As digital entertainment streams into consumers' lives, they are amassing valuable troves of stored data. A recent study conducted by KRC Research and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies found that U.S. adults have an average of $1,135 worth of entertainment stored on devices such as laptops/PCs, MP3 players, DVRs, mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras, and portable movie players, and that their appetite for more storage is growing as our lives become more mobile.

The study results also point to a larger belief within the hard drive industry: As the cost of digital storage becomes less than ten percent of the content value, it is affordable enough for that content to be permanently retained -- increasing the pervasiveness of hard disk drives.

"As hard drives shrink in size and increase in capacity, the kinds of consumer electronics devices they inspire are changing how people accumulate and store entertainment in their homes and lives," said Hitachi's Bill Healy. "Young people are truly at the heart of this revolution and have a huge interest in creating a digital lifestyle. Based on the decreasing cost-per-megabyte of storage, we believe that hard drives will represent the best solution for meeting this consumer storage demand for the foreseeable future."

The proliferation of digital entertainment is increasing the value of what people are accumulating on their digital devices. More than half stated that they felt all the photos, music, movies, and video games they have stored is somewhat important, valuable or priceless. Nearly one in five said their digital content was priceless.

Storage capacity counts. Almost half have between one and 200 gigabytes worth of storage capacity across all of their electronic devices. Just over a third have 21 GB of capacity or more and a tenth have more than 200 GB of storage capacity. 18-24 year-old consumers are most likely to have the largest amount of storage capacity.

Consumers see the value in storing data, and want more as digital entertainment needs grow. Sixty percent said they wish they had more storage on their electronic devices. Nearly one-third said they wish they had so much storage that it was never an issue, particularly true for 18-24 year-old consumers, who on average, have nearly 1,200 songs stored -- three times more songs than the average population.