Why does the backup agent show a different amount of storage used than the Incydr console?

Overview

You may notice in the backup agent that the amount of space used at a particular destination differs from the amount used as shown in the Incydr console for the exact same destination. The reason is because the agent displays storage values using a different calculation method than the console. This article explains the difference.

Calculation background

The backup agent calculates storage amounts using a base-10 counting system. In this system, a kilobyte is 1000 bytes, a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes, and a gigabyte is 1000 megabytes.

The Incydr console calculates storage amounts using a base-2 counting system, or binary. In this system, a kibibyte is 1024 bytes, a mebibyte is 1024 kibibytes, and a gibibyte is 1024 mebibytes. These totals are calculated by the exponential power of two. For example, 2^₁₀ = 1024.

Storage displayed in the backup agent versus the Incydr console

The backup agent and the Incydr console both display storage size as "MB" or "GB", but those acronyms mean different things depending on where they are displayed:

• In the backup agent, storage is displayed in megabytes or gigabytes (base-10 system). 
• In the Incydr console, storage is displayed in mebibytes or gibibytes (base-2 system). 

So, for example, while your backup agent shows that the space used at a particular destination is 1.5 GB (1.5 gigabytes), your Incydr console will show the used storage at the exact same destination as 1.3 GB (1.3 gibibytes). It's the same amount. It's just measured in different ways.

Related topics

• Backup agent shows different file sizes or totals than my computer 
• Devices reference
• Backup agent reference