Simple question about how GB is calculated

[mattwolfmatt]

I seem to recall that when Snow Leopard was released, a big deal was made about how it figures out hard drive usage. It is now base 10, or something like that. 1000 MB = 1GB, whereas before 1024 MB = 1GB.

How do hard drive manufacturers figure this out? In other words, if I am looking to replace my hard drive with an SSD, am I comparing "apples to apples" (pun intended) with regards to what my "Finder" tells me I'm using and with what the hard drive manufacturer is saying its drive can handle?

Thanks, and Happy New year.

 

[celticpride678]

It has nothing to do with Hard Drives. It has to do with the OS that is on the hard drive, Snow Leopard.

 

[mattwolfmatt]

I don't think you understood my question.

This says it's 160GB. Is this number counted the same way as Snow Leopard counts it?

 

[Jaro65]

The HD manufacturers always took the liberty of advertising their drives based on their math (1000kB = 1MB), whereas the OS would use the standard convention which states that 1024kB = 1MB. They did that so that the drives would appear larger than they actually were once installed. Now since the OS assumes the same logic, the things are in parity. So for example when you buy a 250GB HD, once its formatted, the OS should show it as 250GB.

 

[KoolStar]

The HD manufacturers always took the liberty of advertising their drives based on their math (1000kB = 1MB), whereas the OS would use the standard convention which states that 1024kB = 1MB. They did that so that the drives would appear larger than they actually were once installed. Now since the OS assumes the same logic, the things are in parity. So for example when you buy a 250GB HD, once its formatted, the OS should show it as 250GB.

Im pretty sure that the os still follows the same 1024 logic.

 

[mattwolfmatt]

The HD manufacturers always took the liberty of advertising their drives based on their math (1000kB = 1MB), whereas the OS would use the standard convention which states that 1024kB = 1MB. They did that so that the drives would appear larger than they actually were once installed. Now since the OS assumes the same logic, the things are in parity. So for example when you buy a 250GB HD, once its formatted, the OS should show it as 250GB.

Thank you, this answered my question.

Im pretty sure that the os still follows the same 1024 logic.

I'm pretty sure MOST OS's follow the 1024 logic, but Snow Leopard does the 1000 logic.

 

[melman101]

I'm pretty sure MOST OS's follow the 1024 logic, but Snow Leopard does the 1000 logic.

That is absolutely correct.