Size vs size on disk, what are the differences between both? This article explains it all! When looking at a folder’s properties on your computer, you will notice different options. Under the “General” tab, you can see two separate parameters are explaining the size of that particular folder.

“Size” and “Size on Disk” are two different terms to define the file or folder size in your computer. Sometimes you will find that both numbers are quite different for some files and folders on your PC. In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about this matter.

Storage in a computer happens in different clusters of your hard drive. Clusters are groups of disk sectors inside your hard drive where the data gets recorded. Size on disk describes the amount of cluster allocation a file is using. In contrast, file size refers to the actual size of the file in bytes.

 Size vs size on disk: Why is there a difference between both?

The hard disk is made of tracks and sectors. Windows allocates space for files in different clusters. The size of a cluster can change, but some values for cluster size range from 512 bytes to 32KB or more. The allocation unit size in your hard disk drive will determine how much space your operating system will give to a folder or file to store.

An allocation unit is a group of sectors reserved on the computer hard drive for storage. If the file you want to store, takes up only a portion of the allocation unit, the whole allocation unit will be used.

The operating system will always give the minimum possible space for storing a file. For instance, if the allocation unit is 32KB, then it does not matter if the file size is 2KB, 10KB, or 20KB. The operating system will “allot” 32KB for that particular file.

Let us consider another example: if the allocation unit is 4096 bytes in your hard disk drive, then it denotes that Windows will give 4096 bytes of storage space for any file having a size between 1 byte and 4096 bytes.

It means that if you have a file that has an actual size of 2000 bytes, it will still take 4096 bytes on your hard disk. The reason for the larger size occupancy is that the allocation unit is 4096 on your computer’s hard disk. One file can take one allocation unit, and other files cannot share it.

Can this be an issue while moving files between drives?

In one word: no. Moving files from one drive to another will not cause any problems. The amount of data that you are moving will stay the same. If you have space available in the new drive, you will be able to transfer the data quickly.

However, if some files in your data are more significant in size than the maximum allocation unit, then you may face problems.

For example, if you have a USB flash drive offering 32GB capacity and it is in the FAT32 system, then you cannot move any file having a size greater than 4GB.

If you try to copy a file bigger than 4GB in size to that particular flash disk, the system will return an error message stating you do not have enough space available. Even though you might have all the 32GB free, you will not be able to transfer the file successfully.

Wrap Up

Size and size on disk are different terminologies that describe the size of a file on your computer. Size refers to the actual size of a file, while size on disk relates to the amount of storage a particular file is taking on your hard disk drive.

The amount of storage space required for a specific file depends on the allocation unit of your computer’s hard disk drive.

There is a lot that goes on inside a computer case, and there are a lot of people questioning if using virtual memory is faster than just using RAM.

Many different parts work together to give you the computing experience that you need. A commonly known component inside a computer is known as RAM (Random Access Memory).

It is a super fast and short-term type of memory that stores temporary data that the computer needs immediately and imminently. Without it, a machine would be so slow that it would almost be useless.

Virtual memory, on the other hand, is a reserved area on a computer’s storage space. It could be the hard drive or the solid-state drive.

This space can act as the RAM if and when needed by the system. This typically happens where there is not enough available space in the RAM and data has to be offloaded elsewhere (usually when many large applications are running at once).

Since there is usually ample space available in the secondary memory, it only makes sense to use a portion of it to assist RAM. One advantage of doing so is that a computer doesn’t need to have a lot of RAM installed.

As we all know, RAM is quite expensive in comparison to storage media. Another advantage is that thanks to virtual memory, a computer can run several larger applications at the same time.

Using virtual memory is faster than just using RAM, true or false?

The short answer to this question is a big no. And that is because of the way virtual memory works. When RAM is running low, the computer has to swap some of the data to the virtual memory. This takes processing power.

Also, when that data is needed by the computer, it is swapped back to the RAM for use. This again takes processing power. As it’s obvious, this process increases the latency in the system and causes a performance hit.

In some instances, when the virtual memory is much larger than the RAM,  then the CPU can spend most of its processing power writing data back and forth from the RAM and virtual memory. That can cause the system to slow down significantly.

This phenomenon is so well known in the tech industry that it even has a technical term for it called “thrashing”. However, regular users may not be aware of it and that’s the reason why it is a common misconception among them that using more virtual memory will speed up your computer.

In fact, most operating systems recommend that your virtual memory shouldn’t be more than 1.5 times the size of your RAM.

