What You Think Is The Ideal Hard Drive Capacity?

[BK_123]

I like to have plenty of disk space available to store whatever I want/need. As discussed, backups aren't really that big an issue since disk drive space is cheap enough today that an appropriately sized external drive can be used to perform backups.

A few years ago when hard drives were still super expensive, I remember having to backup to a tape drive because an external hdd was cost prohibitive. Not only that but USB and eSata didn't exist yet so an external drive was pretty rare.

1. Yes everyone does, For some people I think they don't really care about much space they have. Well in some ways they are a big issue depending on the situation you are in, For a business it can be crucial and maybe for someone who has a lot of personal data.

2. They certainly were, These hard drives are cheap as chips, You can portable ones very cheap and external ones too.

 

[jmacavali]

Everyone is talking about the "average home user" and talking about "where to backup". Can we all be honest and say that the average home user (who wouldn't be on these forums anyway) doesn't backup their data in the first place. As soon as we starat talking about backing up data, IMHO, we've moved past the "average" user and into a "power" user. So that right there completely changes the need for drive space.

The true "average" home user isn't going to use more than 100GB. Many of my family members have comptuers/laptops with 80GB hard drives and have no problems what-so-ever. If your average user also wants to store their pics, then maybe 250GB will be fine.

Once you start talking about backups, we've moved into the power user group, and they will probably need more as well. There I'd say we'd be looking at 500GB internal w/1TB external or 1TB internal w/2TB external.

For me, I have 2 pcs and both have 500GB internal drives and I backup onto a 2TB external.

 

[*= WildCat =*]

jmacavali wrote

Everyone is talking about the "average home user" and talking about "where to backup". Can we all be honest and say that the average home user (who wouldn't be on these forums anyway) doesn't backup their data in the first place. As soon as we starat talking about backing up data, IMHO, we've moved past the "average" user and into a "power" user. So that right there completely changes the need for drive space.

How very true .

 

[XPikachu]

For me: 4TB is more then enough

 

[BK_123]

For me: 4TB is more then enough

Bit over the top there, What you store?

 

[XPikachu]

Movies a lot of them.

 

[OhSnapWord]

Everyone is talking about the "average home user" and talking about "where to backup". Can we all be honest and say that the average home user (who wouldn't be on these forums anyway) doesn't backup their data in the first place. As soon as we start talking about backing up data, IMHO, we've moved past the "average" user and into a "power" user. So that right there completely changes the need for drive space.

You're absolutely right. I make a lot of money off the average home user who's computer crashed and needs photos of little Johnny recovered.


Come to think of it, I'm recovering data for a customer right now.

 

[particleman]

Im using 5gb of a 240gb drive right now. I have a 1 tb external usb3 drive sitting in the closet.

 

[OhSnapWord]

The answer to this question is simple. It depends.

Ideal hard drive capacity depends on what the user plans on doing on the computer. For someone who checks email and browses social networks, 120GB would be more than enough.

If you like to download music and have a large collection of photos, 500GB to 1TB would suffice.

If you have some large databases, run virtual machines, or create and edit HD content, 2+TB would be most ideal.

 

[setishock]

Running with that logic it might be prudent when planning a build to take a harder look at the drive size you'll need to have. Instead of just nabbing what floats your boat make a decision based on what the build is going to be used for.