Enter the number of addressable sectors and the size of each sector into the calculator to determine the drive capacity. (Sector size is typically 512 bytes or 4096 bytes (4 KiB).) This calculator can also evaluate any of the variables given the others are known.

Drive Capacity Calculator

Enter any 2 values to calculate the missing variable. Drive capacity uses decimal units: 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes and 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes.

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Drive Capacity Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the total drive capacity from a sector count and sector size. 

DC_{bytes} = N \times S

Variables:

  • DC is the total drive capacity in bytes (B) (often reported as GB or TB after conversion)
  • N is the number of addressable sectors on the drive
  • S is the size of each sector in bytes (commonly 512 B or 4096 B (4 KiB))

To calculate the drive capacity, multiply the number of sectors on the drive by the size of each sector to get total bytes. To express the result in decimal gigabytes or terabytes, divide by 1,000,000,000 (GB) or 1,000,000,000,000 (TB), respectively. This capacity determines how much data, such as documents, photos, music, videos, and other files, the drive can store. The larger the capacity, the more data the drive can hold.

What is a Drive Capacity?

Drive capacity refers to the amount of data a storage device can hold. It is measured in bytes, with many modern drives marketed in gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB), and some larger. The capacity of a drive determines how much information, such as documents, photos, music, videos, and other files, it can store. The larger the capacity, the more data the drive can hold.

How to Calculate Drive Capacity?

The following steps outline how to calculate the Drive Capacity using the formula DC = N * S.

  1. First, determine the number of sectors on the drive (N).
  2. Next, determine the size of each sector in bytes (S).
  3. Next, gather the formula from above = DC = N * S.
  4. Finally, calculate the total capacity in bytes (DC), and convert to GB or TB if needed.
  5. After inserting the variables and calculating the result, check your answer with the calculator above.

Example Problem : 

Use the following variables as an example problem to test your knowledge.

number of sectors on the drive (N) = 1,953,125

size of each sector (S) = 512 bytes

Drive capacity (DC) = 1,953,125 × 512 B = 1,000,000,000 B = 1 GB (decimal)