When I got a terabyte drive I found that 'terabyte' was not in my spell check dictionary.

I loaded all the large number names into it so that wouldn't happen again.

Then I thought, 'How big is a terabyte of data?'

I came up with a list to put it in perspective.

First the names, then the list. Data is approximate.

Sizes (^ = exponent):

MB = megabyte = 10^6
GB = gigabyte = 10^9
TB - terabyte = 10^12
PB = petabyte = 10^15
EB = exabyte  = 10^18
ZB = zettabyte = 10^21
YB = yottabyte = 10^24

  2 MB - About a thousand pages of text
 10 MB - a very high resolution JPEG image (a picture is worth a thousand pages)
 40 MB - A typical music album in MP3 format (approx. 45 minutes)
400 MB - Typical Audio CD in raw format (approx. 45 minutes)

  1 GB - an old-time black-and-white movie in normal DVD format
  1 GB - size of Windows 98
  2 GB - 10 seconds of detector data captured by the Large Hadron Collider
  8 GB - size of Windows XP
 15 GB - size of Windows Vista
 20 GB - a collection of the works of Beethoven
100 GB - a library floor of academic journals

  1 TB - 50,000 trees (5 acre dense forest) made into paper and printed
 10 TB - the print collections of the U.S. Library of Congress
500 TB - data storage of Large Hadron Collider

  2 PB - all U.S. academic research libraries
 10 PB - raw disk storage size at CERN (anticipated)
 20 PB - data size of all the hard disks made in 1995
576 PB - all the telephone data sent in a year (2003)

  2 EB - total volume of information generated in 1999
  5 EB - all words ever spoken by human beings
  5 EB - all new print, film, magnetic, and optical storage information 
         produced in 2002

1.2 ZB - The volume of digital information created and duplicated in 2010 
3.6 ZB - amount of content that a typical US consumer went through in 2008

2^265 = 10^80 = number of hydrogen atoms in the universe (conservative estimate)


10^100 = 1 googol = ten duotrigintillion

Here are some recommendations for general PC software utilities that I have purchased and used for some time that have a solid feel. Some are free. I recommend them:

• Raxco PerfectDisk  - disk defragmenter
  
• WinRAR - archiver, compressor/decompressor
  
• Locate32 - quick file system file finder
  
• XnView - file viewer
  
• NISTime - network time manager
  
• WinUtilities - a good set of system utilities
  
• Tagtuner - MP3 file tag manager
  
• CCleaner - a safe system cleaner
• Acronis TrueImage - fast image backup
  
• Acronis Disk Director - hard disk manager (for advanced users)
  
• Retrospect - file backup for home networks, PC and Mac (for advanced users)
  
• ERUNT - registry backup/optimizer
• Tiny Watcher - startup detective
• HDTune - hard disk evaluator
  

I currently use Windows XP SP3.

Some of these are for more advanced users (Disk Director, Retrospect) and are hard to learn or may get you into trouble if you are not careful.

I recommend using Disk Director only from its bootable CD.

I have used Retrospect on Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS X. It has saved me several times.

Acronis TrueImage has also rescued me from disaster. It is also very fast.

PerfectDisk has showed me that a good disk defragmenter can make an amazing difference in system performance.

WinRAR is free, but it is so powerful I bought a license to help promote its development.

A word of warning: our software systems are getting increasingly complex. With complexity comes greater risk for problems. Before blaming any software for problems, make sure your underlying system is in good shape.

Before using Mac software from a company called Rixstep (Clix, Xfile, ACP, for example) I encourage you to look over the tone of their posts in their forums and then Google their name and look over various people's reactions to their support.

Let the buyer beware.