1 TB drive
A one-terabyte drive is a digital storage device capable of holding large amounts of computer data, such as documents, media and software.
1 TBDataEveryday quantities
1 TB drive vs A petabyte archive
What are they, and what does the difference actually look like?
Two things. One honest scale.
Meet the pair
What these two things are
A petabyte archive
A petabyte archive is a digital storage system designed to retain very large collections of data for long-term access.
1 PBDataA petabyte archive has about 1,000 times the data of 1 TB drive.
01
1 TB drive1 TBData
02
A petabyte archive1 PBData
Bar length represents bytes. The physical sizes of devices are schematic; encoding and compression affect file sizes.
Measurements, assumptions & sources +
1 TB drive
One trillion advertised bytes: approximately 931 GiB. This is not a loss of physical storage.
Defined examples — our methodology
The marked data is calibrated. Unmeasured illustration details are representative.
A petabyte archive
A defined 1 PB archive before replication or redundancy overhead.
Defined examples — our methodology
The marked data is calibrated. Unmeasured illustration details are representative.
Change the comparison
Put something else beside it.
Measurement details
Why these numbers?
The visual compares data with data. The records below preserve each value’s basis and caveats.
1 TB drive
1 TBData · example
One trillion advertised bytes: approximately 931 GiB. This is not a loss of physical storage.
A petabyte archive
1 PBData · example
A defined 1 PB archive before replication or redundancy overhead.
- Comparing
- Data ↔ Data
- Relative size
- A petabyte archive is larger on this measurement by a factor of about 1,000.
How to read the visual
The labelled spans and stored measurements determine the scale; unmeasured illustration details do not.
- 1 TB drive is labelled example; treat the displayed value as a comparison anchor rather than false precision.
- A petabyte archive is labelled example; treat the displayed value as a comparison anchor rather than false precision.
There’s always another scale
Follow your curiosity.
Digital1 TB drive1 TBA one-terabyte drive is a digital storage device capable of holding large amounts of computer data, such as documents, media and software.DigitalA petabyte archive1 PBA petabyte archive is a digital storage system designed to retain very large collections of data for long-term access.
DigitalText page3 kBA digital file containing one page of plain text characters without formatting or embedded fonts.
DigitalCompressed photo3 MBA compressed photo is a digital image file that has been processed to reduce the amount of data needed to store or transmit it.Digital128 GB phone128 GBPhone storage is the digital memory in a mobile phone used to keep apps, photos, videos and other files.Side by side
Another point of view.
