I’ve run out of room on this laptop’s hard drive. Don’t worry. That’s a terrible byproduct of photography. I shoot hundreds of images at a time and each weighs in at around 16 megabytes. This has happened before.
There’s a backup drive next to me and the data is flowing through a USB cable.
Just stop for a moment here. This technology is incredible. Mind boggling.
I am moving data from my computer to a drive with as much difficulty as I’d having filling a sugar bowl from a larger package. And the principle is pretty much the same. I’m just pouring the data from one container to another without modifying or using it!
Tonight the transfer will move around 32 Gb. That’s 32,000,000,000 bytes and each is made up of 8 bits. These numbers are so far beyond our comprehension we just make believe we can understand their true meaning and value.
Faster computers and cheaper hardware have led to a data explosion. Ten years ago no individual “owned” as much data as I do today!
I already have more than I can easily deal with.
Geoff – I have heard those external disk drives made by Western Digital are very easy to use. You can also purchase them in sizes up to 1 terabyte. That will allow you to pull some data off.
I just bought the Western Digital 1 TB external hard drive at Target for $99. It works well.