Have We Exceeded Our Computer Storage Needs?

Megalith

Megalith

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I have two 5TB drives on backorder, so I’m going to have to go with no. What is the biggest amount of storage you have ever had in a single system?

There was a time when computer users were concerned about not having enough hard disk space on their computers. Moore’s Law says the semiconductor chip density will double every 18 months yet computer storage capacity growth has outpaced even that rate. Recently I have witnessed that many people do not use anywhere near their computer’s hard disk storage. Computer manufacturers now offer storage capacity of 500GB, 1TB and beyond. It is beginning to feel like we don’t need quite that much.
 
I only have 14.75TB in my file storage system, 18TB if you add the 4TB external.
 
Also, my drives are almost full, so I need more space, but have no money.
 
I have 18TB left of around ~30TB of space for my blu-rays. I am pretty sure once 4k discs are out, I will need to do another round of upgrades.
 
You can never have enough. Not just storage tehnology that is evolving, but everything else. And everything produces more data than before. Sure you can have the feeling of "how will I ever fill this drive" like when I went from a 40MB HDD to a 540MB one. Now I have 18TB of storage approx. but I don't feel it's enough. I only have about 20% free space across the board. Thankfully I still have 4 vacant connectors on one of my RAID controllers, and it supports OCE. So each time I run out of space I just add another drive.
 
I had 50 terabytes in 2010

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I wish i could go back in time and buy long warranty 2TB hard drives for half what they are now. Sizes have gone up, but so has cost and warranty down.
 
funkydmunky said:
I wish i could go back in time and buy long warranty 2TB hard drives for half what they are now. Sizes have gone up, but so has cost and warranty down.
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Yup they've been screwing us since those floods in Thailand. I've been shuffling around storage, but prices are so bad compared to what they were I just don't feel like justifying. I have 2 systems that are currently 11-12 terabytes each. I am coming close to purchasing a couple of 6 or 8 tb soon though. If prices were lower I'm sure I'd double up both systems easily.
 
Well, editing and storing 1080p video (got a GoPro) takes place.
Games are getting bigger all the time, not going to be surprised if we see games close to 100GB or more being common when it comes to AAA games this year or next.

I have 5TB right now, mix of SSD and harddrives, and I constantly find myself deleting stuff to free up some space for new things.
Next upgrade for me is at least another 3-5TB, and soon.

So no, not even close to having enough space.
 
h265 encoded videos should reduce file size for a similar good looking quality video that used h264 but much more file size.

but it hasn't been mainstream just yet. so..... you can easily use up lots of space on a NAS dedicated for digital storage even with 8tbs worth.

not to mention you got to back that up, either locally or on the cloud.

so no, storage requirements for heavy media users still requires more storage ;_;
 
What I like is that drive sizes are going up, so that you don't need as many 3.5" bays. Its perfectly reasonable to have 24-32 TB of storage in a little 4 bay case, along w/ a mSata on your mobo and you have a nice compact box. And with radiators, you can now get tons of surface area in a reasonably small space.
 
At the consumer level, most media types are moving the large scale data storage to cloud services like Netflix, so, probably. For business, or at least the sciences, on the other hand...

I have a workstation in my office that has two 40TB arrays, so, a total of 80.

Its intended function is to store data from our airborne LiDAR while we're in the field. The sensor is easily capable of filling it up, if we had a big enough project - we can produce ~5TB of data per day, if everything is going smoothly. We have another sensor package that contains just cameras that could produce roughly double that.

We've got about 200TB of NAS capacity for longer term storage back at the office, and even that is merely "good enough for now." We'll probably need to add another 100TB within a year or so.
 
For home? Easy to buy 5TB drives for cheap, and never run out unless you just want to store media for the heck of it that you didn't make.

For business, never enough storage, can fill up as much as we have, internet connection is cheaper than storage that's for srue, so that's always a never ending game of $ and storage needs.
 
For the average person, they probably aren't using their own storage. If you're on the latest craze like snap chat, your storage needs are all in the cloud.

For my family I don't think they've ever had an issue with the storage that was built into the computer since they have had one. In the last 20 years I can't remember anyone actually asking me to help them purchase larger drives because their machine ran out. Storage is one of those things that seems to have always been ahead of the curve for the average person. I bought 40GB drives for my first pc so I could RAID them, yet the off the shelf pc for the family computer had 120GB for Windows XP back in 2004.
 
Speak for yourself, 20TB system is full. Laptop 512GB SSD is also full.
A 10x upgrade from 20 to 200 would be good.
 
Currently 12TB on NAS for frequently used or stuff I might want to just click for, about another 15TB on optical discs stored (DVD, Bluray, CD's). Probably won't need a lot more until I move to 4K or whatever comes next. When holograph projectors & media becomes widespread, all bets are off, though.
 
