– What’s the Practical Purpose for Using MiB (Mebibytes) Over MB (Megabytes) or Vice Versa?
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Because binary refers to things in two states, lots of things in computers come in powers of two. These powers of two are 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024.
So things like memory will always come in one of those powers of two. Notice that ‘1000’ is not one of them – 1000 is not an even number, in binary. But 1024 is. So memory is going to come in bundles like these, so using your unit be that power of two is sensible. You can use a 1GiB memory module, instead of a 1.07374 (approximately) GB module.
When it comes to hard drives, much of this applies when talking about the actual storage inside the device. But all of them put aside some storage for the use of the drive itself – things like spare cells to replace ones that wear out. So I expect that a 120GB hard drive has inside it 128GiB of storage – but the extra (maths done) 17.439 GB of storage is reserved for the device. Here, the manufacturers use powers of 10, just so they can put a slightly bigger number on the packaging.
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