how much does computer storage cost?
 

Charges dropped against fugitive doctor, because evidence is using too much space on federal servers | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Is it the storage that's expensive or the indexing?

Why don't they store it on Pirate Bay or isoHunt for free?

Sixto
87 300D

Probably more effort than it's worth to process the evidence into a form that would be comprehensible to a jury, and the case may still not be won. They may have been hoping for a plea-bargain or a voluntary return to the States (he's in Panama), and he called their bluff.

Also, the data may need to be held on certain specific servers to preserve chain of custody -- it's not as simple as buying a few 1TB drives, and uploading evidence to the "cloud" would break more than a few privacy rules :)

2TB? Pfft . . . most teens have at least that much in MP3 files. ;)

Curious why the data couldn't be put on secure drives and kept in storage. Or tape,lots of tape.

The disks are cheaper than toilet paper. Paying server administrators to mind them less so. LEO's not famous for their tech savvy, may have let the senator's brother's cousin rope them into an unfavorable per-storage unit price contract or something stupid like that.

Case is a lost cause. He's in Panama. Panama doesn't extradite its own citizens. Why waste the money to come after some schnook who sold some Oxycontin on the Internet almost a decade ago?

Government is making the right decision here -- got to pick your battles.