The Shrinking Hard Drive

Back in the old days, I had me a diskette that not only held an entire operating system, but all the files I ever needed also fit on it. When I upgraded to a 3 1/2-inch "hard" disk, there was space aplenty. My first 20 MB hard drive never filled, regardless of how much clip art I added. The 40MB hard drive on my Mac Duo laptop was hugely spacious. The 3GB hard drive on my orange iBook was plenty big. The 20GB hard drive on my white iBook was adequate -- for a while, but then I got a 60GB 3.5" USB/FireWire external, then another 60GB 2.5" bus-powered FW external, then a 120GB 3.5" USB2 external, then a 100GB 2.5" USB2 external. They filled up pretty quick with video projects. I didn't even deal with the standard 60GB hard drive on my PowerBook, but instead ordered the 100GB option. Today I just installed a 200GB in my office machine (next to the 80GB that's already filled).

A colleague downstairs just got a 1000GB external.

This is getting ridiculous.