On 23 Feb, 21:02, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:
> jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > On 21 Feb, 22:48, Jethro <Wil...@somewhere.org> wrote:
> >> I notice there is always a great disparity between stated hard drive
> >> capacity and actual usable capacity after formatting.
>
> >> Is there a chart or other paper anywhere showing maybe comparisons of
> >> this between drives, and maybe an explanation of why and how it
> >> happens?
>
> >> Thanks
>
> >> Jethro
>
> > the relationship between a megabyte( 2^20) and an approximation of the
> > megabyte, (10^6), is a factor of 1.048576.
>
> > Meaning that to get from one to the other, you multiply or divide by
> > 1.048576
>
> > A megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes. The Approximation is 1,000,000.
> > Somtimes one is called the binary megabyte and the other
> > the decimal megabyte, but it's not a different number system.
>
> It is actually, different base.
>
> > The approximation or decimal megabyte is just using 10^ instead of 2^.
>
> So its a different number system.

No, 2^x cannot even be binary. The number 2 doesn't even exist in
binary.

Perhaps the term base has 2 meanings. Base^Exponent, and base as in
number system.

But Binary - as far as I know - only applies to number systems, and
that is the term I use here. It is in that context that I use the word
base.

>
> > The 10^6 figure is a smaller unit.. So more of it are used to equal a
> > corresponding amount of the the 'binary megabyte', which is a larger
> > unit.
> > "they say" that Hard Drive marketting people use the 'decimal
> > megabyte' because it sounds better, larger numbers.
>
> Only the pig ignorant fools. Its the SI standard, legally required in many countrys.

Were they to not use the SI standard, and to use [what you deny to be]
the standard meaning in computing, then I am not convinced that they'd
be sued for understating the specification of their product.

>
> Its the binary gigabyte that makes no sense with something
> like a hard drive which isnt intrinsically binary organised.
>
> And the 1.44MB floppy is actually a weird binary/decimal hybrid.
>
>

I haven't read about how they organise their data, but electronics
knows HIGHS and LOWS, ACTIVE or Not. At the lowest level, it appears
to me to be binary.

<snip>