Question 1

What is the difference between MB and MiB?

Accepted Answer

1 MB (megabyte) = 1,000,000 bytes (decimal). 1 MiB (mebibyte) = 1,048,576 bytes (binary). Storage often uses decimal, while operating systems may use binary.

Question 2

How many bits are in a byte?

Accepted Answer

There are 8 bits in 1 byte.

Question 3

Why does my hard drive show less space than advertised?

Accepted Answer

Manufacturers measure in decimal (1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes), but operating systems often display in binary (1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes). A 500 GB drive shows about 465 GiB in the OS.

Question 4

How large is a petabyte?

Accepted Answer

1 PB = 1,000 TB = 1,000,000 GB. It can store approximately 500 billion pages of text or about 13.3 years of HD video.

Digital Data Converter

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