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Delta between Total Bytes And GB Total

LGLDSR73-6492 1,170 Reputation points
2026-05-25T14:06:33.7633333+00:00

Greetings,

Why the delta between Total Bytes And GB Total?

Delta

Thank you!

LGLDSR73

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage
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DaveM121 892.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-05-25T14:44:04.6333333+00:00

The difference is caused by the different ways drive manufacturers calculate a drive size and the way Windows calculates a drive size.

Drive manufacturers use a multiplier of 1000 and Windows uses a multiplier of 1024, it is basically a Decimal V Binary calculation

For your screenshot, 29,288,968,192 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 27.27GB this is the calculation Windows uses.

Also for example when you purchase a 1TB drive, if you then check the drive size in Windows, it will be shown as 931GB because of the multiplier Windows uses to calculate the space.

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  1. AI answer

    2026-05-25T14:06:45.7966667+00:00

    The difference comes from how storage units are defined and how Windows labels them.

    Azure Files and most operating systems measure storage in base‑2 units:

    • 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes
    • 1 MiB = 1,024 KiB = 1,048,576 bytes
    • 1 GiB = 1,024 MiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes

    However, Windows still labels these base‑2 units as KB, MB, GB, and TB. So when Windows shows:

    • Free space: 29,288,968,192 bytes
    • 27.2 GB

    it is actually showing 27.2 “GiB” but labeling it as “GB”.

    If the bytes value is divided by 1,073,741,824 (GiB), the result is about 27.28, which Windows rounds and displays as 27.2 GB. If instead divided by 1,000,000,000 (true decimal GB), the value would be about 29.29 GB. This mismatch between base‑2 measurement and decimal labeling is the “delta” being observed.

    References:

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