What are the advantages of optical discs? How many bytes of data are available in 8 GB of computer storage ?

Optical disks are generally used for distributing large amounts of data at low cost. Some advantages of optical disks are: The cost-per-bit of storage for optical disks is very low due to their low cost and enormous storage density. The use of a single spiral track makes optical disks an ideal storage medium for reading large blocks of sequential data, such as music. Optical disk drives do not have any mechanical read/write heads to rub against or crash into the disk surface. This makes optical disks a more reliable storage medium than magnetic tapes or magnetic disks. Optical disks have a data storage life in excess of 30 years, making them a better storage medium for data archiving compared to magnetic tapes, magnetic disks, and even flash drives. Since data once stored on an optical disk becomes permanent, there is no danger of stored data getting inadvertently erased/overwritten. Due to their compact size and light weight, optical disks are easy to handle, store, and port from one place to another. Calculation of bytes in 8 GB: 1 GB = 1024 MB 1 MB = 1024 Kilo Bytes 1 KB = 1024 Bytes 1 GB = [1024 * 1024 * 1024] Bytes = 1,073,741,824 Bytes 8 GB = 8 * 1,073,741,824 Bytes = 8,589,934,592 Bytes