I never understood that debate. Harddrive manufacturers don't get away with anything. They label in powers of ten - k M G T etc. It's our operating systems that label stuff (sometimes using incorrect prefixes) in powers of 2 - Ki Mi Gi Ti etc. Everyone are using the correct SI units except some software developers who think they can simplify Ki (2^10, 1024) to k (10^3, 1000) etc. (Read about kibi, mibi, tibi etc. on #Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary%20prefix )


You might even note that HDDs generally have specified the number of _cylinders_ and the size of these (like 512 Bytes, where 1 Byte = 8 bits). You actually get _more_ than, say, 500GB. You get 500GB _plus_ whatever is necessary to make a clean 512B cylinder division.

So whoever thinks it is wrong that you can't fit 1 tibibytes in a 1 terabyte harddrive should read up on SI units. Though I understand it might be hard for you Americans, since your feet are yards from your acres. ;)