Bits Bytes Megabytes Gigabytes
Computer storage has come a long way since the 1800s. Below is a comparison of the storage capacity of different computer media. There's some wiggle room with these capacities--for example, floppy disks initially had about half the listed amount of space, then it became possible to store information on both sides of the disk.
| Item | Storage Capacity | Percentage of total storage capacity in this chart |
|---|---|---|
| Needle Card/edge-notched card | (estimated) 180 bits | 00.00000014% |
| Punch card | 80 bytes | 00.0000006% |
| 8" Floppy Disk | 1.2 mb | 00.00902% |
| 5¼” Floppy Disk | 1.2 mb | 00.00541% |
| 3½” Floppy Disk | 1.44 mb | 00.0108% |
| Zip Disk | 100mb | 00.752% |
| CD-R | 700 mb | 05.26% |
|
USB Flash Drive |
4 GB | 30.1% |
| DVD+R | 8.5 gb | 63.9% |
| Total storage: | 13.3 GB |