I have been doing some research regarding the discrepancy between Binary and Decimal notation of Hard Drive Capacities.
The SI prefixes K, M, G, T, etc, all refer to a decimal notation, or a number expressed as a power of 10.
In the eraly day, the approximation of the difference between Decimal (10^x) and Binary (2^x) was small, but when we start talking in Gigabytes and Terabytes, this discrepancy can be quite large.
This has resulted in a new set of prefixes to address figures given in Binary Notation (2^x), put simply, you take the decimal prefix and substitute place an i after the letter and a “bi” at the end of the name. eg Ki = Kibi, Mi = Mebi, Gi = Gibi, Ti = Tebi.
Now we can see that the discrepancy lies soley in the misreporting of capacities notated in binary (by software applications).
Given that HDD manufacturers do in fact use the correct units to describe their drives capacity, what is stopping software manufacturers (such as Microsoft and others) from adopting the newer, more accurate notations, or at least showing a comparison between the two?
