When reading articles on computer topics, it is sometimes quite difficult to definitely say which particular components are key and which are auxiliary.
For example, more recently, a video card was considered necessary, and now a central processor with an integrated graphics core is enough. Although, of course, everything is relative. Currently, no full-fledged computing system can do without a data storage device - a drive. It is on it that all programs are located: both user and system.
Physical implementation
There are several main types of drives: hard drives, CDs and flash drives. Nowadays, the first type of device using the magnetic recording principle is the most common.
The second ones are based on optical methods of storing data, but the third, in fact, are the successors of RAM. Although the differences between them are significant, there is one parameter that must be paid attention to during the purchase and subsequent operation. This is the size of the disk. If you do not fully understand this issue, then in the future a number of unpleasant moments may arise. So what is disk size?
How to measure a winchester
At first glance, it may seem to an unprepared person that determining the size of a hard drive is quite simple: you need to take a tape measure and take measurements of the device case.
Alas, in most cases this will be a mistake, since this is not about dimensions at all (although sometimes they are needed). The value “disk size” indicates how much digital data can be stored on this device. Generally, the more the better. The unit of measurement of the
amount of information is a bit (binary digit) and its derivatives - bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, etc. For example, the size of a DVD disk (purple tint of the mirror surface) is 4.7 GB (gigabytes). There are also two-layer modifications in which the amount of data that can be stored reaches 8.5 GB. It should be noted that sometimes the term “size” is used instead of the term “disk size”. They are completely equal.
Features
Employees of computer shops and service center masters often have to deal with a funny situation when a person who has recently bought a hard drive or flash drive makes a fraud statement. He puts forward the requirement to replace the drive, since its volume is less than what is indicated on the information sticker, or less than reported by diagnostic utilities. So, a hard drive with a declared volume of 500 GB is defined as a 465 GB model. The lack is substantial enough. The same thing happens with flash drives, however, the numbers are already smaller. But there is no deception - manufacturers simply mix dimensions.
The fact is that in the binary system of calculus, the familiar “10” turns into “2”. Therefore, to get a thousand, you need to multiply the number 2 by yourself 10 times, which ultimately gives 1024. Accordingly, a gigabyte is 1024 megabytes or 1,074 * 10 to the power of 9 (billion). Manufacturers simply omit the coefficient, representing a billion bytes in gigabytes, which leads to a loss of about 7% of the correct amount. Therefore, the disc size indicated on the label is always larger than the real one. 500 GB turn into 465, 4 GB in 3.72 GB, etc.