Apple's iPhoto was recently upgraded to accommodate 25,000 photos. If I were to take 50 photos a week, it would take me 10 years to reach its limit. And if I were to save the photos as 35-megabyte files, they would take up nearly a terabyte of hard-drive space.
Unfortunately, sooner or later I end up needing one of those trashed files. After a bit of research, I came up with another solution: a new hard drive.
Not only did I get twice the space, I also got more speed.
My existing disk was a 40-gigabyte 4,200rpm IBM/Hitachi hard drive shipped with my computer. After some investigation, my choices for replacement boiled down to one of two Hitachi/IBM Travelstar hard drives: the 5K80 (an 80GB 5,400rpm drive, the largest capacity presently available to fit the PowerBook), or the 7K60 (a 60GB 7,200rpm drive, and the fastest available for a PowerBook). They both cost US$264.
The choice was difficult because I had to decide between space or speed. I chose space, but I have daily doubts if that was the wise choice.