http://www.wiebetech.com/pressreleases/BillionEqualBillion.pdf
How many bytes would a hard drive bite if a hard drive did bite bytes? The fact that manufacturers rate hard drive capacities using decimal arithmetic while many popular OS report it in binary converted to decimal [e.g. Windows] can be a source of confusion for all concerned.
This report defends the hard drive manufacturers more than I would consider reasonable. I think the size rating should be in the terms of the OS in use. But whatever side you take on this, the URL indexes a short, clear, helpful white paper: "When One Billion does not equal One Billion, or: Why your computer’s disk drive capacity doesn’t appear to match the stated capacity" on just this topic.
Posted by jho at October 8, 2003 02:39 PM