The Average HDD is Now 590 GB in Capacity

[Guest]

A Seagate announced as part of its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report that the average hard drive shipped to customers now exceeds a size of half a terabyte.

The Average HDD is Now 590 GB in Capacity : Read more

 

[dgingeri]

That's it?

 

[c0oim4n]

I actually thought it would be a lot more than that, considering most computers ship with at least a 500GB HDD nowadays. And I thought that with the 2TB and 3TB drives coming along as fast as they are, more people aren't buying them to satisfy their storage needs. I know that I moderately download stuff, and I already have 700+GB worth of just movies and TV shows.

 

[niteshadow53]

What would be really interesting is if they could chart the growth of the average SSD size. Now that would be cool to see

 

[jsanthara]

At first it seems a little difficult to believe, but I guess it makes sense. A lot of people just don't have the need for a TB or more of storage space.

 

[stingstang]

3.5 Years ago I started with a 320gb drive, and 2 150gb drives. Since then, I've added a 120gb SSD, and I have yet to reach 50% capacity. I don't store thousands of illegally downloaded movies and shows, or thousands of digital photos I'll never look at, or hundreds of thousands of illegal songs. If everyone was just legit with their data, I doubt we'd need even 1tb of storage for another 3 years.

 

[Stardude82]

Does that include SSDs? I guess the lower than expected HD capacity can be attributed to the sale of cheap laptops in developing markets with 320GB or less hard drives.

 

[DXRick]

That is the dullest statistic I have seen this year.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]stingstang[/nom]3.5 Years ago I started with a 320gb drive, and 2 150gb drives. Since then, I've added a 120gb SSD, and I have yet to reach 50% capacity. I don't store thousands of illegally downloaded movies and shows, or thousands of digital photos I'll never look at, or hundreds of thousands of illegal songs. If everyone was just legit with their data, I doubt we'd need even 1tb of storage for another 3 years.[/citation]

Are you kidding? I have 2 1TB discs that are about full to the brim that has my whole movie collection (ripped and cleaned up all my DVDs), plus my music, and then projects I have done over the years. I recently did a wedding video, and the editing process alone took about 400GB for what ended up being a 2.5GB product. And dont even get me started on system drive space, I recently moved to a 500GB drive because my LEGAL programs alone take well over 200GB, and that is just Win7, and Adobe suite, office, 6-7 games, and a few utilities.

I work at a place that does refurbished computers for people who have never used a computer before, and it baffles me when they come in a year later for repair and they only have a handful of mp3s and a few word docs on it. I mean, how do you live with less than a TB of data?

 

[dayblade]

Anyone else curious on how much Samsung HD units were actually shipped when the article is about Seagate?

 

[applegetsmelaid]

Newegg is sold out of 590GB HDDs right now.

 

[11796pcs]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]Are you kidding? I have 2 1TB discs that are about full to the brim that has my whole movie collection (ripped and cleaned up all my DVDs), plus my music, and then projects I have done over the years. I recently did a wedding video, and the editing process alone took about 400GB for what ended up being a 2.5GB product. And dont even get me started on system drive space, I recently moved to a 500GB drive because my LEGAL programs alone take well over 200GB, and that is just Win7, and Adobe suite, office, 6-7 games, and a few utilities.I work at a place that does refurbished computers for people who have never used a computer before, and it baffles me when they come in a year later for repair and they only have a handful of mp3s and a few word docs on it. I mean, how do you live with less than a TB of data?[/citation]
Why? The reason most people own a a computer is for one reason: to browse the Internet. That's why netbooks, tablets, and smartphones have become so popular- people can now use the Internet virtually anywhere. This phenomenon is contributing to the reason why normal desktops are decreasing in demand- people don't need them anymore. Just on the news last night it was stated that in one year the iPad is now in 16% of households; which is amazing considering it took the cell phone and TV 9 years each to gain that kind of acceptance. I bought two 500GB drives and put them in RAID 0 and installed everything I had (mostly games) and I only took up 200 GB. I also don't feel a need to rip everything I have onto my drives if I have it on physical media. I love the fact drives are getting bigger but I don't have a need for anything more.

 

[JamesSneed]

Its all the businesses laptops and desktops that I'm sure is bringing this stat down. The company I work for(90K+ employees) just this year went from 80GB to 160GB drives in their standard deployment.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]dayblade[/nom]Anyone else curious on how much Samsung HD units were actually shipped when the article is about Seagate?[/citation]
Another obvious error will go unfixed...

 

[drwho1]

my boot drive is 500GB, but I also have 1 of 1TB and 6 of 2TB almost full of movies and TV shows. I watch most of my movies/TV shows from the hard drives.

(my 42" plasma is also connected to my PC)

 

[whysobluepandabear]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]Are you kidding? I have 2 1TB discs that are about full to the brim that has my whole movie collection (ripped and cleaned up all my DVDs), plus my music, and then projects I have done over the years. I recently did a wedding video, and the editing process alone took about 400GB for what ended up being a 2.5GB product. And dont even get me started on system drive space, I recently moved to a 500GB drive because my LEGAL programs alone take well over 200GB, and that is just Win7, and Adobe suite, office, 6-7 games, and a few utilities.I work at a place that does refurbished computers for people who have never used a computer before, and it baffles me when they come in a year later for repair and they only have a handful of mp3s and a few word docs on it. I mean, how do you live with less than a TB of data?[/citation]
Way to admit to terabytes worth of illegal movie copying. You don't even own the disc - yes, if they wanted to, they could take the disc back from you, as you're only renting the license. So by copying them onto your HD, you could be thrown into the same pool as the people who pirate movies.


Be careful in the future when advertising that.

 

[warmon6]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]Are you kidding? I have 2 1TB discs that are about full to the brim that has my whole movie collection (ripped and cleaned up all my DVDs), plus my music, and then projects I have done over the years. I recently did a wedding video, and the editing process alone took about 400GB for what ended up being a 2.5GB product. And dont even get me started on system drive space, I recently moved to a 500GB drive because my LEGAL programs alone take well over 200GB, and that is just Win7, and Adobe suite, office, 6-7 games, and a few utilities.I work at a place that does refurbished computers for people who have never used a computer before, and it baffles me when they come in a year later for repair and they only have a handful of mp3s and a few word docs on it. I mean, how do you live with less than a TB of data?[/citation]

Well, not every one the same..... Even though im in the forums a lot and classified by most people at least computer geek, there some people like me where i just don't listen to large amounts of music nor store movies/TV shows.

Sure i got lots of programs (mainly autocad/desk programns but also including anti-virus for various windows, a scientific calculator, disk cloning software, ect ), various ISO's, and documents.

Although if i combine all my various data together from different computers in my family house (without adding the redundant software i have of most stuff), Im sure that i can only possibly fill 750GB HDD. And most normal people dont have what I have.


So it's easy for me to see how people are not needing even a 500GB HDD. and as you pointed out,

it baffles me when they come in a year later for repair and they only have a handful of mp3s and a few word docs on it

It might be possible that most people are like me (excluding the computer geek part) where people are not big on storing music/Tv/movies on there computers and the truth is, i know more people like that than the other way around.

Dont need the storage space, no need to buy over a certain HDD capacity.

 

[soulfringe]

I am always finding myself looking at more HD space event though im never more than 70% capacity. I do have about 4TB right now though.... but tons and tons of dvd backups i would love to store on HD.

It's just about to the point now where HD space is about equal to DVD disc space per $$ ratio. And keeping a 1TB HD filled is much more convenient than 220+ Discs.

But yea, this day and age, disc space is needed. Video games these days take up a good 20GB or more, and I find myself purchasing 90% of my games as digital copies from the likes steam, EA and direct to drive. I have no doubt it is the same for many other people as well. It's much simpler to get digital copies of everything.

 

[tmk221]

I download movies, tv shows, mp3s and get by with only 160gb hdd. I just delete movies that I have already seen and don't keep the music that I don't like... Sure life would be easier with 1+TB hdd

 

[jsanthara]

@Stardude82, No it doesn't inculde SSD's. "The Average HDD...".

