):
*
999.409.315.840 bytes = 930 GB
*

Which the converter says: 930.7724571228 GiB

Or:
999.40931584 GB (meaning 1 TB, we aren't seeing a precise number because the rest of it it's being reserved in terms of partition).

So, 1000 GIGABYTES = 1 TB
or =
931.32 GiB

***
Did you notice Google Drive free accounts offer 15 GB of disk space and when we create a file with almost 15 GB, it is actually 15 GiB?

Meaning when GOOGLE advertises their accounts offer 15 GB, this is in fact 16.1 GIGABYTES and 15 Gibibytes.

In the end we have plenty of examples of that term, however almost no one calls it for what it is.

A 18 TB hard drive will be reported this way by Windows:

***

16763 GiB

***

Not like this:

****
18000 GB
****

The only software that was doing things correctly is JDownloader (JDW), which allows us to replace TiB with TB and the same for GiB or GB.

However, I reversed that decision because based on the previous explanations, knowing how many Gigabytes there is in a file is irrelevant, because all we are seeing has the "i' letter in the middle measuring everywhere.

My question is: why such confusion? I don't think this is even similar to the imperial vs. metric system, because the names aren't different.

 

[TerryLaze]

My question is: why such confusion? I don't think this is even similar to the imperial vs. metric system, because the names aren't different.

This started back when we where talking about kilobytes and the difference was so small that nobody cared.
It's also just easier for the mind to understand things going up in tens, instead of in eights, nice round numbers.

 

[SkyNetRising]

My question is: why such confusion? I don't think this is even similar to the imperial vs. metric system, because the names aren't different.

Yes, it can be confusing.
The problem is, "gigabyte" and "gibibyte" is the same thing in some cases and a different thing in other cases.

"Gigabyte" always was 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes (normal notion).
But drive manufacturers define gigabyte as 1000 x 1000 x 1000 bytes.
Then to differentiate between those two, manufacturers notion is called "gigabyte" and normal notion - "gibibyte".

But "gibibyte" is not a very popular term, so everybody just uses "gigabyte".
Yes, I know - very confusing.

TLDR "gigabyte"is 1000 x 1000 x 1000 bytes only, when drive manufacturers use it.
In all the other cases "gigabyte" is 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes.

 

[johnbl]

Using: Windows 11.

I thought all filesizes and the hard drive were measured in Gigabytes, but despite Windows claiming this is the case, they are all measured in Gibibytes. Since that's the case, why Windows omits the "i" in the middle of these units?

For example, I selected 9 files with 6 GB (in fact, GiB, not GB!) each, and Windows says:

54,0 GB (57.982.059.738 bytes)

Using a calculator (to convert bytes to Gibibytes) the end result is:

54.000001156703 GiB

Now, if we do this to GIGABYTES (pay attention to this word), this is what we end up with:

57.982059738 GB

**

My 1 TB SSD is reported this way by Windows (never mind the rest reserved for partition):
*
999.409.315.840 bytes = 930 GB
*

Which the converter says: 930.7724571228 GiB

Or:
999.40931584 GB (meaning 1 TB, we aren't seeing a precise number because the rest of it it's being reserved in terms of partition).

So, 1000 GIGABYTES = 1 TB
or =
931.32 GiB

***
Did you notice Google Drive free accounts offer 15 GB of disk space and when we create a file with almost 15 GB, it is actually 15 GiB?

Meaning when GOOGLE advertises their accounts offer 15 GB, this is in fact 16.1 GIGABYTES and 15 Gibibytes.

In the end we have plenty of examples of that term, however almost no one calls it for what it is.

A 18 TB hard drive will be reported this way by Windows:

***

16763 GiB

***

Not like this:

****
18000 GB
****

The only software that was doing things correctly is JDownloader (JDW), which allows us to replace TiB with TB and the same for GiB or GB.

However, I reversed that decision because based on the previous explanations, knowing how many Gigabytes there is in a file is irrelevant, because all we are seeing has the "i' letter in the middle measuring everywhere.

My question is: why such confusion? I don't think this is even similar to the imperial vs. metric system, because the names aren't different.

base 2 number system rather than base 10

ie 2 raised to a power rather than 10 raised to a power

 

[hotaru.hino]

My question is: why such confusion? I don't think this is even similar to the imperial vs. metric system, because the names aren't different.

Tradition. Some things are just hard to get rid of because they're so ingrained in the software and protocols we use that to change over could amount to a ripple effect for something that, on a grander level, is a minor inconvenience to the user. Granted there are OSes that report SI prefixes as powers of 10, like Ubuntu and macOS.

But things could be worse. The 1.44MB floppy disk, how much space do you think is on there? If you guessed 1.44 * 2^20 or 1.44 million bytes, both are wrong. It's 1440 kibibytes.

 

[Perene]

Tradition. Some things are just hard to get rid of because they're so ingrained in the software and protocols we use that to change over could amount to a ripple effect for something that, on a grander level, is a minor inconvenience to the user. Granted there are OSes that report SI prefixes as powers of 10, like Ubuntu and macOS.

But things could be worse. The 1.44MB floppy disk, how much space do you think is on there? If you guessed 1.44 * 2^20 or 1.44 million bytes, both are wrong. It's 1440 kibibytes.

1.44 MB = 1440 Kilobytes = 1406.25 KiB to be more precise.

1440 KiB = 1474.56 kB = 1.47456 MB

These are the accurate numbers, not the ones you suggested...

Everything Windows and its apps tell us it's actually in Kibibytes, Mebibytes and Gibibytes. Except, of course, the "bytes" part.

For example, 2026499979 bytes = 1.88 GiB and 2.02 GB.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Everything Windows and its apps tell us it's actually in Kibibytes, Mebibytes and Gibibytes. Except, of course, the "bytes" part.

It's just - nobody uses those "bibibytes".
You can safely strike them from your dictionary and never use.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Why complain about it and not just accept it

 

[kerberos_20]

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte
see wiki

btw how much ram do you have? in what units?

 

[Colif]

the old hdd measure space different to windows thing.

The difference is only going to get bigger as time goes on unless we swap at some stage, as SSD do have the right amount of space on them, its just much of the extra is used for error correction, so its debatable how much you lose. You may get more back though as I doubt multi tb drives need that much extra

 

[hotaru.hino]

1.44 MB = 1440 Kilobytes = 1406.25 KiB to be more precise.

1440 KiB = 1474.56 kB = 1.47456 MB

These are the accurate numbers, not the ones you suggested...

No, the actual capacity of a "1.44MB" 3.5" floppy disk is 1440 KiB. It's comprised of 2880 512-byte sectors. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk#Sizes,_performance_and_capacity and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix#Floppy_drives

That's just how they advertised it back then.