Application of the in situ high pressure powder diffraction technique for examination of specific structural properties of nanocrystals based on the experimental data of SiC nanocrystalline powders of 2–30 nm in diameter is presented. Limitations and capabilities of the experimental techniques themselves and methods of diffraction data elaboration applied to nanocrystals with very small dimensions (<30 nm) are discussed. It is shown that a unique value of the lattice parameter cannot be determined for such small crystals using a standard powder diffraction experiment. It is also shown that, due to the complex structure constituting a two-phase, core/surface shell system, no unique compressibility coefficient can satisfactorily describe the behaviour of nanocrystalline powders under pressure. We offer a tentative interpretation of the distribution of macro- and micro-strains in nanoparticles of different grain size.