The amount of space available in hard drives has been dramatically increasing over recent years. While around the mid 1990s, 500MB (megabytes) was considered a sizeable drive, now drives with the capacity options such as 320GB (gigabytes), 500GB, 1TB (terabyte) and 2TB are commonly sold. Prices are also considerably lower. Consider that the 500MB drive in the past may have cost up to a few hundred dollars, while at the time of this writing, a 320GB SATA hard drive - plenty of room for the average personal user - could be had for under $50.

Below are some estimates of how much of certain types of media could be placed on hard drives of different capacities. Please consider that these figures may change due to the quality of the media and perhaps other factors, and that they are rounded, not exact.

320GB

132 DVD-quality movies at 2 hours each
240 VHS-quality videos at 2 hours each
281 days of MP3 audio at a full 24 hours each
120,000 digital photos at around 2.5MB each

500GB

206 DVD-quality movies at 2 hours each
375 VHS-quality videos at 2 hours each
439 days of MP3 audio at a full 24 hours each
187,500 digital photos at around 2.5MB each

1TB

412 DVD-quality movies at 2 hours each
750 VHS-quality videos at 2 hours each
878 days of MP3 audio at a full 24 hours each
375,000 digital photos at around 2.5MB each

2TB

824 DVD-quality movies at 2 hours each
1500 VHS-quality videos at 2 hours each
1756 days of MP3 audio at a full 24 hours each
375,000 digital photos at around 2.5MB each

Return to the home page for more SATA hard drive information.