And more, there is a reason why RAM is considered super fast. It is much faster for the CPU to access data from it than from the hard drives or solid-state drives.

This is why a system with 4 GB RAM is likely to have much better performance than a system with 2 GB RAM and 2 GB virtual memory. The performance hit by the swapping makes all the difference.

So, if someone needs to use large applications at once and has longer work sessions, it only makes sense to get more RAM even though it might be a little more expensive.

However, if that is not an option, then they could consider balancing the RAM and virtual memory as per their own set of requirements and needs. The quality of the hard drive or solid-state drive will play a crucial role too. The better faster it is, the faster the virtual memory will perform.

Wrap Up

Without a doubt, RAM is the faster memory type. However, it doesn’t mean that virtual memory has no use. If good quality hard drives and solid-state drives are used, it is still a viable option when a computer is low on RAM.

Even with the performance hit, it is a good option during heavy workflows. Also, it is quite easy to set up virtual memory as most operating systems come with simple settings to allow for that. So, even though most users are not sure at first, they can at least give it a try.

And, of course, if upgrading the RAM on your system is an option for you, that is the simplest way to supercharge your computer. These days, RAM is not as expensive as it once used to be. So, it is definitely a more accessible way for an increasing number of people.

In this article, you’ll learn to answer questions like how many kilobytes in a gigabyte while also dive into file sizes explained and their conversions. Understanding file sizes is not always that simple. There are a bunch of different units regarding computer storage and that can lead to a lot of confusion.

The “kilo-“, “mega-“, “giga-” and “tera-” prefixes are similar to their use in any other unit of measurement, like meters or watts. They were established long before the computer era, along with many more units used in the metric system too, such as “centi”, “milli”, “micro”, and others. They were all based on powers of 10.

Roughly, this is how the conversions are done:

• 1 B = 1 byte;
• 1 kB = 1000 bytes;
• 1 MB = 1000 kB or 1 000 000 000 bytes;
• 1 GB = 1000 MB or 1 000 000 000 bytes;
• 1 TB = 1000 GB or 1 000 000 000 000 bytes.

However, to make things a little bit more confusing, in the tech world, a factor of 1,000 is actually 1,024, 1,000,000 is 1,048,576 and 1,000,000 is in fact 1,073,741,824. That happens because computer components are built around binary numbers, they don’t make use of decimals.

Computers do use powers of 2 instead of powers of 10. When talking about computer memory, considering the way it is conceived, it became common in the computer world to use those prefixes to refer to the nearest multiple of 1024.

This is because semiconductor memory doubles in size for each one of the address lanes added to an integrated circuit package. As a result, it favors counts that are powers of two.

Historical review

In today’s world, terms like bytes, kilobytes, or even megabytes are gradually disappearing from the tech vocabulary of the younger generations.

It’s not common anymore to find hard drives (or even SSDs) with less than some hundreds of gigabytes of storage. Even most smartphones are now offering at least 64 or 128GB.

But, if we go back to the 90s, it was a very common practice to use floppy disks, the thumb drives of the era. Those floppy disks, also known as “diskettes” used to have a storage capacity of up to just 1440 KB (roughly 1,44 MB).

There was also during the 90s that most computers started to be equipped with hard disk drives, with just a couple of megabytes at first.

Focusing on RAM (Random Access Memory), most computers from the late 80s and early 90s were equipped with just 512 KB or 640 KB. It was only during the late 90s that we started to see “bigger” capacities of 8 MB, 16 MB, 32 MB, and 64 MB. Higher than that was only reserved for servers and higher-end machines of the era.

How many kilobytes in a gigabyte and other file sizes explained (Bytes, kB, MB, GB, TB)

Before we start with some practical examples to get things clearer in your mind, let’s answer one of the most common questions.

How many Kilobytes in a Gigabyte?

Well, there are 1,048,576 Kilobytes in a Gigabyte.

What is a byte?

A byte is the smallest addressable unit of memory in the computer architecture and it is represented by a “B”. It consists of 8-bits (a series of eight zeros and ones), which is the number of bits used to encode one single text character in the computer world.

One byte can be used to represent 256 different values. The byte was originally created to store and symbolize a single text character since 256 different values were enough to represent all lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols in western alphabets.

As a byte contains so little information, the measuring of storage capacities of computer hardware is usually given in megabytes, and more commonly in gigabytes or even in terabytes.

