Question 1

What is the difference between decimal and binary storage units?

Accepted Answer

Decimal (SI) uses powers of 1,000: 1 GB = 1,000 MB. Binary (IEC) uses powers of 1,024: 1 GiB = 1,024 MiB. Hard drive manufacturers and network speeds use decimal, while operating systems and RAM typically use binary. This difference explains why drives appear smaller than advertised.

Question 2

Why does my 1 TB hard drive show as 931 GB?

Accepted Answer

The drive manufacturer labels 1 TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes (decimal). Your operating system divides by 1,024 three times (binary), giving 931.32 GiB. Both numbers represent the same amount of storage, just measured differently.

Question 3

Which system should I use for file sizes?

Accepted Answer

Use decimal if you are comparing against manufacturer specifications, network speeds, or scientific measurements. Use binary if you need values that match what your operating system reports, or when calculating RAM capacity.

Question 4

How many MB are in 1 GB?

Accepted Answer

In decimal: 1 GB = 1,000 MB exactly. In binary: 1 GiB = 1,024 MiB. Most people use the decimal conversion (1,000 MB) for everyday purposes.

Question 5

Is GB the same as GiB?

Accepted Answer

Technically no. GB (gigabyte) is the decimal unit (1,000^3 bytes), while GiB (gibibyte) is the binary unit (1,024^3 bytes). However, many systems use "GB" loosely to mean either. This calculator lets you choose which interpretation to use.

Conversor de Gigabytes

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Perguntas Frequentes

Qual e a diferenca entre unidades decimais e binarias?

Por que meu disco de 1 TB mostra 931 GB?

Quantos MB tem 1 GB?

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