When does 0 = 122.229? Only in computers..

Trizoy

Trizoy

VIP Member
If you created 100,000 BLANK txt documents and highlighted 1 or all and checked the size, it would be 0...

BUT if you zipped those files to make them smaller... they would increase to 11.6MB... 12,2229,500 / 100,000 = 122.229bytes

So why does a file which is 122.229 bytes display as 0?

*If a computer BSOD'd in an empty room does it restart?
 
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I dunno. Is this a real question or just an obscure computer related coincidink? I don't understand the asteriked, but I'll say... Not if Automatically restart is unticked under startup and recovery settings. ;)
 
hermeslyre said:
I dunno. Is this a real question or just an obscure computer related coincidink? I don't understand the asteriked, but I'll say... Not if Automatically restart is unticked under startup and recovery settings. ;)
Click to expand...

So you are saying the computer ALWAYS does as you tell it?
 
I think it's because...if you had the text files on your desktop for say...theres zero bytes of information (text in this case) in the text file...although it probably took a few bytes to create the file...when you zipped them, winzip (winrar, whatever) took the total file size (the few bytes it took to make the file), instead of how many bytes were in the text file...

Also, I may be WAY off (and probably explained it horribly..) I'm just trying a logical explanation, I (obviously) know nothing about in depth computer....stuff.
 
My girlfriend came up with what i believe to be the correct answer....

The file name is what takes up space in the zip file.
 
This is correct. A txt file is raw ascii data, but a zip file, along with the data in each file, needs a header to tell the OS what's in the archive. Same with a BMP file. A bitmap file has 3 bytes per pixel PLUS a 54 byte header to describe what's in the bitmap.
 
What has been said is basically right. The information used to read a text document is ingrained in windows it's self, and the file names are stored in windows files as well, not in the actual document. When you compress these files, the compression file has to store the name of each document in the file itself, along with the file type and maybe some other information such as the number of files in the compressed folder and the size of the files.
 
How does the pc know what file type it is? how does the pc know where it is located. if the file was 0kb, it wouldnt exsist. I think the 0kb is referring to the contend of the file. not to the header of the file itself.
 
Well, I'm not talking about something that I understand fully, but I think this is how it works:

The information that tells the computer how files are split up, what type of file they are, how they are to be read, what they are named, and how big they are are actually stored in separate files outside of the actual files they are describing. There is certain hard drive space set aside for these files, that way the computer can look at this information and then it will know exactly where to go to find the files that the information describes. It will know exactly where to start and stop reading the bits that create a certain file. It is done this way, because otherwise if this information was stored in the actual file itself, it would be very hard for the computer to distinguish where one file ends and the next one begins.

When we view this information through an OS, it is displayed in a way that suggests that the file name and location and what not is information stored in the file its self, because this is a very easy way to think of it, and is practical for the every day user.
 
Oh I think I get what you mean, basically theres a clump of 'reference files' (not necessarily in the same place of the actual file or as each other) that that tells it where each files ends and when each file starts. How does this relate to fragmentation again?
 
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