The term "disk space" is sometimes called "disk quota" or "data storage", however all these words mean the same thing - the amount of info that you'll be able to upload to a shared website hosting account. The overall size of what you have is determined by accumulating the space consumed by the content within the account, the most apparent being the files you upload. Two other things are generally ignored by a lot of end users, though - e-mails and databases. Sizable attachments or databases of large script-driven sites can often use a lot of disk space as well. To use a more recognizable analogy, the hard drive space of your personal computer is consumed not just by files that you download, but additionally by docs you generate as well as software programs you install. Similarly, many things are counted in the disk space that your information uses on a website hosting server, not just the uploads.