OK, so when you’re working with the files on your computer, you know that they take up a certain amount of space. And you know that your hard drive only contains a limited amount of space anyway. So we’re going to go through the basic ways that file size is measured, what that means, and how that relates to typical file that are stored on your computer.
The smallest way to measure file size is to think about the smallest piece of information you can input into, say, a document like a resume. The smallest thing you can input is anything you’ve typed in. This is known as a character, which may be a letter, number, punctuation, symbol etc. Basically, every time you type something on the keyboard, that takes up 1 byte of information. Instead of writing the word byte all the time, we shorten it to B or b.
SO:
1 character = 1B (byte)
1000 characters = 1000 bytes = 1KB (Kilobyte)
The next measurement is measured when we’ve typed 1,000,000 characters (this resume is getting pretty long here!).
1,000,000 characters = 1,000,000B = 1000KB = 1MB (Megabyte)
1 character = 1B
1000B = 1KB
1000KB = 1MB
1000MB = 1GB
1000GB = 1TB
GB represents a Gigabyte, and TB is very exciting and represents a Terabyte. Normal users will most likely be looking at GB these days, but if you’re computer nerd like me, we’re getting very excited about the TB’s!
So far this is all pretty straightforward, but how does this fit in with YOUR file, I hear you ask? Well, first of all we’re going to think about the kinds of files that you might be using, and also the different places you might be storing those files.
Different File Types
Most often, we are used to working with document files. Any file that mostly (or exclusively) contains text. These take up the least amount of space, because text is very easy to measure. Remember, 1 character is the equivalent of 1 byte.
Photographs and graphics are more difficult to measure, and because they are so detailed, they are much bigger to store than a document. They are usually about 2MB (it varies, depending how much detail has gone into the picture, and how physically big it is on-screen).
Sound files such as MP3s are also pretty detailed, and are usually about 3MB (again, it varies, but this is more likely to be the size, since most songs are about 3½ minutes long).
Video files are about as detailed as MP3s, but are usually much longer since you can view a TV show or movie on your computer. Typically, they are about 250-500MB in size for an average quality recording. For a really good quality recording they are about 700MB+ (it can STILL vary, but then we start looking at the scary world of animation vs. live action shows/movies!)
A storage medium is anything that will store your information. It may be portable, or it may live inside your computer and never come out. Most storage mediums are portable. Below is a list of some of the most common storage mediums, and how much storage they contain:
| Floppy Disk | 1.4MB |
| CD | 700MB |
| DVD | 4.2GB |
| New storage devices: Flash Drive, MP3 Player, Digital Camera, iPod etc | Many sizes including: |
The last thing we’re going to do is bring ALL of this information together and compare the sizes:
1 character = 1B
1000B = 1KB
1 document = 1MB+
1000KB = 1MB
1 Floppy disk = 1.4MB
1 Photo = 3-4MB+
1 MP3 = 3MB+
1 CD = 700MB
1 Movie = 700MB+
1000MB = 1GB
1 DVD = 4.2GB
1000GB = 1TB
So this should give you an overview of the way file sizes are determined, and what kind of storage you can use. For storage, I recommend flash drives over anything else, because they’re so transportable and easy to use. A 1-2GB flash drive will cost you around $20-$30, which is pretty reasonable for all the storage space you’re getting. The current Experience Matters group commented to me only this morning that they had all the files for their textbook stored on a 512MB flash drive, and still had over 425MB of space left over for personal files.
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