How many bytes in a kilobyte?

Roughly you can say that there are 1 000 bytes in a KB, but that is not precise as we have pointed above.

Stating the facts with precision, the kilobyte is traditionally used to refer to 1024 bytes. So 1 KB equals 1024 bytes.

How many bytes in a megabyte?

What is a megabyte? The megabyte or MB is commonly used to measure 1024² bytes. Like the previous examples, 1 MB equals 1024 x 1024 which is 1,048,576 bytes.

How many bytes in a gigabyte?

What is a gigabyte? One gigabyte is roughly one billion bytes. To be precise, 1 GB equals 1024³, or 1024 x 1024 x 1024, which is 1,073,741,824 bytes.

How many bytes in a terabyte?

How big is a terabyte? The prefix tera represents the fourth power of 1000. 1 TB equals 1024⁴ bytes, or 1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024 which is 1,099,511,627,776 bytes.

What comes after terabyte?

What is bigger than a terabyte? “Tera-” is the fourth power of 1000 or 1000⁴ as stated above. The prefix after tera when considering computer tech, is 1024⁵, or “peta-“. So, after a terabyte, comes the petabyte.

Wrap Up

Computer storage units can lead to a lot of confusion. Especially because computer components don’t make use of decimals, they’re built around binary numbers instead.

We hope that by reading this article you get things clearer on your mind and understand easily how you can convert Gb to Mb, Gb to Tb, Tb to Gb, Mb to Tb, etc.

 

Various common conversions

How much is 1000 Kb to Mb?

1000 Kilobytes (Kb) equals 0.97656 Megabytes (Mb).

How to convert 1 Mb to Kb?

1 Mb is exactly 1024 Kilobytes (Kb).

How much is 100 Mb to Gb?

1 GB = 1,024 MB, so 100 Megabytes (Mb) equals 0.09766 Gigabytes (Gb).

How much is 500 Mb to Gb?

1 GB = 1,024 MB, so 500 Megabytes (Mb) equals 0.48828 Gigabytes (Gb).

How much is 1000 Mb to Gb?

Following the above conversion, so 100 Megabytes (Mb) equals 0.97656 Gigabytes (Gb).

How to convert 1024 Mb to Gb?

1 GB = 1,024 MB, so 1024 Megabytes (Mb) is exactly 1 Gigabyte (Gb).

How much is 2000 Mb to Gb?

1 GB = 1,024 MB, so 2000 Megabytes (Mb) equals 1.95313 Gigabytes (GB).

How much is 2048 Mb to Gb?

Taking into account that 1024 Mb equals 1 GB, 2048 Mb = 2 GB.

How much is 10000 Mb to Gb?

Following the above conversions, 10000 Megabytes (Mb) equals 9.7656 Gigabytes (Gb).

How much is 1 Gb to Mb?

1 Gb equals 1,024 Megabytes (Mb).

How to convert 8 Gb to Mb?

1 Gigabyte (Gb) is exactly 1,024 Megabytes (Mb), so 8 Gb equals 8192 Mb.

How much is 100 Gb in Mb?

Taking into account that 1 Gb equals 1,024 Megabytes (Mb), 100 Gb equals 102.400 Megabytes (Mb).

How to convert 1 Tb to Gb?

1 Terabyte (Tb) = 1024 Gigabytes (Gb).

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• How many Megabytes are in a Gigabyte?

There are 1024 Megabytes in a Gigabyte.

• How many Gigabytes are in a Terabyte?

There are 1024 Gigabytes in a Terabyte.

• How many Kilobytes in a Megabyte?

There are 1,024 Kilobytes in a Megabyte.

• How many Kilobytes in a Gigabyte?

There are 1,048,576 Kilobytes in a Gigabyte.

• Which is bigger Mb or Kb? Is Kb bigger than Mb?

There are 1,024 Kilobytes (Kb) in 1 Megabyte (Mb). So an Mb is 1024 times bigger thank a Kb.

• What does kb stand for?

Kb stands for Kilobyte.

• What does Mb mean?

Mb is the acronym for Megabyte.

• What does Tb stand for?

What does Tb mean? Tb is the acronym for Terabyte.

• What is a Terabyte?

A Terabyte (Tb) is a measure of computer memory which equals approximately a trillion Bytes (B). More precisely, 1 Terabyte is defined as 1,024 Gigabytes, 1,048,576 Megabytes, and 1,073,741,824 Kilobytes.