Don't you mean data is stored in blocks of a fixed size? Or is there a new paradigm since my active time on this stuff? A block was a multiple of a kilobyte. A file was so many blocks. The blocks didn't need to be contiguous. The mapping to blocks was completely transparent to the end user. Sina -- you're still in academia studying the current state of data storage. I have not runto anything referring to blocks on windows, so maybe it was just a unix-ism. Anyone have an idea what the truth is? Just curious. TIA --le ----- Original Message ----- From: "E.J. Zufelt" <everett@xxxxxxxxx> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 4:33 PM Subject: Re: Calculating a Kilobyte Also, On a harddrive there is used space, free space and wasted space. Since information is stored on a disk in sectors there are times that a small amount of information takes up a large amount of space. For instance, a file that is 123 bytes in size may take up 4096 bytes because two files cannot be stored in the same sector. The rule is that a single file can be stored in many sectors, but two files cannot be stored in any one sector. HTH, Everett ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@xxxxxxxxx> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 5:17 PM Subject: RE: Calculating a Kilobyte > You're being caught by the fact that harddrive manufacturers measure a > megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes, and your 188 gigabytes is being given to you > in > terms of a gigabyte being 1,024 megabytes which are 1,024 killabytes which > are 1,024 bytes. > > Take care, > Sina > > -----Original Message----- > From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Hayden's > Harness > Attachment > Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 5:01 PM > To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Calculating a Kilobyte > > I have an external USB Hard Drive. That says ihave 188GB free. The > kilobytes > are 202,016,489,472. Dividing this by 188GB, gives 1,074,555,795. Huh? I > thought 1MB was 1,024,576. > > Angus MacKinnon > Infoforce Services > http://www.infoforce-services.com > > "Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into > the light." - Helen Keller > > __________ > View the list's information and change your settings at > //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind > > __________ > View the list's information and change your settings at > //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind > > __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind