How many bytes are in a Gigabyte?

Due to how computers work, that is not a round number when a computer counts. That is because a computer does not use the normal base ten decimal number system we humans arbitrarily get taught to use. Let us know ‘How many bytes are in a Gigabyte?’. 

How many bytes are in a Gigabyte?

How many bytes are in one gigabyte?

It’s easier to do the opposite relationship. 1GigaByte = 1024 MegaBytesc = 2^10 MegaBytes; 1MegaByte = 1024 KiloBytes = 2^10 KiloBytes. 1KiloByte = 1024 Bytes = 2^10 Bytes. Alternatively, Bytes in 1 GB of data: 8bit =1 byte, 1024 bytes=1kb; 1024 kb=1MB; 1024 mb=1GB; So 1 GB= 8*1024*1024*1024 hence =8,589,934,592

Bytes in a Gigabyte

1 gigabyte (GB) = 1000 megabytes (MB) = 1000000 kilobytes (KB) = 1000000000 bytes 

Bytes Of Memory In A GB

1 byte of memory is made of 8 adjacent binary digits (bits) of zeros and ones (0s and 1s)

For example, up to a third of the space on Flash Memory-based drives is overage, allowing for more reliable operation. And even DRAM can come in error-correcting forms, which has an extra bit per byte of storage.

So the actual amount of memory physically in 1GB of computer-exposed memory can vary.

1kb = 1024 bytes, 1mb = 1024kb, 1gb = 1204mb so 1gb = 1024x1024x1024

but in base “10”… (which IEC is now calling gigabyte arrrgh 8 bits, 1000 bytes, 1000kb )

then you have 10^9 bytes = 1000000000 bytes (0x3B9ACA00)

and in base “2” … (which is the traditional way… 8 bits, 1024 bytes per kb, 1024 bytes (which IEC calls KiB/KibiBytes)

then you have 2^30 bytes = 1073741824 bytes (0x40000000)

Calculations and Basis of Bytes In A Gigabyte

Due to how computers work, that is not a round number when a computer counts. That is because a computer does not use the normal base ten decimal number system we humans arbitrarily get taught to use.

Instead, computers work on /off signals. And the way they are designed is to then make those on/off signals relating to the numbers 0 and 1. Effectively they then “count” in base 2 or binary.

Just like a round number in decimal is any power of ten, a round number in binary is any power of 2. And in both cases, working with those numbers in calculations is very much more simple than any others. Just like multiplying or dividing by powers of ten in decimal is simply moving the digits left/right – multiplying/dividing by powers of 2 in binary is also just moving the digits left/right.

So very early on computers were designed to group these things in the closest matching power of 2. For Giga, that comes to 2^30 = 1 073 741 824. In decimal that looks like just an arbitrary number, but in binary that is 100 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.

Around the turn of the millennium, the committee responsible for those SI prefixes decided this confusion wasn’t great. They then chose to give these “weird” use cases a different name. Officially when talking about gigabytes and meaning those power of two factors, you “should” be saying gibibytes instead. But that’s “official”, what is used in practice isn’t always what the official standard states.

Calculations

1 Gigabyte ≈ 1000 Megabytes

1 Gigabyte ≈ 1,000,000 Kilobytes

1 Gigabyte ≈ 1,000,000,000 bytes

Alternatively;

1GigaByte = 1024 MegaBytesc = 2^10 MegaBytes

1MegaByte = 1024 KiloBytes = 2^10 KiloBytes

1KiloByte = 1024 Bytes = 2^10 Bytes

Bytes In 1 GB Of Data

8bit =1 byte

1024 bytes=1kb

1024 kb=1MB

1024 mb=1GB

So 1 GB= 8*1024*1024*1024

=8,589,934,592

However; That depends on the type of memory strangely enough. 

What would have happened if the two power was not close to 1000 we’ll probably never know.

The network nerds unfortunately disagreed and always have used kilo to mean thousand. Currently, all HDDs and SSDs (which contain flash memory) also reverted to the old meaning and use multiples of a thousand.

Currently, only main memory (RAM) still uses 1 GB to mean 1024^3. That means that you need more than 1 GB of flash memory to store 1 GB of RAM. Because of this smart people now use 1 GiB or one GibiByte (with “bi” for “binary”) to mean 1024^3 instead.

That this was a stupid idea can be easily shown. In the golden days of computing (floppy) disks still calculated the bytes using 1kB = 1024. So you’d have 720 KB floppies containing 720 x 1024 bytes of raw storage. Then they doubled the size and you’d get 1440 kB floppies, which got abbreviated to 1.44 MB floppies.

So those floppies held 1.44 x 1000 x 1024 bytes of memory.

