How much storage do you actually use on your system? Consequently, how much storage do you actually have? With the availability of all types of media at an all time high and the ability to access and record data from a variety of sources increasing everyday, the need for storage increases – but probably not for everyone.

There’s actually a precedent to how much data you actually need on your computer system. If you’re the type of person who buys magazines and does not, or cannot throw them away even after a decade, then the amount of storage you will need may be prohibitively large. On the other hand, if media for you is something to be enjoyed once and then disposed of afterwards, your storage needs will obviously be more manageable.

I am unfortunate in the sense that I am one of those “collector” types that can’t get rid of anything unless I put my mind to it. I have stuff at home dating from the Mesozoic Era, seemingly, and for the life of me whenever I try to get rid of it, I end up reading the dang thing again. The same thing happens on the computer. Files I had from my first job producing leaflets and promotional material still exist – I keep them for “sentimental purposes”. After all, what’s a 50kb file compared to the capacity of a 320GB Hard Drive? Problem is, those 50kb files adds up over the years, until I end up with a million files in an unmanageable 30GB chunk that I can’t seem to organize or (heaven forbid) get rid of.

                                             "I can't delete anything." - Ever said that before?

Options exist, such as backing up to DVD, or using online storage. It’s hard to trust to these methods however, as even high quality media can get scratched or become unreadable over a period of years, and online media is subject to security matters and privacy. The good ole’ standby of buying more storage is naturally financially draining – I don’t fancy upgrading my hard disks every year or so. All of these options are also subject to reliability issues – Hard drives have an MTBF – Mean Time Between Failure – average of 300k to 1.5m hours applied to a group of drives over an average 3-year life cycle.

So what’s a data-addict tech guy with beaver-like tendencies to do? Fortunately, the march of progress also affects the number of storage options we have. Solid state drives, while still expensive, will one day become the more reliable, more robust replacement of today’s mechanical hard drives. Other more sophisticated systems are just over the horizon. Removable media is also improving, with cheap flash drives being the notable example. One day we won’t be so amazed by a 1TeraByte USB (or its future equivalent) flash drive. I hope it comes soon.

                                             State of the art, Year 2007.

Although a personal, self-accessible storage space will always exist, I think the wave of the future is based on online availability. Even now a huge amount of information is available online, and with the development of Web 2.0 and the improvement of networking and data access, all the data in the world may someday be – to use a cliché – “at the tip of our fingers”. Then questions like storage needs will become a moot point.

Credits:

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/perf/qual/specMTBF.html - for the lowdown on MTBF and other storage details

http://www.hardwarezone.com/ourvoice/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=596&blogId=10 - an example of the potential many-fold increase in storage requirements

http://www.hardwarezone.com/ourvoice/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=529&blogId=10 - one of the best hard drives available - speed wise.

http://www.hardwarezone.com/ourvoice/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=587&blogId=10 - a quick extrapolation into the future.