A data storage converter converts between units of digital information. There are two systems: the decimal system (KB = 1,000 bytes, MB = 1,000,000 bytes) used by storage manufacturers and the binary system (KiB = 1,024 bytes, MiB = 1,048,576 bytes) used by operating systems. This difference explains why a "1 TB" hard drive shows as less than 1 TB in your operating system.

1. Enter the value to convert.
2. Select the unit you are converting from.
3. Select the unit you are converting to.
4. Click Convert.

1 GB (decimal) = 1,000,000,000 bytes = 0.931 GiB (binary)
This is why a 1 TB drive shows as ~931 GB in Windows.

Storage manufacturers use decimal units (powers of 10) because they produce larger numbers. Operating systems traditionally use binary units (powers of 2). The IEC introduced the kibibyte (KiB), mebibyte (MiB) etc. to eliminate ambiguity, but both systems remain in common use.

• Confusing KB (decimal, 1,000 bytes) with KiB (binary, 1,024 bytes).
• Expecting a "1 TB" drive to show 1 TB in the OS — it will show approximately 931 GiB.

Why does my 1 TB hard drive show less than 1 TB in Windows?

Drive manufacturers use decimal TB (1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes). Windows displays storage in binary GiB (1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes). 1 decimal TB = 0.909 binary TiB ≈ 931 GiB.

What is the difference between MB and MiB?

1 MB (megabyte) = 1,000,000 bytes (decimal). 1 MiB (mebibyte) = 1,048,576 bytes (binary). The difference is about 4.9%.