Let's say you have an eighty gigabyte harddrive, I fyou had a thirty-two bit processor then there would be 32 bits per byte right? Meaning there are 2,748,779,069,440 spaces for 1s and 0s on the harddisk right? I fthats how it works then wouldn't that mean If you set your computer to 16 bit, wouldn't you have 160 gigabytes available?

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The terms 32-bit refers to the way a computer's processor aka CPU handles information. So imagine 32 bits as a row of 32 zeros or 32 ones. The maximum combinations or boolean values of ones and zeros is 4,294,967,295. Getting to the point a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory. The information being stored on the hard drive is not limited by this however the operating system is dependant on the architecture of the CPU. Hard drives store information more or less like a filing cabinet and theres a whole lesson behind file systems and disk structure. If anybody knows wiki like I do then go get your reading on. If your not a wiki fan ask questions. Someones bound to strut their smarts.

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(in reply to killalot57)