What is 360GB?

Answer 1

GB is often used as an abbreviation of the word "Gigabyte". There are two ways that this meaning may be interpreted. Often, rather than using powers of ten with computers, we use powers of two. As a result "kilo", "mega", "giga" and so on are used to represent powers of 1024 (210). Some people however use the more classical notation, where those terms represent powers of 1000 (103).

So depending on who you're talking to, a gigabyte could be 10243 bytes, or 10003 bytes. A byte is equal to eight bits, and each bit represents an on/off switch in your computer, so ultimately, you can say that a gigabyte is either:

8589934592 on/off switches (10243 × 8), or:

8000000000 on/off switches (10003 × 8),

consequently, 360GB would be either:

3092376453120 on/off switches, or:

2880000000000 on/off switches.

For a bit of perspective on how big that is, the Answers.com logo at the top left corner of this page is (as of this writing), 4515 bytes, or 36120 bits. Which means that you could fit about 85.6 million of them on a 360GB drive (using the 1024 base).