Native capacity is the physical space on a storage device, while compressed capacity is the amount of data that can be stored after compression. Native capacity is important for worst-case scenarios and pre-compressed files. Usable space is reduced by file name and size information, and there are two forms of measurement: decimal and binary.
When referring to computer storage media, the native capacity of a particular device or drive is the amount of space that is actually physically present on the drive or device. The distinction of a native capacity, versus other capacity metrics, is made in situations where the information being written to a device is usually compressed or otherwise processed prior to writing, giving the device a higher compressed capacity. For systems that use compression hardware or software, such as high-end tape drives, native capacity is not usually listed as a drive size; instead the compressed capacity is given. However, different file types compress at different ratios, so native capacity is a way to see how much information a drive can hold in a worst-case scenario of zero compression for all files.
Many times, the amount of free space on a storage device that uses compression is referred to as the amount of data that can be stored after being compressed. If a large number of files that do not benefit from compression are stored on the disk, the compressed capacity will decrease. In situations where large numbers of pre-compressed files, executables, or encoded images will be stored, native capacity is a better indicator of how much information a particular drive will contain.
Within a storage device, the native capacity listed is not necessarily the amount of space that can actually be used for data. Most of the time, when one or more files are stored on a device, the file name and size information is also stored, usually in a special area on the drive itself. This means that, for each file that is written, a certain amount of additional disk space is required so that the file can be accurately reconstructed. Overall, this can reduce the amount of usable space on a disk by a measurable amount.
Another distinction to make when judging native ability is that there are actually two forms of measurement. The simplest is called a decimal measurement and is quite simple, just being the actual amount of space available. The second type of measurement is known as binary and involves the binary mathematics used regularly by computers, operating systems, and file systems. If a drive has 1 terabyte of native capacity, that could mean 1,000 decimal gigabytes, or alternatively, it could just mean more than 931 binary gigabytes, although most manufacturers will make the distinction somewhere in the literature for a device.
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