Thinking about that, lead me to think about how much a Terabyte of data actually is.
Here is one interesting compilation about units of data and their relativity -
Excluding additions done by myself, all the data is taken from here.
Bytes (8 bits)
- 0.1 bytes: A single yes/no decision (actually 0.125 bytes, but I rounded)
- 1 byte: One character
- 10 bytes: One word (a word of language, not a computer word)
- 100 bytes: Telegram; two punched computer (Hollerith) cards
Kilobyte
1,024 bytes; 210;
approx. 1,000 or 10 3
- 1 Kilobyte: Joke; (very) short story
- 2 Kilobytes: Typewritten page
- 10 Kilobytes: Page out of an encyclopedia
- 50 Kilobytes: Image of a document page, compressed
- 100 Kilobytes: Photograph, low-resolution
- 200 Kilobytes: Two boxes (4000) punched computer (Hollerith) cards
- 500 Kilobytes: Five boxes, one case (10,000 of punched computer (Hollerith) cards
Megabyte
1,048,576 bytes; 220;
approx 1,000,000 or 10 6
- 1 Megabyte: Small novel; 3-1/2 inch diskette
- 2 Megabytes: Photograph, high resolution
- 5 Megabytes: Complete works of Shakespeare; 30 seconds of broadcast-quality video
- 10 Megabytes: Minute of high-fidelity sound; digital chest X-ray; Box of 3-1/2 inch diskettes
- 20 Megabytes: Two boxes of 3-1/2 inch diskettes
- 50 Megabytes: Digital mammogram
- 100 Megabytes: Yard of books on a shelf; two encyclopedia volumes
- 200 Megabytes: Reel of 9-track tape; IBM 3480 cartridge tape
- 500 Megabytes: Average data content of a CD-ROM
Gigabyte
1,073,741,824 bytes; 230;
approx 1,000,000,000 or 10 9
- 1 Gigabyte: Paper in the bed of a pickup; symphony in high-fidelity sound; broadcast quality movie
- 2 Gigabytes: 20 yards of books on a shelf
- 5 Gigabytes: 8mm Exabyte tape
- 20 Gigabytes: Audio collection of the works of Beethoven
- 50 Gigabytes: Library floor of books on shelves
- 100 Gigabytes: Library floor of academic journals on shelves; large ID-1 digital tape
- 200 Gigabytes: 50 Exabyte tapes
Terabyte
1,099,511,627,776 or 240;
approx. 1,000,000,000,000 or 10 12
- 1 Terabyte: Automated tape robot; all the X-ray films in a large technological hospital; 50,000 trees made into paper and printed; daily rate of EOS (Earth Orbiting System) data (1998)
- 2 Terabytes: Academic research ligrary
- 10 Terabytes: Printed collection of the U. S. Library of Congress
- 50 Terabytes: Contents of a large mass storage system
- ~70 Terabytes: Total space taken up by Google Earth imagery
Petabyte
1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes or 250
approx. 1,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 15
- 1 Petabyte: 3 years of EOS data (2001)
- 2 Petabytes: All U. S. academic research libraries
- 5-8 Petabytes: Dec '08 estimate of monthly internet traffic of the entire world
- 20 Petabytes: 1995 production of hard-disk drives
- 200 Petabytes: All printed material; 1995 production of digital magnetic tape
Exabyte
1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes or 260
approx. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 18
- 1 Exabyte: 50,000 years of DVD quality video
- 5 Exabytes: All words ever spoken by human beings (in text)
- 988 Exabytes: Estimated size of total digital information created/duplicated in year 2010.
Zettabyte
1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bytes or 270
approx. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 21
- ~2.25 Zettabytes: Amount of information that can be stored in 1 gram of DNA
- 42 Zettabytes: Storage for all human speech if digitized as 16 kHz 16-bit audio
Yottabyte
1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes or 280
approx. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 24
- 1 Yottabyte: Higher end estimate of the total number of grains of sand on earth
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