What Is Storage Capacity?

Date First Published: 4th March 2024

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Hardware

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 4/10

CONTENTS

Storage Requirements
Types Of Storage Capacity
Partition Capacity
Difference Between Storage Capacity and Disk Space
History

Learn about what storage capacity is in this article.

Storage capacity refers to the amount of data a storage device can hold. It is precisely measured in kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and terabytes. For example, a computer with a 250 GB hard drive has a storage capacity of 250 gigabytes.

Storage Requirements

All types of media capable of storing information, including CDs, DVDs, hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, and SD cards, have a storage capacity.

Storage capacity requirements vary. For example, individuals may require less storage for personal documents and a small number of media files, but large organisations may require a high storage capacity for their databases and applications. Before purchasing a storage device, it is important to ensure that the storage capacity is high enough for the tasks that need to be performed with it. The storage capacity of the devices is fixed and cannot be increased. The only way to increase storage capacity is to replace the devices.

When buying a computer, the storage capacity of a hard drive advertised is not the amount of free space users will have. All computers have an operating system and programs installed use up some space.

Types Of Storage Capacity

Different types of storage capacity include:

Raw capacity - The total amount of storage capacity. Raw capacity does not include the disk space reserved for formatting, system overhead, or data protection mechanisms.
Usable capacity - Also known as net capacity, usable capacity is what remains after including system files and formatting requirements that take up space on the device.
Effective capacity - The amount of storage space available after data reduction. Effective capacity is an estimate because it is based on assumptions of the data's ability to reduce or compress.

Partition Capacity

Partitioning a hard drive tells the computer to treat portions of the hard drive as separate sections. When a drive is partitioned, its overall disk capacity remains the same. However, because the partitions give the appearance of a new drive, each partition has a different capacity.

Difference Between Storage Capacity and Disk Space

Storage capacity refers to overall disk space rather than free disk space. For example, a hard drive with a storage capacity of 250 GB may only have 20 GB available if the rest of the disk space is used up.

History

In the early days of computing, storage capacity was often measured in kilobytes. As new storage media began to accommodate the storage of digital images and videos, megabytes quickly replaced kilobytes, and gigabytes quickly replaced megabytes. New storage capacity measurements are often represented in terms of hundreds of gigabytes.