Data Storage Converter Widget

A storage-unit converter that takes the decimal-versus-binary confusion seriously. Readers convert between bits, bytes, SI units (kB, MB, GB, TB, PB) and IEC units (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB), see the value in every unit at once, and get the size a 1,024-based operating system will report for a drive.

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<iframe src="https://a2z.tools/embed/w/data-storage-converter" title="Data Storage Converter by A2Z Tools" width="100%" height="940" style="border:0;width:100%" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write"></iframe>

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How it works

Everything is converted through bytes. SI prefixes are powers of 1,000 - a kilobyte is 1,000 bytes and a terabyte 10^12 - while the binary prefixes standardised by the IEC in 1999, and now part of IEC 80000-13, are powers of 1,024: a kibibyte is 1,024 bytes, a mebibyte 1,048,576 and a gibibyte 1,073,741,824. One byte is eight bits. Drive makers label capacity in SI units, but Windows and several other systems count in powers of 1,024 and still print 'GB', which is why a new 1 TB drive appears as about 931 GB: 10^12 / 2^30 = 931.32 GiB. Nothing is missing - only the unit changed. The widget shows the converted value, the exact byte and bit counts, a 'drive-size check' row giving the largest binary unit, and a table of the same quantity in all twelve units. The Swap button reverses the conversion. Very large or tiny values switch to scientific notation.

Method

  • Bytes = value x factor(from); result = bytes / factor(to)
  • SI: kB 10^3, MB 10^6, GB 10^9, TB 10^12, PB 10^15 bytes
  • IEC: KiB 2^10, MiB 2^20, GiB 2^30, TiB 2^40, PiB 2^50 bytes
  • 1 byte = 8 bits; 1 TB = 10^12 / 2^30 GiB = 931.32 GiB

Worked examples

New hard drive

Inputs: 1 TB to GiB

Result: 931.322575 GiB; 1,000,000,000,000 bytes

10^12 / 1,073,741,824 = 931.3226.

Memory size

Inputs: 4 GiB to MB

Result: 4,294.97 MB; 4,294,967,296 bytes

4 x 2^30 = 4,294,967,296 bytes / 10^6.

Limitations

  • Converts nominal sizes; file-system overhead, formatting and reserved space make usable capacity a little lower.
  • Exabyte and larger units are not offered as choices.

Where publishers use it

  • A hard-drive or SSD retailer's FAQ on 'missing' capacity
  • A computer-science course page on SI and IEC prefixes
  • A cloud-storage pricing page that bills in GiB
  • A tech-support knowledge base answering 'why is my USB stick smaller than advertised?'
  • A software documentation page explaining memory limits in MiB

Questions

Why does my 1 TB drive show only 931 GB?

The drive holds 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, as labelled. The operating system divides by 1,073,741,824 (2^30) per 'GB', which gives 931.32 - really GiB shown with a GB label. About 7% appears to vanish, but no storage is lost.

Is a kilobyte 1,000 or 1,024 bytes?

Under the SI and IEC standards a kilobyte (kB) is 1,000 bytes and a kibibyte (KiB) is 1,024 bytes. Older software used 'KB' for 1,024, which is why the IEC introduced the separate binary prefixes.

How many MB are in a GiB?

1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes = 1,073.741824 MB, or exactly 1,024 MiB. The gap between decimal and binary grows with each prefix: about 2.4% at kilo, 4.9% at mega, 7.4% at giga, 10% at tera and 12.6% at peta.

What is the difference between a bit and a byte?

A byte is eight bits. Storage is normally measured in bytes (capital B) and network speeds in bits (lower-case b), so 1 GB of data is 8 gigabits on the wire.

Which unit do RAM makers use?

Memory chips come in powers of two, so a '16 GB' memory module actually holds 16 GiB (17,179,869,184 bytes). Storage drives, by contrast, use decimal units on the label.

Does the converter handle exabytes?

It covers bits through petabytes and pebibytes as units, and values up to about a yottabyte in total; anything larger is refused rather than rounded.

Sources

  1. Prefixes for binary multiples - National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) . kibi (Ki) = 2^10 ... pebi (Pi) = 2^50, adopted by the IEC in 1999 (now IEC 80000-13); 1 MiB = 1,048,576 B while 1 MB = 1,000,000 B. Checked 2026-10-01.

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If you reference this tool in an article, course or documentation, these formats are ready to copy. They are optional - nothing is added to your site unless you paste it.

A2Z Tools Data Storage Converter
https://a2z.tools/embed/data-storage-converter

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