Question:How much does a gigabyte worth of data physically weigh on a hard disk? ?? ??(7 answers) ?? ???Closed 7 years ago. ?
I recently purchased a new Dell laptop. It weighs 1.34 KG. I want to add movies in my laptop. Will my laptop weight increase if I add movies?
Answer: Special Relativity tells us that energy has mass. ?Therefore, the kinetic energy of the spinning disk platters will cause your HDD to gain mass when you switch it on.
This is probably more significant than any mass change you may have from the data stored.
Of course, the mass gain is still infinitesimally small.
Also, to be really pedantic, weight is the manifestation of mass in a gravitational field. ?So, the weight will change if you carry the disk upstairs but the mass won’t.