In 1956 the huge box being shipped in the first photo was a 5 MB hard drive. It rented for $28,000 a month in today’s dollars.

In the second photo, on the finger of my hand, is a 256 GB flash drive (51,500 times the capacity) designed to just fit into the SD slot of a MacBook Pro. Cost $150.

I got it so I could keep my entire Photos library of more than 35,000 photos and videos I’ve taken over the years on my Mac without needing to store them on an external drive. The 1956 hard drive could only hold about 5 photos like the one shown.

IBM 5 MB hard drive from 1956

Monta and 256 GB flash drive from 2017