This was edited from KB to kB as the uppercase K is Kelvin in the metric system, which is why they use k to mean kilo, the other designations are uppercase though.

Bytes Classification and Naming Criteria

A Kilobyte kB is the smallest unit of measurement of data and memory, while a yottabyte is the largest. 

  1. 1 Kilobyte kB is approximately equal to 1000 or 1024 Bytes
  2. 1 Megabyte MiB is approximately equal to 1000 or 1024 Kilobytes
  3. 1 Gigabyte GB is approximately equal to 1000/1,024 Megabytes/1,048,576 Kilobytes
  4. 1 Terabyte is approximately equal to 1000 or 1,024 Gigabytes
  5. 1 Petabyte is approximately equal to 1000 or 1,024 Terabytes/1,048,576Gigabytes
  6. 1 Exabyte is approximately equal to 1000 or 1,024 Petabytes. 
  7. 1 Zettabyte is approximately equal to 1000 or 1,024 Exabytes
  8. 1 Yottabyte is approximately equal to 1000 or 1,204 Zettabytes/1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes

Different Figures For Values Of A Byte In Computer Drives And As Indicated On The Computer

As noted and mentioned before, computers with 1 GB of data equal 1024 megabytes. However, you may have seen hard disk drives and USB flash drives manufacturers using 1000MB to be equal to 1 GB and not the actual size of 1024MB for example. This is because it is easier to indicate 1000MB instead of the complicated nature of the actual size. 

This is made up for in your computer drive systems, where the actual bytes and gigabytes of megabytes indicated are not fully usable and indicated. For example, 8GB is indicated as 7.8GB meaning only 7.8GB of the 8GB disk is usable. 

If you have noticed that if you put an 8GB USB drive in your computer, it will show approx. 7.8 GB available. That is due to the above-mentioned reason only. When the company makes the USB device they use 8GB as equivalent to 8000MB but when you put that in your system it reads 8000 MB and divides it with 1024 thus having only 7.8 GB available approximately.

Reasons Why A Megabyte Is 104 8576 Bytes And Not 1000 000 Bytes

The reason why we have these binary prefixes is that, in computer hardware design, numbers that are powers of 2 are preferable as computers operate using binary logic. 1024 is a power of 2 (2^10) and it is close enough to the more common unit multiplier of 1000 (such as that used in the kilogram for example).

The confusion likely stems from a long history of inconsistent use of the two different terms (e.g. manufacturers quoting a 30GiB (gibibyte) hard drive as a 30GB (gigabyte) hard drive.

History Of Bytes And USB Drives Manufacture

Hard drive manufactufactures used 1gb=1 billion bytes 2 raised to the power of 30 bytes until some time ago. Manufacturers once used and indicated the system of the actual bytes size, for example indicating 7.8Gb instead of 8GB. So their marketing department coined the bastard unit of gigabyte meaning 1,000 megabytes, where a megabyte was still 2^20 bytes. Once they went that way, other manufacturers felt impelled to follow.

Once this bastard unit appeared, scientists felt impelled to point out that they had coined the prefix giga- with the meaning 10^9, and that they had nearly a century of precedence. Given this, disk drive manufacturers adopted it as the standard for mass storage. Unlike RAM, there is nothing special about powers of two for bulk storage.

It’s accepted that the correct prefixes are giga- (G) for 10^9, and gibi- (Gi) for 2^30. The misuse of giga- (and kilo-, mega-)in the context of directly accessible computer main memory is tolerable, but not encouraged.

Conclusion

In conclusion, A Mebibyte (MiB) is 1024^2 bytes. The latter unit may look unusual to many unfamiliar with it. It belongs to a collection of other binary-prefixed units which are also powers of 1024, such as the kibibyte (1024), gibibyte (1024^3), tebibyte (1024^4), etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: How much memory can 64GB hold?

64GB can Hold 59.6046 GB memory or files whose actual sizes amount to 59.6046GB.

Question 2: What is the reason behind using 1,024 in (KB, MB, GB, TB, PB) memory? Where does this 1,024 belong to?

Computers (usually) use binary (0 and 1) for representing numbers, which means that all other numbers are formed in the power of two instead of the power of ten. Eg Binary => Decimal;0 => 0’; 1 => 1; 10 => 2; 11 => 3; 100 => 4 etc and 1111111111 (10 digits) => 1023. You see, with 10 digits: from 0000000000 to 1111111111, you have 1024 possibilities. That’s the same as 2 exp 10 (try it in a calculator). Eg 2 exp 8 is 256 and 2 exp 9 is 512. 2 exp 10 is 1024.

 

How many bytes are in a Gigabyte?

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