Computer and Software Support


What are the differences between bit, byte, megabyes, gigabytes, and so on 

These terms talk about size of data on hard drives, CD-ROMs, Floppies and other media.

Space   amount
1 bit - Binary Digit
8 bits - 1 Byte
1024 Bytes - 1 Kilobyte
1024 Kilobytes - 1 Megabyte
1024 Megabytes - 1 Gigabyte
1024 Gigabytes - 1 Terabyte
1024 Terabyte - 1 Petabyte
1024 Petabyte - 1 Exabyte
1024 Exabyte - 1 Zettabyte
1024 Zettabyte - 1 Yottabyte
1024 Yottabyte - 1 Brontobyte
1024 Brontobyte - 1 Geopbyte

These sizes are not exact.

Some Examples of sizes

  • Floppy 3 1/2 disk - holds 1.4 megabytes of data

  • CDR and CDRW - holds roughly 650 megabytes of data

  • DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW - holds 4.5 gigabytes of data

  • DVD+/-RW (Dual layer) - Holds 8 gigabytes of data