Topics / Data Storage and Compression / Data Storage Capacity
Data Storage Capacity
Data storage capacity is the measurement of how much data can be stored in a storage device.
Bits and bytes
Data storage capacities are measured in bytes, where each byte is actually a pattern of 8 bits.
1 byte = 8 bits (e.g. 10011011)
Each bit is represented by either a 1 or a 0 (on or off), also known as binary code.
1 byte can hold 1 character of data, e.g. “p” is 1 byte.
As technology improves, it is becoming cheaper to achieve higher data storage capacities.
Data storage capacities
| Name | Bytes | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 kilobyte (1 KB) | 2^10 (or 1 024) | A few paragraphs of text |
| 1 megabyte (1 MB) | 2^20 (or 1 048 576) | 4 books of text |
| 1 gigabyte (1 GB) | 2^30 (or 1 073 741 824) | 4,400 books, or 256 MP3 audio files |
| 1 terabyte (1 TB) | 2^40 (or 1 099 511 627 776) | 233 DVDs, or 260,000 MP3 audio files |
| 1 petabyte (1 PB) | 2^50 (or 1 125 899 906 842 624) | 40,000 Blu-ray discs, or 268,400,000 MP3 audio files |
Each unit of measurement is 1024 times bigger than the unit before it.
