Convert between digital storage units (bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB)
Binary: Used by operating systems (1 KB = 1024 bytes)
Decimal: Used by storage manufacturers (1 KB = 1000 bytes)
Format: number followed by unit (B, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, EB)
Why are there two systems?
Computer memory uses binary (base 2) arithmetic, so storage is naturally organized in powers of 2 (1024). However, storage manufacturers often use decimal (base 10) units for marketing, leading to the apparent "missing" space when you buy a drive.
Example: 1TB Drive
• Manufacturer: 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes
• Operating System: 1 TiB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
• Result: 1 TB drive shows as ~931 GiB in your OS
IEC Standard Units
To avoid confusion, the IEC introduced binary prefixes:
• KiB (kibibyte), MiB (mebibyte), GiB (gibibyte), etc.
• These explicitly mean powers of 1024