HD Naming Conventions

So why use a different system?

Hard drive manufacturers use decimal measurements, because it makes capacity seem a little larger, when in reality, computers are digital and thus deal with binary measurements. Software is expressed in the binary method. So when you have a 10 GB hard drive, these are 10 decimal GB. To find out how many binary GB you have, you actually have to compare a binary GB, which is ~1,073,000,000, with a decimal GB, which is 1,000,000,000. Thus, you would be losing a bit of space, about 7%

Are you dense?

There is another way to increase the space that a hard drive can offer. This method is not as involved with the platter's physical characteristics, but rather the magnetic media on which data is stored. Areal density is the term used to describe how much data you can cram into a certain area. By increasing areal density, you put more data in the same amount of physical space. However, there are limitations here, too.

First, hard drives require lots of precision. Cramming more magnetic patterns into the same amount of space requires that the actual magnetic signals are weaker, otherwise they may interfere with each other. However, if you have weaker signals, then they are more difficult for the read head to pick up. This means that the read head has to advance in technology as well, in this scenario.

Regardless, increases in areal density have been the primary way for hard drives to increase in size over the past years. Okay, now that you see the ways that hard drive manufacturers can work on getting more space into hard drives, (they have certainly been doing a good job of that!) let me tell you about some other performance enhancing characteristics of the hard drive.