Formatting large hard drives.

WAV files typically contain raw, uncompressed audio, although the bit rate/sample rate can vary massively. Their files would probably be .wav as well but with very high quality settings; it's hard to say what kind of settings, since you didn't say how long each 500MB file would play for

At CD quality, 500MB of audio nets you about 55 minutes of audio, as a rough guess.

 

wav files have different digital encoding rates , depending on Sampling and Bitrate , as you all know. DAT wav files are at 48Khz vs CD that is 44Khz for example. Also, depends if you have Stereo, Quad, or some kind of Surround.

Raw picture files and videos can be much more space consuming that raw Audio, due to its much more limited spectrum.

To put it broadly, every conversion of an analogue spectrum can take massive amounts of space in the digital realm.

 

Now don't be bitching and moaning when that maxtor drive can no longer spin up...