OT? - Total storage space in the world

From: Dave Dixson (dave.dixson_nospam_at_bigfoot.com)
Date: 05/07/04 

Date: 7 May 2004 01:46:57 -0700

Not sure if this is the right group for this question, but I will give
it a go anyway - feel free to flame if it is not.

I was just wondering, does anyone care to guess what the total amount
of electronic storage there currently exists in the whole world. That
is, if all the Hard Disks and flash memory chips were added up, what
would the total amount of electronic storage be. I suppose I could
also include all removable media, such as DVDs and CDs, and even
analogue formats, such as vinyl, but I have chosen not to in order to
keep the answer from getting too large.

My guess is that the final count would be in the regoing of trillions
of gigabytes (is this 100s of exabytes?). I am basing this on there
being 6 million people in the world and there been around 100
gigabytes per person, though I suspect that my estimate might naivly
small.

Anyone else like to hazard a guess?

Cheers,

Dave.