# I need to back up the internet **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 5, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079 "2006-02-05T05:36:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/21 "2006-02-05T15:52:15Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Yeah burn me a CD too. šŸ˜ƒ Can I have a copy too? Donā€™t bother to burn it, just email it to me. Maybe you should zip it first, it might end up being kinda big. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/22 "2006-02-05T16:51:00Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Damn, youā€™re right. a Terabyte is a 1000 gigabytes, so Iā€™d need 7.5mil media to back up 7500 terabytes. Except that a DVD is 4.7 GB per disc. I donā€™t think anyone makes a 1 GB storage discā€¦ Oh, Mr. Math Person, over here, please! ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/23 "2006-02-05T16:57:29Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > Except that a DVD is 4.7 GB per disc. I donā€™t think anyone makes a 1 GB storage discā€¦ Oh, Mr. Math Person, over here, please! Well, there used to be 1 GB _tapes_ available, back when hard drives first began exceeding that capacity. Tape was and is sloooooooooooooow. I canā€™t even begin to imagine how long it would take to back up 7,500 TB of data onto 1 GB tapes! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/24 "2006-02-05T16:58:36Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > Except that a DVD is 4.7 GB per disc. I donā€™t think anyone makes a 1 GB storage discā€¦ Oh, Mr. Math Person, over here, please! They do make a [2.6Gb DVD-RAM disc](http://www.cd-dvd-supplies.com/cgi-bin/smart_cart2.cgi?product_id=MAX636010&submit_request_button=yes&sc_db_max_rows_returned=50&cart_id=smart_cart2.none.5213176_28243). ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/25 "2006-02-05T18:52:57Z")
> [@](#): > > I donā€™t think anyone makes a 1 GB storage discā€¦ Oh, Mr. Math Person, over here, please! IIRC there was a CD-R that was sold as 1GB which was done by adding overburning space (perhaps ā€˜painting the linesā€™ closer together too). Maybe it was only 900 mbā€™s now that I think about it, but it was higher then the standard CD. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/26 "2006-02-05T20:56:20Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > (slightly outdated) Written last night, was it? šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/27 "2006-02-05T21:00:12Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Terabytes? More like petabytes. Or exabytes. Not sure if it reaches zettabytes, much less yottabytes yet, tho. Thatsa lottabytes. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/28 "2006-02-05T23:19:50Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > Except that a DVD is 4.7 GB per disc. [nitpick] In doing calculations like this, youā€™d do best to remember that DVD recordable formats use the same kind of deceptive math as hard drive manufacturers. They consider 4.7 billion bytes to be 4.7GB, while the rest of the computer world rightly knows it to be 4.37GB. [/nitpick] > [@](#): > > I donā€™t think anyone makes a 1 GB storage discā€¦ Since you spelled disc with a ā€œc,ā€ Iā€™ll assume youā€™re referring only to optical discs rather than any type of removable media, but in case youā€™re not, Iomega does make 1GB Jaz disks. They cost about $100 each, though, and the drives that read them are no longer manufactured. There are also 1GB flash memory cards. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/29 "2006-02-05T23:39:53Z")
Forgot to add to my previous post: Assuming no compression, it would take 1,757,438 DVD-Rs (or 1,757,437 DVD-Rs and a CD-R) to fit 7,500TB. 7,500TB = 7,680,000GB, which gets divided by 4.37 to reach my answer. Unlike DVD-Rs, a 700MB CD-R really is 700MB, so it would take 11,234,743 CDs to back up 7,500TB (7,864,320,000MB divided by 700). ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/30 "2006-02-06T00:18:27Z")
Permit me to rework the math a little, just for fun. The 7500 TB figure came from 2003; they also provided a ā€œsurface webā€ estimate of 50TB (which is about 1/150th the size). The surface web was growing by .1 TB per day. Letā€™s say (conservatively) the total web is growing by 1 TB per day (later, weā€™ll use the 15TB figure). Itā€™s 2006. 365\*3= about 1100 days. So we get an estimate of 8600TB. Thatā€™s 2000 DVDs (@ 4.3 gb/each). A 50 DVD spindle is 10cm tall and 13cm wide. We need 40 of those. Put them in a 4x5x2 block, which would be 52x65x20cm. Iā€™m guessing that it could be stored in **perhaps 3 beer boxes**. (20x30x40 cm each) Ok, now letā€™s say the web grows by 15TB per day. 7500 + (15\*1100)= 24000TB. Thatā€™s about 5600 DVDs or 112 spindles. Thatā€™s roughly 3 times the size of the preceding, **or maybe 9 beer boxes**. A large DVD jukebox might handle 700 discs. We would need 3-8 of those. Comments and audits are welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/31 "2006-02-06T00:20:09Z")
Er, sorry, multiply all of the above times 1000. :smack: Iā€™ll repost this in a moment. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/32 "2006-02-06T00:30:49Z")
Permit me to rework the math a little, just for fun. The 7500 TB figure came from 2003; they also provided a ā€œsurface webā€ estimate of 50TB (which is about 1/150th the size). The surface web was growing by .1 TB per day. Letā€™s say (conservatively) the total web is growing by 1 TB per day (we could say 15TB, but letā€™s be conservative). Itā€™s 2006. 365\*3= about 1100 days. So we get an estimate of 8600TB. Thatā€™s 2,000,000 DVDs (@ 4.3 gb/each). A 50 DVD spindle is 10cm tall and 13cm wide. We need 40,000 of those. A beer box is about 20x30x40cm. Arrange the DVD spindles in groups of 2x2x3 or 20x26x39cm. Weā€™ll need **about 3,300** of those beer boxes. Ok, now letā€™s say the web grows by 15TB per day. 7500 + (15\*1100)= 24000TB. Thatā€™s about 5,600.000 DVDs or 112,000 spindles. Thatā€™s roughly 3 times the size of the preceding, **or maybe 9300 beer boxes**. A large DVD jukebox might handle 700 discs. We would need 2800-8000 of those. Comments and audits are still welcome (and demonstrably necessary I guess). ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/33 "2006-02-06T00:43:07Z")
A standard wood pallet (for clothing) has a base of 102x122 cm ([cite](http://www.apparelsearch.com/conversion_chart_pallet_sizes.htm)). Conservatively, that could handle a base of 4x3 beer boxes. Assume they stack up 2 meters or 10 boxes high. Thatā€™s 120 boxes per pallet. We would need about 30-80 pallets. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/34 "2006-02-06T23:57:21Z")
> [@Measure for Measure](#): > > Er, sorry, multiply all of the above times 1000. :smack: Iā€™ll repost this in a moment. Well, I feel a little better now. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079/35 "2006-02-06T23:59:41Z")
> [@Measure for Measure](#): > > Thatā€™s roughly 3 times the size of the preceding, **or maybe 9300 beer boxes**. You may need a hand emptying those boxes for the DVDs. Iā€™ll be practicing if you need me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-to-back-up-the-internet/343079.md?page=1)