 

[danwat1234]

[citation][nom]JamesSneed[/nom]Its all the businesses laptops and desktops that I'm sure is bringing this stat down. The company I work for(90K+ employees) just this year went from 80GB to 160GB drives in their standard deployment.[/citation]

Yep the C2D desktops at my junior college has either 80, 160 or 250gb internally.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]11796pcs[/nom]Why? The reason most people own a a computer is for one reason: to browse the Internet. That's why netbooks, tablets, and smartphones have become so popular- people can now use the Internet virtually anywhere. This phenomenon is contributing to the reason why normal desktops are decreasing in demand- people don't need them anymore. Just on the news last night it was stated that in one year the iPad is now in 16% of households; which is amazing considering it took the cell phone and TV 9 years each to gain that kind of acceptance. I bought two 500GB drives and put them in RAID 0 and installed everything I had (mostly games) and I only took up 200 GB. I also don't feel a need to rip everything I have onto my drives if I have it on physical media. I love the fact drives are getting bigger but I don't have a need for anything more.[/citation]

incase s*** ever hits the fan and the discs break, its nice to have a backup. i also encode my dvds so that i can get them on any pc easily in my house.

as for drive size, i have 4tb of drives, 1.5 is a back up of a 1.5tb drive, cant trust them, and the rest is storage.

i refuse to trust anything over 1tb anymore.
[citation][nom]whysobluepandabear[/nom]Way to admit to terabytes worth of illegal movie copying. You don't even own the disc - yes, if they wanted to, they could take the disc back from you, as you're only renting the license. So by copying them onto your HD, you could be thrown into the same pool as the people who pirate movies. Be careful in the future when advertising that.[/citation]

yea, i hate that law too, the one that says we cant back up encrypted data, its against the one that specifically says its legal to back up our data for personal use.

question, has anyone ever been charged with something regarding personal backups?

 

[danwat1234]

when will 500GB 1.8" hard drives come out? My Aunt needs a hard drive upgrade for her netbook
1TB 2-platter 2.5" drives are out, so I'd guess pretty soon right?

 

[Zagen30]

[citation][nom]whysobluepandabear[/nom]Way to admit to terabytes worth of illegal movie copying. You don't even own the disc - yes, if they wanted to, they could take the disc back from you, as you're only renting the license. So by copying them onto your HD, you could be thrown into the same pool as the people who pirate movies. Be careful in the future when advertising that.[/citation]

I'm pretty sure the authorities have more pressing concerns than targeting someone who's backing up data for personal use only. They tend to care more about large-scale distribution of copyrighted material for free, i.e. the things that are actually eating into profit margins.

[citation][nom]tmk221[/nom]I download movies, tv shows, mp3s and get by with only 160gb hdd. I just delete movies that I have already seen and don't keep the music that I don't like... Sure life would be easier with 1+TB hdd[/citation]

1TB drives are pretty cheap nowadays assuming you have a desktop (slightly more modest laptop drives aren't too bad, either). Newegg et. al. usually have at least one well-reviewed model for $50-55, not counting special sales. Heck, if you've got a Micro Center nearby they're selling a 1.5 TB Hitachi for $50 after $10 rebate. I used to have around the same capacity as you, and I too would just delete things I had finished, but having all that space is definitely worth it.

 

[Caldrumr]

[citation][nom]stingstang[/nom]3.5 Years ago I started with a 320gb drive, and 2 150gb drives. Since then, I've added a 120gb SSD, and I have yet to reach 50% capacity. I don't store thousands of illegally downloaded movies and shows, or thousands of digital photos I'll never look at, or hundreds of thousands of illegal songs. If everyone was just legit with their data, I doubt we'd need even 1tb of storage for another 3 years.[/citation]
My games take up more than 400 GB of space themselves, and none of them are illegally downloaded. Add to that my media library, my files, and my programs. It doesn't take much to reach over 1 TB of storage, and if you back up your video collection, you can easily need much more than that.