When purchasing a new computer or external hard drive, one of the most important factors to consider is the storage capacity. Hard drives come in a variety of sizes to accommodate different storage needs. The most common hard drive sizes available today are:
500GB Hard Drives
500GB hard drives are one of the smaller drives available today. A 500GB hard drive can hold approximately:
- 125,000 digital photos
- 142 hours of HD video
- 160,000 MP3 songs
- 500 hours of DVD quality video
500GB hard drives are a good choice for basic computing needs. They can hold a decent sized music, photo, and video collection. 500GB drives are often used in budget laptops and desktop computers where storage needs are light. They are also good for external or backup drives where a large capacity is not required.
1TB Hard Drives
1TB (terabyte) hard drives are one of the most common drives found in desktop computers. A 1TB drive can hold approximately:
- 250,000 digital photos
- 285 hours of HD video
- 320,000 MP3 songs
- 1000 hours of DVD quality video
1TB provides a significant step up in storage capacity from 500GB. With 1TB of space, users can store large music and video collections. Gamers can also store a large library of games. A 1TB drive provides enough room for most general computing needs.
2TB Hard Drives
2TB (terabytes) hard drives offer even more storage capacity: approximately:
- 500,000 digital photos
- 571 hours of HD video
- 640,000 MP3 songs
- 2000 hours of DVD quality video
2TB hard drives are a common choice for desktop computers where more capacity is needed. With 2TB, large photo, music, and video collections can be stored without worry. PC gamers who play many large file games can store their entire library on a 2TB drive. Power users who need extra room for projects and files can benefit from a 2TB drive.
3TB Hard Drives
3TB (terabyte) hard drives offer a massive amount of storage space: around:
- 750,000 digital photos
- 857 hours of HD video
- 960,000 MP3 songs
- 3,000 hours of DVD quality video
3TB drives are one of the largest sized drives for desktop computers. With 3TB of capacity, users can store essentially anything they want on their computer. Large media libraries, game collections, and major projects can all fit on a 3TB drive. Power users who work with extremely large files, such as high resolution photos and video, can benefit from the roomy capacity of a 3TB drive.
4TB Hard Drives
4TB (terabyte) hard drives provide an enormous amount of storage space:
- 1,000,000 digital photos
- 1,140 hours of HD video
- 1,280,000 MP3 songs
- 4,000 hours of DVD quality video
With 4TB of space, the storage possibilities are virtually endless. Users can store every photo, song, video, game, and file they could ever want. 4TB drives are ideal for professional media editors who work with massive video files and need plenty of room. They are also great for hardcore gamers with gigantic game libraries.
6TB Hard Drives
6TB (terabyte) hard drives offer an almost unimaginable amount of space: Approximately:
- 1,500,000 digital photos
- 1,715 hours of HD video
- 1,920,000 MP3 songs
- 6,000 hours of DVD quality video
6TB hard drives are primarily used in high performance desktop computers and servers that require massive amounts of storage. With 6TB, just about any storage need can be met. Professional media creators, hardcore gamers, server operators, and other power users with intensive storage needs benefit the most from these mega-capacity drives.
8TB Hard Drives
8TB (terabyte) hard drives are some of the largest consumer hard drives available today. The vast storage capacity includes:
- 2,000,000 digital photos
- 2,285 hours of HD video
- 2,560,000 MP3 songs
- 8,000 hours of DVD quality video
With a whopping 8TB of space, this drive size caters to users and organizations with truly massive storage requirements. Media companies, game developers, research organizations and other data intensive operations rely on 8TB and larger drives for their tremendous capacity. For most general consumer needs, an 8TB drive provides far more storage than required.
10TB Hard Drives
10TB (terabyte) hard drives represent the cutting edge in consumer storage technology. These mega-capacity drives can store:
- 2,500,000 digital photos
- 2,857 hours of HD video
- 3,200,000 MP3 songs
- 10,000 hours of DVD quality video
10TB hard drives are exclusively used in specialized, high-performance computers and servers that require massive amounts of storage. Large businesses, data centers, gaming companies, and research organizations rely on 10TB drives for storing huge databases, media files, and other space intensive data. For typical home office or personal computing uses, this much storage capacity is likely unnecessary.
12TB Hard Drives
12TB (terabyte) hard drives represent an incredibly large data storage capacity. On a 12TB drive you can store:
- 3,000,000 digital photos
- 3,420 hours of HD video
- 3,840,000 MP3 songs
- 12,000 hours of DVD quality video
With 12TB of space, you could store six million documents, twelve thousand hours of DVD movies, or over three million photos! 12TB Hard drives are exclusively used in high performance servers and data centers that need massive storage. Large businesses, research institutions, technology companies, and other organizations with huge data storage needs take advantage of 12TB drives.
14TB Hard Drives
14TB (terabyte) hard drives offer outrageous storage capabilities. On a 14TB drive you can store:
- 3,500,000 digital photos
- 4,000 hours of HD video
- 4,480,000 MP3 songs
- 14,000 hours of DVD quality video
14TB hard drives represent the pinnacle of consumer data storage technology. Only elite high performance computers and servers can take advantage of such a massive storage capacity. Cutting edge technological organizations, huge research institutions, and mega-corporations with enormous data demands utilize 14TB storage solutions for their mission critical operations and projects.
16TB Hard Drives
16TB (terabyte) hard drives provide an unbelievably huge data capacity. On a 16TB drive you could store:
- 4,000,000 digital photos
- 4,570 hours of HD video
- 5,120,000 MP3 songs
- 16,000 hours of DVD quality video
With 16TB of storage space you could store over five million documents or four thousand full length movies! 16TB hard drives represent the absolute cutting edge in data storage technology. Only elite computing systems and high performance data centers require this much storage capacity currently. However, 16TB drives will likely become more commonplace as data storage needs continue to increase.
Conclusion
Hard drives are available in a wide range of capacities to suit different storage needs. Smaller drives like 500GB and 1TB are suitable for basic home and office computing. Drives in the 2TB to 6TB range work well for high performance home computing and gaming systems. Larger 8TB to 16TB drives are primarily used in enterprise-level servers and data centers that require massive storage. As data storage needs increase over time, higher capacity drives will likely become more common at all computing levels.
| Hard Drive Size | Digital Photos | HD Video Hours | MP3 Songs | DVD Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500GB | 125,000 | 142 | 160,000 | 500 |
| 1TB | 250,000 | 285 | 320,000 | 1,000 |
| 2TB | 500,000 | 571 | 640,000 | 2,000 |
| 3TB | 750,000 | 857 | 960,000 | 3,000 |
| 4TB | 1,000,000 | 1,140 | 1,280,000 | 4,000 |
| 6TB | 1,500,000 | 1,715 | 1,920,000 | 6,000 |
| 8TB | 2,000,000 | 2,285 | 2,560,000 | 8,000 |
| 10TB | 2,500,000 | 2,857 | 3,200,000 | 10,000 |
| 12TB | 3,000,000 | 3,420 | 3,840,000 | 12,000 |
| 14TB | 3,500,000 | 4,000 | 4,480,000 | 14,000 |
| 16TB | 4,000,000 | 4,570 | 5,120,000 | 16,000 |