publication or printing at an 8×10-inch format, a single image can demand
something like 22,355,878 bytes. For purposes of this book, all you really
need to know is this: Digital images at their highest resolution require a great
deal of space.This is, by definition, fuzzy math because file sizes can vary based on resolu-
tion, whether they are color or black and white, storage file extension, and
the complexity of the image itself (a picture half filled with an unvarying
Cerulean blue sky requires a bit less space than a picture of a grandstand full
of baseball fans with infinite variations in detail per seat).Anyhow, at 22,355,878 bytes (which translates into about 21.32MB) I could
hold about 120 images on the available 2.5GB of space on my drive. If I chose
to use the compressed and compressible JPEG format, I could hold about
700 images. On a three-week extravagant trip to Australia and New Zealand, I
started running out of space during the second week. The original hard drive
was a Toshiba model with two platters and four data heads and an official
capacity of 4.32GB. Built in to the 8.5mm-high drive is a minimal 512KB buffer.
The drive’s heads were rated at a 13ms average seek time (a minimum of 3ms
and maximum of 25ms) and a 33.3MBps data maximum transfer rate.I worked with BiX Computers (www.bixnet.com) to choose a replacement
drive. They recommended installing a new 40GB drive (also from Toshiba)
that would boost storage space tenfold, greatly improve the buffer size, and
improve overall speed of access and transfer in several areas.The Toshiba MK4025GAS is able to squeeze an astounding 64.8Gb of data per
square inch, allowing 40.007GB of storage on a single double-sided platter. The
drive includes an 8MB buffer, about 16 times more capacious than the one it
replaced. The drive’s heads are rated at a 12ms average seek time (a minimum
of 2ms and maximum of 22ms) and is capable — in a state-of-the-art laptop
with an ATA-6 interface — of a 100MBps data maximum transfer rate.If you are installing a new drive to replace a failed and irreparable hard drive,
or if you are upgrading a machine and have no need to hold on to any previ-
ous work, the cleanest way to do the job is to install the operating system
from a distribution disk and reinstall applications. In doing so you do not
have to worry about keeping fragments of old or updated programs, bad
links, temporary files, and other electronic detritus.I had two choices. I’ll call them The Fresh Start or The Great Migration options.Techies sometimes call the fresh start a clean install.It means that you do not
have to deal with any of the leftover pieces of the old system or applications;
they come onto the drive after the operating system is in place. A migration
process involves cloningthe old the drive to another location and then copy-
ing it back, warts and all, onto a new piece of hardware.258 Part V: The Software Side of Life