For personal use, I think the nature of storage requirements may be changing. Who wouldn't like to have their dashcam have a 4 TB SD card? But you don't want to fit a 4 TB 3.5" HDD to your car, do you?
 
For personal use I tend to agree as don't know anyone who uses that much local storage with all cloud services as pointed out in the article (netflix for movies, dropbox for files, amazon for pictures, spotify, etc) now being used. I don't have more than 1TB in any of my pc's or laptops, but have way more than that stored in multiple cloud storage services (backups of each other) for photos mostly. If ISPs start enforcing strict caps in my area then I think that situation would definitely change.
 
I am trying to go all SSD in my new PC so it will take me awhile to get more capacity than I can fill ... if 4 TB SSDs drop to below $600 then I will have more than I need :D
 
Not for me. Main thing I am waiting for is SSD prices to be near HDD prices. 3TB is a good amount, especially with the size of modern games. But it is still $150 for only 500GB of space on an SSD. We have a long way to go.
 
I've got a 4x2GB NAS in RAID 1+0 (4GB) and a 5GB external drive for backing that up to. I've had the NAS for quite a while, the external drive is more recent. I could easily have more storage, but I don't really need it so why bother?
 
I've been good with a 64gb ssd, a 250gb usb drive, and a little bit of cloud storage.

Y'all are a bunch of hoarders.
 
I have 18TB in one of my systems that houses my DVD and CD collection. I haven't made the jump to BluRay yet.
My 18TB is about 95% full. I wouldn't mine having about 40TB...
If I do start moving to BluRay, that might work. I doubt I'd replace most of my current collection. Maybe a few of my more watched titles? Newer stuff would be nice for BR though. (Thinking Force Awakens :) )
 
Currently at 2.5 TB, 2x250 GB SSD's and 2x1TB WD blacks in raid0, running out of space fast, if only I could find something cheaper then WD blacks with similar performance, or maybe just bite the bullet and get 2x 3TB blacks, but 170€ each is a lot for those.
 
yes/no. For ME yes, but that's because I'm a bit anal retentive about removing stuff that I don't use very often, for instance steam games I find it rare to keep installed if I am no longer playing them. My wife on the other hand, she'll copy over every photo ever took from every vacation we've every done, and she doesn't actually go through them to remove the ones that are duplicates or crappy, so when I would run Spacesniffer and wonder why my wife's side of the computer is chewing up 30% of the hard drive space I just shake my head and cry.... then I got myself a new rig that is officially MINE and only mine, she can play with the old one :D
 
So all these 20 terra drives are for DVD's and such? I don't use any cloud services and my "Media" drive is 2 TB and 50% full. Not personally sure what the hell I'd put on 20 TB of storage. For as often as I watch 1/365ths of my DVD's, I can't for the life of me justify spinning drives/running SSD's all day just in case I feel like watching Titanic in HD without having to put a disc in a drive.
 
I have 3TB now in addition to my SSD. I probably won't upgrade that until the drive dies. I'll just keep adding space to my NAS.
 
I have 6 4TB drives in a RAID 10 setup on a Dell PERC H710 controller, a 12TB (4 3TB drives in a RAID 0 on the chipset controller) network drive specifically for backup purpose, plus a 2TB drive that serves as backup for my OS/programs/VMs drives, which are two 500GB SSDs. So, in total, I have 39TB of storage configured to be a usable 13TB, when you take out the redundancy and backups.

:)
 
4tb hdd 500gb ssds going to pick up more ssds and replace the spinners. after using ssds its so painful to copy stuff to the hdd
 
Q- Have We Exceeded Our Computer Storage Needs?
A- No bloody way. HDD cost near twice per TB then they did a short time ago. What other PC part has taken a 180 in pricing. Couple this with lessened warranties and the consumer is getting screwed. Big time.
 
I just filled my 48TB NAS.

Experience has taught me that my storage needs are like a gas. They expanded to fill the space I have.
 
swimming pool said:
I've been good with a 64gb ssd, a 250gb usb drive, and a little bit of cloud storage.

Y'all are a bunch of hoarders.
Click to expand...

That wouldn't even be enough to store my vacation photos/videos, let alone everything else.
Even my phone has 96GB

My HTPC currently has 8TB, and my desktop has 3TB, and both really need more space.
That doesn't include the other systems in the house, my backup drives or phones & tablets.

At work I currently have a few servers in the 30TB+ range
 
14TB total. 2.4TB free. I did have 18TB+ before I retired my two 2TB Hitachi's, which are for sale currently ;)
 
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