GiB Vs GB?

[Carsomyr]

Now that I know windows views files and sizes in GiB and MiB.

When I look at my documents in my PC. They are in fact not really (for instance) 100GB, they're 100 GiB? Right?

Soooooo, if I were to download a file on the Internet say a 20gb game patch, that would actually be a 20 GiB patch correct?

 

[RejZoR]

Yes, general consensus on file sizes in Windows is that they show GB, but they actually mean GiB. GiB is a rather new measurement unit which didn't exist back in the days. And since most users know and understand GB for what it is (1024 units), they haven't changed it. It's technically wrong because Giga prefix strictly means 1000 units, but Microsoft still calculates it right using 1024 conversion.

Problems mostly happen when DVD or HDD makers use literal meaning of prefix Giga and use 1000 units instead of 1024. That 500GB HDD can't actually fit 500GB (GiB) file from Windows. Partially because of overhead and some space taken by file system itself, but mostly because of how units are used for one but not for other.

 

[silentbogo]

Gibibytes they are called now... always found this to sound hilarious.

 

[RejZoR]

Gibibytes they are called now... always found this to sound hilarious.

Same. Sounds childish. Uh bibibibibibi when you poke a small baby in the cheek

 

[Carsomyr]

I feel like a blind man who can finally see!
Years of using Windows and not understanding why this was happening. For instance I would create a 64gb partition only to end up with a 59gb partition when all along the dumb windows calculates in GiB not GB.

Why the flip can't they just show the real numbers. It's as if they're trying to scam us into thinking we have 1tb when in fact it's less lol

 

[silentbogo]

gibibits are even funnier. Almost like from a "hacker" movie made by pure humanitarians
- "Oh no, evil russian hackers are breaking through firewall! They've uploaded almost ten gazzilion gibibits of information!"
- "Don't worry, I'm gonna use my uber-nerd skills to counter-hack this bastard and shove his ethernet card up the a#$"

Why the flip can't they just show the real numbers. It's as if they're trying to scam us into thinking we have 1tb when in fact it's less lol

It all boils down to historical crap again. Back in a day, when computers were big and loud, and using them required bravery, skill and a college degree, it was very wasteful to convert from decimal to hexadecimal.
Manufacturers were selling storage devices in Kilobytes and Megabytes, compliant with SI, but Microsoft and others were using binary conversion as the easiest way. The error margin at the time was small, so no one bothered to complain over 24 missing bytes.
Later, it became a compatibility issue - all hardware and software was "used to" binary conversion, while was already capable of quickly converting to DEC.
And nowadays, it's just a force of habit. The only thing that changed, is new prefixes. Kilobyte means 1000 bytes , and Kibibyte means 1024 bytes (stands for "Kilo Binary").
Basically, they wanted to make it better, but it came out confusing, as usual.

 

[Kursah]

When I think "Moar Gibs!" I'm back in the 90s playing Doom and Quake with extra gibs enabled lol.

 

[qubit]

And just to confuse the issue a little further, when you buy an SSD of say, 128GB, that's a true binary gigabyte, or GiB. Note that the quantity is a power of 2 since computers work in base 2, or binary and memory chips of any type come in capacities of powers of 2. HDD platters didn't have capacities of powers of 2 due to the nature of the physical media, which is likely why this confusing situation of referring to decimal gigabytes came about.

I miss the days of some newbie coming on this forum and ranting about their "missing" gigabytes.

 

[SKBARON]

And just to confuse the issue a little further, when you buy an SSD of say, 128GB, that's a true binary gigabyte, or GiB. Note that the quantity is a power of 2 since computers work in base 2, or binary and memory chips of any type come in capacities of powers of 2. HDD platters didn't have capacities of powers of 2 due to the nature of the physical media, which is likely why this confusing situation of referring to decimal gigabytes came about.

I miss the days of some newbie coming on this forum and ranting about their "missing" gigabytes.

I didn't know ssd's actually have the advertised storage capacity. Thanks for shining some light on that! Time for me to do some research.

P.s: I always knew there's more to you than washing dogs

 

[eidairaman1]

Considering you can't divide 1000 by 8 and expect a even number, but 1024 you can.

 

[RejZoR]

I didn't know ssd's actually have the advertised storage capacity. Thanks for shining some light on that! Time for me to do some research.

P.s: I always knew there's more to you than washing dogs

But with SSD's, you have an issue of overprovisioning and reserved space for controller and wear protection and it's again not as much as advertised. Though, difference is not as huge as with HDD's where it was totally off at capacities we have now.

 

[Artas1984]

When I think "Moar Gibs!" I'm back in the 90s playing Doom and Quake with extra gibs enabled lol.

Ha ha! I thought this thread was actually a high-jack about FPS gibs vs some tech talk. You know in Starcraft they say "not enough energy". I though this thread is about "not enough GB of RAM to GIB bodies".. LOL

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I don't think there's any context where Microsoft uses decimal units and not binary for bytes in Windows.

The only place I can think of that it might use decimial is in Task Manager -> Performance -> Network

 

[erocker]

GiB? "Good in Box"? GB, gb, Gb works well enough.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Uh...no...
GiB = gibibyte = 2^30 bytes
GB = gigabyte = 10^9 bytes
gb = invalid-bit =
Gb = gigabit = 10^9 bits

Units are extremely important.

 

[silentbogo]

Uh...no...
gb = gram-bit wtf

50grambit, sounds good for a shot of cognac.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I made a mistake on that. "g" represents gram when it is last. When "g" is first, it isn't a valid SI prefix.

"g" could mean standard gravity too (9.80665 m/s^2).