Have you ever wondered why a pen drive/hard drive has less storage space than promised?

Have you ever noticed how manufacturers and our dealers continue to do this again and again without getting sued?

They are not marketing it falsely, but smartly!

While manufacturing a pen drive/hard rive they consider:
1 MB = 1000 KB
1 GB = 1000 MB
1 TB = 1000 GB and so on.

However, our computers work on base 2 and for them:
1 MB = 1024 KB
1GB = 1024 MB
1 TB = 1024 GB
This difference in the method of computation is responsible for this “missing space.”

Here’s an example of a 16GB SanDisk pen drive.
From SanDisk manufacturer’s point of view, the 16GB will have 16*1000*1000*1000 = 16,000,000,000 bytes.

From a computer’s point of view, 16GB is actually
16*1024*1024*1024 = 17,179,869,184 bytes.

So, the SanDisk pen drive that promises to have 16 GB storage space will actually display 14.9GB.
17,179,869,184 – 16,000,000,000 = 1,179,869,184 bytes (1.1 GB) less storage space when connected to a computer.

Indeed..

Things aren’t so bad when you purchase small storage devices like pen drives, memory cards but with external hard disks.

Just look at the table below:

Take a close look at the box of your hard drive and you’ll see a disclaimer like this: