Jan's Computer Basics:6-4 Disk Capacity

Computer Basics

6 - Storage: Disk Capacity

The capacity of a magnetic disk depends on several factors.

We always want the highest amount of data stored in the least possible space. (People are so greedy this way!) So the capacities of storage media keep increasing while cost keeps decreasing. It's a lovely situation for the user!

Capacity of a Disk depends on:

1. # of sides used:
*single-sided*	*double-sided*
2. Recording density - how close together the bits can be on a track sector of the innermost track
3. # of tracks on the disk

Where you are: JegsWorks > Lessons > Computer Basics
	1. Computer Types
	2. Applications
	3. Input
	4. Processing
	5. Output
	6. Storage Intro Magnetic Disks Disk Format Disk Capacity Accessing Data Caring for Disks Caring for Data Magnetic Tape Optical Disks Other Devices Quiz
	7. Computer to Computer
	8. System Software
	9. Programming

	10. What You See
	11. Hands On!
	12. On Your Own

	Search Glossary Appendix

Capacity of Disks

5¼" floppy

- 360 KB or 1.2 MB

3½" floppy

- 720 KB or 1.44 MB

*Hard disk*
early ones	= 20 MB
currently (June 2009)	= 1.5 TB Internal hard drive where 1 TB = 1 terabyte = 1024 GB = 1,048,576 megabytes

The future???

Advances in technology for the read/write head and for the densities on the disks are bringing larger and larger disk capacities for about the same price. In fact, you cannot find a small capacity drive to buy, even if you wanted one! 1+ TB drives are plentiful (June 2009) and for the same price that we used to buy 1 Gig drives (under $200). It's enough to make you cry to think of what we paid over the years and what we could get for those dollars today. Ah, well. That's the way the computer world works!

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Last updated: 18 Jun 2009