Today we are going to teach you what are the differences between the different storage units. We will take the most used, from the Byte to the Yottabyte through the Gigabyte or the Terabyte; we will teach you how to order them and what value each one has concerning the previous one.
They are all units based on the Byte and are used to indicate the capacity of all types of storage units and the size of each file. For example, SD cards or USBs are usually measured in Gigabytes, while mechanical hard drives today are usually measured in Terabytes.
Gigabyte, Terabyte, or Petabyte, which is the largest
We will start with the basics, explaining to you which are the largest and smallest units and indicating the abbreviations for each. In specialized media, we usually use these abbreviations to avoid having to write the full names, so you should know how to identify them so as not to get into trouble. Let’s go there.
- An exabyte (EB) is larger than…
- a petabyte (PB), which is larger than…
- a terabyte (TB), which is larger than…
- a gigabyte (GB), which is larger than…
- a megabyte (MB), which is larger than…
- a kilobyte (KB), which is larger than…
- a byte(B)
Each Byte comprises eight bits, although it is such a small unit that it is not often used extensively in storage. Nor are other larger units used, such as the zettabyte or the Yottabyte, which are the two units that follow the exabyte in size and are so large that they are practically not used beyond theoretical fields or supercomputing.
To convert from one unit to another, as you ascend in each level, you have to multiply the previous one by 1,024. It’s a bit confusing, so sometimes people generalize that one value is 1,000 times greater or better than the other, but the closest multiple when talking about storage is 1,024.
How many Gigabytes are in a Terabyte?
As we have said, the multiple to go up between units is 1,024. This means that 1,024 GB is 1 TB. And at the same time, 1 GB = 1,024 MB = 1,048,576 KB = 1,073,741,824 B. Therefore, as you can see, to go down in units within the list above, we will have to multiply by 1,024.
To have the size of the units clear, here is the Byte table, which shows how all the units go up and what is the value in Bytes of each of them:
|
METRICS |
WORTH |
BYTES |
|---|---|---|
|
BYTE(B) |
1 |
1 |
|
KILOBYTE (KB) |
1,024¹ |
1,024 |
|
MEGABYTE (MB) |
1,024² |
1,048,576 |
|
GIGABYTE (GB) |
1,024³ |
1,073,741,824 |
|
TERABYTE (TB) |
1,024⁴ |
1,099,511,627,776 |
|
PETABYTE (PB) |
1.024⁵ |
1,125,899,906,842,624 |
|
EXABYTE (EB) |
1,024⁶ |
1,152,921,504,606,846,976 |
|
ZETTABYTE (ZB) |
1,024⁷ |
1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 |
|
YOTTABYTE (YB) |
1.024⁸ |
1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 |
As you can see, once you know the order in which the storage units ascend, it is not difficult to know how much is in each of them; you just have to multiply the previous one by 1,024. In any case, the ones you will use the most in your day-to-day are the Gigabytes and Terabytes, in which storage units are usually measured, and at most, the Megabytes when talking about the speed at which data is transmitted from one unit to another. Other.
Sharlene Meriel is an avid gamer with a knack for technology. He has been writing about the latest technologies for the past 5 years. His contribution in technology journalism has been noteworthy. He is also a day trader with interest in the Forex market.
