Then i began to think about how much data is that.  I mean really 20 terabytes of information really isn't that much.  I mean if you took all the data being transferred on the internet for just one second, 20 terabytes is but a drop in the ocean.

So I began to think about a time before the internet and electronic data, a time when information was measured in words, letters, pages and volumes.  I wondered how that information compared with today.  Take for instance the world largest library.  The United States Library of Congress in Washington D.C. ranks as the largest library in the world. How large is it? The nation's library holds over 118 million items which require more than 500 miles of shelving.  That is an amazing ten terabytes of information. And now that we can easily have a terabyte of storage space on our home computers, ten terabytes doesn’t seem to be that large.

So I started to do some digging about information sizes.  So here is some data on data. 

Bytes (8 bits)

• 0.1 bytes: A single yes/no decision  (actually 0.125 bytes, but I rounded)
• 1 byte: One character
• 2 bytes:
• 5 bytes
• 10 bytes: One word (a word of language, not a computer word)
• 20 bytes:
• 50 bytes:
• 100 bytes: Telegram; two punched computer (Hollerith) cards
• 200 bytes:
• 500 bytes:

Kilobyte
     1,024 bytes; 2¹⁰;
     approx. 1,000 or 10 ³

• 1 Kilobyte: Joke; (very) short story
• 2 Kilobytes: Typewritten page
• 10 Kilobytes: Page out of an encyclopedia
• 20 Kilobytes:
• 50 Kilobytes: Image of a document page, compressed
• 100 Kilobytes: Photograph, low-resolution
• 200 Kilobytes: Two boxes (4000) punched computer (Hollerith) cards
• 500 Kilobytes: Five boxes, one case (10,000 of punched computer (Hollerith) cards

Megabyte
     1,048,576 bytes; 2²⁰;
     approx 1,000,000 or 10 ⁶

• 1 Megabyte: Small novel; 3-1/2 inch diskette
• 2 Megabytes: Photograph, high resolution
• 5 Megabytes: Complete works of Shakespeare; 30 seconds of broadcast-quality video
• 10 Megabytes: Minute of high-fidelity sound; digital chest X-ray; Box of 3-1/2 inch diskettes
• 20 Megabytes: Two boxes of 3-1/2 inch diskettes
• 50 Megabytes: Digital mammogram
• 100 Megabytes: Yard of books on a shelf; two encyclopedia volumes
• 200 Megabytes: Reel of 9-track tape; IBM 3480 cartridge tape
• 500 Megabytes: CD-ROM

Gigabyte
     1,073,741,824 bytes; 2³⁰;
     approx 1,000,000,000 or 10 ⁹

• 1 Gigabyte: Paper in the bed of a pickup; symphony in high-fidelity sound; broadcast quality movie
• 2 Gigabytes: 20 yards of books on a shelf
• 5 Gigabytes: 8mm Exabyte tale
• 10 Gigabytes:
• 20 Gigabytes: Audio collection of the works of Beethoven; five Exabyte tapes; VHS tape used to store digital data
• 50 Gigabytes: Library floor of books on shelves
• 100 Gigabytes: Library floor of academic journals on shelves; large ID-1 digital tape
• 200 Gigabytes: 50 Exabyte tapes

Terabyte
     1,099,511,627,776 or 2⁴⁰;
     approx. 1,000,000,000,000 or 10 ¹²

• 1 Terabyte: Automated tape robot; all the X-ray films in a large technological hospital; 50,000 trees made into paper and printed; daily rate of EOS (Earth Orbiting System) data (1998)
• 2 Terabytes: Academic research ligrary
• 10 Terabytes: Printed collection of the U. S. Library of Congress
• 50 Terabytes: Contents of a large mass storage system
• 400 Terabytes: The National Climactic Data Center database

Petabyte
     1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes or 2⁵⁰
     approx. 1,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 ¹⁵

• 1 Petabyte: 3 years of EOS data (2001)
• 2 Petabytes: All U. S. academic research libraries
• 20 Petabytes: 1995 production of hard-disk drives
• 200 Petabytes: All printed material; 1995 production of digital magnetic tape

Exabyte
     1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes or 2⁶⁰
     approx. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 ¹⁸  

• 2 Exabytes: Total volume of information generated in 1999
• 5 Exabytes: All words ever spoken by human beings.

Zettabyte
     1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bytes or 2⁷⁰
     approx. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 ²¹

Yottabyte
     1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes or 2⁸⁰
     approx. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 ²⁴

How Many Bytes for a Web Site

The following table is derived from "How Much Storage Space Will You Need?” by Roy Harper, a WorkZ.com Contributing Editor.

Information object how many bytes

The amount of text on an average print page (when converted into HTML) 1 kilobyte (KB)

A button-size image for a Web page 1 KB to 5 KB

A larger image for a Web page 30 to 60 KB and larger

An average Web site 5 megabyte s (MB)

The range for typical PDF files 100 to 800 KB

A video or audio downloadable file typically range from 500 KB to 10 MB

An MP3 (music) downloadable file 2 to 5 MB

A downloadable program or driver will usually tell you before you download it

How Much Information Exists

Since 2000, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have continued to estimate each year how much information exists on the planet Earth. The Executive Summary of their report, "How Much Information? 2003" is available at their Web site. Here are just a few highlights:

Information object - how many bytes

How much information each person on earth produces per year 1 to 2 exabytes

How much of the above is printed information .03% of the total

How much e-mail information per year 11,265 terabyte s

How much radio information 788 terabytes

How much TV information 14,150 terabytes

How much telephone information 576,000 terabytes

How much postal information 150,000 terabytes

How much office document information 195 terabytes

Oh and by the way this post is a little less than 50 Kilobytes.  If I was to store this in a text format and used notepad it would only be 8KB

So I wonder where Wincustomize fits on this list?

information gathered from

http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/how_big.htm

and

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid5_gci944596,00.html