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View Full Version : How big a Hard Drive needed?


Homebrew101
2006-03-14, 11:03 AM
Hi all, I'm a newbie so bear with me. I just learned of these type of communities and, awesome! I can't afford a new pc and only have a 30G HD - I know that isn't sufficient. What is my best bet for upgrading? I'm thinking I should add a 250-300G HD as a 2nd HD and just source all bit-torrents to/from there?

How does this sound? Any pros/cons? I'm pretty sure I have room for another internal and there are 250G ones pretty cheap. I don't have a dvd burner and in order to share, I don't want to delete flac files until long after everyone gets their files, then I would back up flac's to cdr so I think 250G should work OK.

fanofthemule
2006-03-14, 11:21 AM
I just bought a Seagate 160 GB external hard drive for $90. It connects through the USB port, so it's plug and play ready. It took me longer to open the box than it did to set it up.

I too wanted a hard drive in the 250-300 gig range, but decided to just buy 2 of these instead.

TheMamba
2006-03-14, 11:31 AM
Plain and simple - get the biggest you can afford. 250 GB is a pretty decent sized drive.

Getting a DVD burner is even cheaper.

ColinM
2006-03-14, 12:05 PM
Between 5 drives, I have 500 gb of storage, and they're all at 80-90% capacity (my OS drive is the only one at 50%). The shows tend to stay active for a long time, so I am forcing myself to burn to a master dvd or cd for long term storage and remove from the hard drive.

It's very very difficult. Once you get to a point where you have dozens and dozens of shows, it becomes important to have a system so you don't lose them.

1) Put all new stuff into a folder.

2) Once you listen to it, remove it from your bittorrent client and palce in another folder; keep or discard.

3) At that point, burn your copy for long term storage if you're going to keep it.

4) Restart the .torrent file at its new folder.

I recommend restarting the show even if you didn't keep it.

thisistoto
2006-03-14, 12:14 PM
yea dont buy one that is too big. you are better off buying a couple smaller ones and daisy chaining them.

dont listen to mamba, hes from florida.

TheMamba
2006-03-14, 01:01 PM
yea dont buy one that is too big. you are better off buying a couple smaller ones and daisy chaining them.

dont listen to mamba, hes from florida.


:roflol: :roflol:

showtaper
2006-03-14, 01:08 PM
If you are doing a lot of audio / video EDITING, get at least one really
large (200+ GB) drive. For general purpose use, 100GB will do. It's
great to have an external that's big enough for backup purposes. Since
I have multiple workstations at home, I also have a ton of network based
storage. It really depends on what you are doing.......

Like other's, I back up all torrents to CDr/DVDr for long-term storage.

AAR.oner
2006-03-14, 04:53 PM
actually, daisy chaining hard drives will slow down file transfer...plus, you can get a 250GB lacie at newegg for $140...even with multiple harddrives, i would back up to DVDR for longterm archiving [Taiyo Yuden discs of course ;) ]

oh...and don't listen to Toto, he's from southern california

:lol :lol :lol :wave:

Five
2006-03-14, 04:58 PM
no matter what size your HD is it will eventually get full and you will have to either remove it & install a new one or archive to data DVD/CDR. So it is great to have a 1TB HD but if you want to back it up to data DVD at the end you might wish you only had 60GB!

but generally you will get the best value if you buy 250GB-300GB these days.

you can take it or leave it, this advice is coming from Canada, after all! :lmao:

AAR.oner
2006-03-14, 05:06 PM
you can take it or leave it, this advice is coming from Canada, after all! :lmao:
:roflol: :clap:

cuzin_jawn
2006-03-14, 05:17 PM
I just got a Seagate 300GB for my computer, it's almost full, lol. But I'm bad about burning, I usually download a bunch of stuff and then burn it and clear off my drive, i go in cycles, download for a few weeks, then burn and watch with no downloading, then start again. But i got my 300GB at Fry's and it was like 89.99 after a rebate or soemthing like that..hope you figure out what you want to do...I'd also recommend a dvd burner, they're fairly cheap now

thisistoto
2006-03-14, 05:21 PM
you can take it or leave it, this advice is coming from Canada, after all! :lmao:


Christ, thats the worst of them all!

Chachi420
2006-03-14, 05:52 PM
I just bought a 250 GB external for $100...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828384&CatId=136

(it's $150 with a $50 mail in rebate)

Homebrew101
2006-03-14, 06:44 PM
Thanks for all of your input. I think a 250G is about $125, that sounds like a start and definitely a dvd burner in the near future.

I didn't realize advice had to be taken with a grain of salt depending on geography.LOL :thumbsup

thisistoto
2006-03-14, 08:40 PM
http://130.166.124.2/atlas.us1/US0057.GIF


See all that red in the southeast? That is where Aaron lives.

thisistoto
2006-03-14, 08:41 PM
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/edu9.gif


That light pink spotch is socal. . . where I am from.

AAR.oner
2006-03-14, 09:10 PM
just cuz you come from the land of upper-middle-class-suburban-crackerz-whose-mommys-&-daddys-pay-$10grand-a-year-for-private-school don't mean ya'll know more...i'm not the one who says "spotch" :lol

i think the 250GB is a good start Homebrew101...add the DVD burner next and you'll be good to go...goodluck!




oh and by the way toto, i'm that light pink spot in western carolina...

LocalHero
2006-03-14, 09:59 PM
Many people over time become concerned with the size and capacity of their external or internal hard drives. I just want to advise you that these feelings are natural and it is important that everyone take pride in their own hard drive no matter what size it could be.

darkstarjunkie
2006-03-15, 02:46 PM
It's very very difficult. Once you get to a point where you have dozens and dozens of shows, it becomes important to have a system so you don't lose them.


That's a very good point! I also had to do that (I guess most traders do), and my system is very much like ColinM describes:


1) Put all new stuff into a folder.

2) Once you listen to it, remove it from your bittorrent client and palce in another folder; keep or discard.

3) At that point, burn your copy for long term storage if you're going to keep it.

4) Restart the .torrent file at its new folder.

I recommend restarting the show even if you didn't keep it.

An important point that can't be stated enough is: use GOOD DVD-R MEDIA! I made a bad mistake when assuming that the cheap-o brands were probably "good enough" - but i soon found out they weren't and tons of discs had small unreadable areas. So i bought a new 200 GB drive, and after a few tries I fortunately managed to copy most of the backup'ed shows onto the HD. Luckily, if you've downloaded or traded for the show, there's always someone else out there with the same fileset, and most likely you can replace the bad files if you experience that shit.

Now I only use good brand DVD-Rs (TDK is the best I can find here in Norway) and so far things seem fine.

My 200 GB drive is now getting very full, so I'm also gonna get another, probably a 250 GB. That should keep anyone satisfied for a while, unless your bandwidth is insane...

Also, if you plan on downloading DVDs (Video-DVDs) you definitely want a fair bit of space.

Also, keep in mind that hard drives can fail. I haven't experienced that yet myself, luckily, but be aware that it can happen. Therefore: A backup never hurts!