The optimum size of storage

Optimum means the best amount for your needs. For storage, whether SSD of HDD, make a rough computation of how much storage you will need and buy just the optimum size for your new computer. Don't fall into that trap that you need 500 GB and that it can last for only a year so you are going to buy 1 TB instead. But if your need did not fill up the 500 GB limit then you are losing some money on that. Besides, a bigger storage is more prone to problems aside from the added time in accessing the data.

 

Sometimes, we don't have too much choice with the storage size. A few months ago, when I was in the market for a new laptop, I did a bit of window shopping online. Most of the models in the price range I was prepared to pay came with 500Gb hard drives. Only the higher end models had 1Tb hard drives. Does it really matter whether I got a 500Gb hard drive or a 1Tb hard drive? Not really. I can live with a 500Gb hard drive. If I have a 1Tb hard drive, I will most probably fill it up with more rubbish. I am serious. I am sure many of us have not done housekeeping on our hard drives for quite a long while. There is usually a lot of stuff in there which we have totally forgotten about. Which means that they are not important stuff. In other words, rubbish.

 

I need a huge storage. I have over 500 movies, over 1000 songs, over 2000 ebooks and over 5000 photos. Imagine how much storage I would need to keep them all.I have just about 2 TB storage devices including computer hard disk, USB disks, DVDs and portable hard disks.

 

Oh, wow, why are you keeping so many movies, etc? Have you considered compressing them to save space? Then spread them out over a few cloud storage devices for security. If all that data is precious to you, you have to take definite steps to make sure that you don't lose them.

 

In this day and age I think everyone should have at least 1 TB of storage, whether it's on an HDD or SSD. Sure, people like fast storage and 1TB SSDs are pricy but it's not the best option if you're low on cash. I personally like to buy a 256GB SSD for my OS and a couple of my apps that I need to run at faster speeds and I have a 1TB or 2TB HDD at 7200 RPM for storage (movies, games, shows, pictures etc.).

 

I've owned several computers and I have never run out of storage, ever. I just go with what is standard for the machine and I have never needed to change out a hard drive. I think computer companies anticipate average needs of the consumer and they are very generous with the storage space. Apparently, because it has never been a problem.

 

Well, I follow the rule of 3. Basically, I try to keep all of my important documents in 3 separate locations. One on my machine, one on the cloud, and one on an external storage. When it comes to steam games and movies, I have found it easier to compress the games, divide them into chunks and then keep them on google drives(multiple accounts). I would use other cloud services but I trust google too much.

 

The rule of three huh? I cannot say that I have ever heard of this approach, but it makes complete sense. You can never really be too careful, and when it comes to the cloud I still have my doubts there (and that will probably never go away) so it nice to have that third option. This is really important when it comes to my school work, and work too, so thank for the little mind trick. Rule of three...I like that.

 

Rule of three? That's interesting.

When I was doing programming, we have something called grandfather, father, son. That means keeping two backup copies besides the current copy. If anything goes wrong with the current copy, we can always fall back to the 'father' copy. If that fails, too, then we still have the 'grandfather' copy.

Why not make it all the way to 'great-grandfather' and beyond? It's a simple matter of space and time. The more backup copies, the more time and space is needed to make them. One current copy plus two backup copies is just about right.

Why not just one backup copy?

Well, if something goes wrong, you don't have a full idea whether the problem is with the software or the hardware. If the problem is with the hardware, then putting in the one and only backup copy will mean you have nothing else left. That's why there is the 'grandfather' copy.

I do this with my website. I backup only two copies, to two different places, one on the server itself, and one in Dropbox. I could have used Google Drive or OneDrive but Dropbox has the simplest setup process.

 

Well, the reason why I backup in 3 locations is because literally, they are 3 different locations as well. The cloud hosting probably has its own backup mechanism, which means backing up to (say) Google or Amazon or Microsoft would keep your data consistent and safe. But, just in case you lose the internet, then you have a local copy of the docs on your system. But, just in case your system gets compromised, well then, you have the 3rd copy kept away from your system that will always have your data safe and sound.

 

There is a shift when it comes to computer storage, in the past everything was kept on your computer and the bigger the drive the better. Now days the drives aren't necessarily bigger but with external discs the amount that you can store is practically infinite. There is still another option and that is using a cloud server to backup your information. I don't think that we have ever had so many options in the past.

 

Having a lot of storage doesn't hurt, it's better to have more than you need, always. Because maybe you don't need the storage right now but you might need them in the future and that's an investment you make, and besides it's not like there is much difference between a 500GB HDD and a 1TB HDD. Right now the standard is having 1TB HDD on your computer even though you think you might not need all the storage. If you want fast data transfers you can go with one of the WD Black HDD series.

 

I think one should buy a data storage device with a large capacity. If you can buy a 1TB HDD then buy it. You won't have to worry about getting more storage but you also have to take into consideration backing up you files so maybe 2 500GB HDDs might be the wiser option since you never can tell when a storage device will stop working.

 

Makes perfect sense. Keeping them separate in this way just gives you that extra extra back up. I cannot see myself backing up everything like this, just because I would forget and all of that, but those important documents most certainly would be better off in places where they are not connected.

 

There is no one "optimum size" for all.
For average users who only use web browser and Office, even a 128GB hard drive is more than enough.
For those who have tons of video files, even a 1TB will be filled up quickly.

As a primary hard drive for a laptop, I do not think it is necessary to get anything more than 1TB unless money is really not a problem plus you really like to keep everything on your hard drive or you install tons of 50GB+ programs on it. If you do not install so many large programs, then you can really use one external hard drive for the files.

My current laptop has a 256GB hard drive, and it was almost full when I downloaded too many files. but I quickly removed them to my external hard drive and the problem was gone.