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The size of a file on a computer is determined by the amount of space it takes up on the hard drive and is measured in bytes, with eight bits making up a byte. The file size varies depending on the type of file, and computers use a base-2 system for measurements. Hard drives store files as magnetic fingerprints on a disc, and file systems determine how data is stored and accessed. Deleting a file only removes its “read-only” appearance, and there are two main file systems: FAT and NTFS.
On a computer, the size of a file is the amount of space it takes up on your hard drive. The basic unit of file size, a byte, is a string of eight binary digits, or bits, in binary code. The file size generally depends on the file type; text documents are generally smaller than graphics-intensive documents or applications. Large files mean more information stored in binary; the computer can also use decimal, or base 10, as humans do; or hexadecimal, base 16.
Information in a computer, at its most basic level, is represented by electrical impulses traveling through a circuit at a set voltage. Different sequences of these pulses represent different types of information. Computers recognize only two states of charge for a circuit: on, represented by a 1; or off, represented by a 0. In binary code, each digit, 0 or 1, is known as a bit, and eight of these bits make up a byte, the basic unit of file size.
The file size can vary depending on the type of file your computer is storing; for example, a text document in Notepad might be kilobytes or thousands of bytes. An installer could be millions of bytes or megabytes. While it is commonly thought that one kilobyte equals 1,000 bytes and one megabyte equals 1,000 kilobytes, this is actually not the case. Because computers use a base-2 system, all measurements must be powers of two; therefore, the actual conversion factor is 1.024.
Computer hard drives store these bytes as a series of magnetic fingerprints on the surface of a disc, and the disc head reads them to transmit information to the processor and output devices, similar to how a laser reads an optical disc drive and transmit the data. Hard disks contain a set number of sectors, each with a subsection of clusters which in turn contain the magnetically charged parts of the disk. File size is the amount of physical space occupied on the hard drive; File systems are organizational methods formatted on a drive to determine how a hard drive stores and accesses its data.
The size of a file determines how much hard disk space a particular file occupies. Even after the file is deleted, its information remains on the drive and can be recovered. Deleting a file only removes the “read-only” appearance of the drive which prevents the drive from writing to the file.
There are two main classes of file systems in use: File Allocation Table (FAT) and New Technology File System (NTFS). FAT stores data in clusters of a set size and wraps the data in the next cluster. These systems are good for smaller drives, because the maximum partition size is 4 gigabytes. NTFS is the standard for every operating system since Windows NT. It is used for larger drives.
