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These are the most popular forms of disk storage:

Hard disks. The storage inside your computer. Capacity is now measured in Gigabytes (GB). One gig is about 1 billion bytes, which sounds like a lot, but, increasingly, isn't. Floppies. Floppy disks are the 31/2" disks that hold about 1.44 Megabytes (MB). One meg is about a million bytes. Zip disks. Disks that work in and Iomega Zip drive and hold 100 MB, or, if you get the more expensive drive, 250 MB. Note that most Zip drives currently in use at CCSF can only hold 100 MB Zip disks. CD-ROMs. Every computer must have a drive that can handle either CDs or DVDs (the next generation CD-ROM replacement). You need one to install most programs. CD-RW. These drives can write to blank CDs that sell for about $1 (for CD-R, the type to which you can only write once) to $2-$3.50 for CD-RW (can be rewritten and erased). These drives require a separate program to copy files, not just Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder.

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Hard disks

Hard disks (mostly) live inside your computer. They hold the files that you save. Unlike the computer's memory (RAM), they continue to hold your data after you turn off your machine.

Capacity is important. Here's the lay of the land right now for the size of hard disks:

	4.3-8 GB. These are in the lowest-priced systems. The bare minimum.
	10 GB. Mid-range: the usual.
	13+ GB. Higher-end. But you see 20-30 GB disks standard in some systems....
	60-75GB disks are available!!

Multimedia folks who need lots of storage can now buy external hard disks in cases that they can carry around so that they can work with video and graphics files.

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 Floppies      

I almost didn't put this section in—everyone knows what a floppy disk is and they come standard on everything so why bother? Then Apple issued the iMac with no floppy disk. And PC makers followed suit in some cheaper "Internet" or "Network" PC.

Please!

Make sure that you get a floppy drive on your new machine.

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Zip disks            

Iomega corporation has been making zip drives for years now, and, though there are higher-capacity and faster technologies out there, the zip is a standard way of saving and carrying around either 100 MB (equal to 70 floppy disks full) or 250 MB (175 floppies) of data. Also, Zip disks are much sturdier and last longer than floppies, and you get a hard plastic carrying case with each one. And they're not much bigger than a floppy. They are, however, more expensive: $10 to $15 each depending on how many you buy and whether or not you belong to Costco or the equivalent. Adding a Zip drive to a new system (the component that allows you to read and save to Zip disks) adds about $89 for a 100 MB Zip drive. It's worth it. Iomega also makes a 250 MB drive that is more expensive and reads 100 MB disks as well as their higher-capacity and more expensive 250 MB sisters. At $150-$200, it's your call.

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