Welcome to Terabyte Drives, the ultimate resource for internal and external TB hard disk drives.
A Terabyte = 1,000 gigabytes (GB)
At least in the simplest terms*, a terabyte (TB) is equal to 1,000 gigabytes (GB) or 1,000,000 megabytes (MB.)
Years ago, this was an unfathomable amount for home use. With dozens of movies, hundreds of photos and thousands of songs commonplace on the average PC now, a terabyte drive is very practical, and advancements in technology have made them affordable.
How much can a terabyte harddrive hold?
Interfaces: or, how your drive connects to your computer
USB 2.0 - "Universal Serial Bus," the new standard in device connection- compatible with almost any computer, both PC and Mac. Max transfer speed: 480 Mb/s
FireWire 400 – High performance interface for Apple Mac computers. Max transfer speed: 400 Mb/s
FireWire 800 – High performance interface for Apple Mac computers. Max transfer speed: 800 Mb/s
eSATA (3 Gb/s) - Ultra-fast, eSATA speed allows external devices to have performance similar to that of top-of-the-line internal hard drives. Max transfer speed: 3Gb/s
Unless it is a very recent purchase, your computer will most likely need an additional card to use eSATA connections.
*Technically, a kilobyte is 10^2 or 1024 bytes, making a Terabyte
Based on average file sizes, a Terabyte harddrive can hold approximately:
200,000 photos
250,000 MP3s
25,000 CD Quality uncompressed audio files
Video:
76 Hours of Digital
380 Hours of DVD
120 Hours of HD
200,000 photos
250,000 MP3s
25,000 CD Quality uncompressed audio files
Video:
76 Hours of Digital
380 Hours of DVD
120 Hours of HD
Interfaces: or, how your drive connects to your computer
The interface involves a receiving port on your computer, a sending port on the external drive, and the proper cable connecting the two. There are multiple ways an external hard drive can connect to your PC or Mac.
Fortunately, almost all more recent computers have USB 2.0 connection ports and almost all harddrives have USB 2.0 outputs, so there is little to no risk of a drive being un-usable on your computer (if your computer is from roughly 2001 or earlier though, check to make sure). There are however, different options for better performance that are more specific. Here is the complete list:
Fortunately, almost all more recent computers have USB 2.0 connection ports and almost all harddrives have USB 2.0 outputs, so there is little to no risk of a drive being un-usable on your computer (if your computer is from roughly 2001 or earlier though, check to make sure). There are however, different options for better performance that are more specific. Here is the complete list:
USB 2.0 - "Universal Serial Bus," the new standard in device connection- compatible with almost any computer, both PC and Mac. Max transfer speed: 480 Mb/s
FireWire 400 – High performance interface for Apple Mac computers. Max transfer speed: 400 Mb/s
FireWire 800 – High performance interface for Apple Mac computers. Max transfer speed: 800 Mb/s
eSATA (3 Gb/s) - Ultra-fast, eSATA speed allows external devices to have performance similar to that of top-of-the-line internal hard drives. Max transfer speed: 3Gb/s
Unless it is a very recent purchase, your computer will most likely need an additional card to use eSATA connections.
*Technically, a kilobyte is 10^2 or 1024 bytes, making a Terabyte
- 2^40 bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes