What size of hard drive do I actually need?

These days, hard drives aren't just growing in size for the sake of it. They're expanding because even average users demand more storage space. Think about it—our music libraries, downloaded TV shows, and all of our work or personal documents (including countless photos) are stored on our devices.

It’s no surprise, then, that Seagate recently unveiled a hard drive that packs a staggering 1 terabyte (1 trillion bytes) per square inch. When you consider that a MacBook Air only has 120 gigabytes of storage, you can appreciate just how incredible it is that Seagate's drive could reach a 60-terabyte capacity within the next decade.

Just a little over 20 years ago, in the mid-'90s, Apple was selling Performas with 120 or 160MB hard drives, enough to store roughly 50 songs. That’s all.

Given all this, is it really worth investing in a massive hard drive to store everything forever, or is it better to opt for something smaller and upgrade as you need?

First of all, don’t rush into buying a computer with the largest hard drive available. After all, the first computer with a 1GB hard drive cost $25,000 in 1985. These days, even your smartphone probably has at least a 16GB hard drive.

Of course, the kind of content you store on your computer will dictate how much storage space you'll require. If you're using graphic-heavy programs like Photoshop or InDesign, you’ll need significantly more space than, say, my mom, who mostly uses a word processor for her grocery lists.

Now, let’s take a deeper look at how we’re using our hard drives and figure out just how much storage we really need.

Is your hard drive massive, or are you simply content with MB?

It's important to clarify that we're mainly discussing hard drive capacity here. If you assumed that hard drives offer more than just storage, you're right. To quickly summarize, a disk-type hard drive uses rapidly spinning magnetic disks to store data. These are the most common type of hard drive, but they’re also the most vulnerable—drop your laptop, and a misalignment of those spinning disks could destroy your hard drive.

Recently, solid-state drives (SSD) have become incredibly popular (Apple has fully adopted them). Rather than relying on spinning disks, they use flash drive technology to store data. This makes them resistant to movement, and you won’t have to worry about "laptop burn" when resting your computer on your lap—no spinning means no heat (plus they're quieter and use less energy). The downside? They're pricier, so you’ll likely pay a premium for the same storage size.

Let's clarify what a hard drive doesn’t impact. Regardless of how much storage you have, it won’t make your computer run faster. That means if you have 1TB of unused space, your computer will perform the same as if it were full. (In this case, size doesn’t matter: a computer with 1GB of space will perform just as well as one with 1TB.)

So, how large should your hard drive be? Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Most laptops come with anywhere from 120GB to 700GB, which is enough for a typical user. Even if you store 30MB photos like precious little treasures, don’t forget the usefulness of external hard drives. Instead of splurging on an expensive internal drive to store every photo of autumn leaves or adorable calico cats, think about investing in some affordable external storage for part of your collection. This way, you save money and safeguard your library by keeping it in multiple places.