Here's the situation. I've got roughly 35 gigs of car videos. It's emotionally hard to delete them.:biggrin: So what is the most economical way to keep my videos on some external source? What do you guys do? Or should I just weed through and delete?:frown:
Best external file storage?
- Thread starter 95NSXT
- Start date
95NSXT said:
How about an external hard drive? Not a bad price on this link.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1696315&CatId=136
I was faced with a similar dilemma. After researching different options, I chose a NAS solution.
The unit below in conjunction with a 250GB drive worked really well for me.
http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/index.php?CatID=38
My only challenge was addressing the fault tolerance issue.
The unit below in conjunction with a 250GB drive worked really well for me.
http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/index.php?CatID=38
My only challenge was addressing the fault tolerance issue.
demigod said:
ooooo I like that. 250gigs would be more than plenty. I like the idea of the other one too, but I think this one sounds more simple.
In looking at the Seagate, is all this stuff up to par with what would be fast and reliable?
I don't really know what any of that means. Now it is talking about writing and all this, I can put stuff on and take stuff on as often as I like correct? Sorry for that dumb question haha
Could back them up on a tape. Or have it recorded to DVD so you can watch them on your TV
95NSXT said:
Seagate is probably the best hard drive manufacturer out there. Reliability and speed are good on this hard drive, and at a great price also. I'm thinking of buying one too. :biggrin:
Seagates are great drives. As an alternative to opening your box and installing one inside you can pick up an inexpensive USB enclosure for it and leave it external.
Burning your videos to a CD or DVD are also viable and inexpensive solutions. You can use software such as WinAVI Video Converter to convert the video file to a DVD format then use Nero to actually burn the DVD and create menus of your various files.
Burning your videos to a CD or DVD are also viable and inexpensive solutions. You can use software such as WinAVI Video Converter to convert the video file to a DVD format then use Nero to actually burn the DVD and create menus of your various files.
Hugh, the link I provided has the hard drive that comes with the enclosure. 250 gig + enclosure for 99.99 after rebate.
fwiw, i just picked up a 400gb seagate for my mac, iirc, it was ~$300 @fry's. my sys guy thinks they're the best gig (pardon the pun) going.demigod said:
hal
demigod said:
Just checked out the link. That's a great deal!
I just had a 250GB Maxtor crap out in my PC recently. Luckily I was running 2 of them in a mirrored RAID configuration. I've had several Maxtors fail over the years and I'm tired of them. I'll probably be upgrading to a pair of Seagate SATA drives in a RAID cofiguration since my MOBO supports it. I'm looking at the Seagate 300GB 7200RPM SATA/150 drive with a 16MB buffer. That's probably as good as it gets without going to SATA 2 which my current MOBO doesn't support.
Hugh said:
Maxtor's are garbage! stay away!
0ctan3 said:
They make nice paperweights or doorstops. :biggrin:
Here's an interesting article a friend sent me.
Do Burned CDs Have a Short Life Span?
Opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs. Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, has his own view: If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs for a lifetime.
"Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke says. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more."
The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam.
"Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke says. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years."
Distinguishing high-quality burnable CDs from low-quality discs is difficult, he says, because few vendors use life span as a selling point.
Similar Limitations
Hard-drive disks also have their limitations, according to Gerecke. The problem with hard drives, he says, is not so much the disk itself as it is the disk bearing, which has a positioning function similar to a ball bearing. "If the hard drive uses an inexpensive disk bearing, that bearing will wear out faster than a more expensive one," he says. His recommendation: a hard-drive disk with 7200 revolutions per minute.
To overcome the preservation limitations of burnable CDs, Gerecke suggests using magnetic tapes, which, he claims, can have a life span of 30 years to 100 years, depending on their quality. "Even if magnetic tapes are also subject to degradation, they're still the superior storage media," he says.
But he's quick to point out that no storage medium lasts forever and, consequently, consumers and business alike need to have a migration plan to new storage technologies.
"Companies, in particular, need to be constantly looking at new storage technologies and have an archiving strategy that allows them to automatically migrate to new technologies," he says. "Otherwise, they're going to wind up in a dead-end. And for those sitting on terabytes of crucial data, that could be a colossal problem."
External drive with enclosure
Do Burned CDs Have a Short Life Span?
Opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs. Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, has his own view: If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs for a lifetime.
"Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke says. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more."
The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam.
"Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke says. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years."
Distinguishing high-quality burnable CDs from low-quality discs is difficult, he says, because few vendors use life span as a selling point.
Similar Limitations
Hard-drive disks also have their limitations, according to Gerecke. The problem with hard drives, he says, is not so much the disk itself as it is the disk bearing, which has a positioning function similar to a ball bearing. "If the hard drive uses an inexpensive disk bearing, that bearing will wear out faster than a more expensive one," he says. His recommendation: a hard-drive disk with 7200 revolutions per minute.
To overcome the preservation limitations of burnable CDs, Gerecke suggests using magnetic tapes, which, he claims, can have a life span of 30 years to 100 years, depending on their quality. "Even if magnetic tapes are also subject to degradation, they're still the superior storage media," he says.
But he's quick to point out that no storage medium lasts forever and, consequently, consumers and business alike need to have a migration plan to new storage technologies.
"Companies, in particular, need to be constantly looking at new storage technologies and have an archiving strategy that allows them to automatically migrate to new technologies," he says. "Otherwise, they're going to wind up in a dead-end. And for those sitting on terabytes of crucial data, that could be a colossal problem."
External drive with enclosure
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This is the first time I have heard about short life span for burned media. I have to look into this a little more. It does sound possible.
Anyone has more info on this topic?
Anyone has more info on this topic?
maxtor v. seagate
http://www.seagatemaxtor.com/
running maxtor's for a few years no prob...
seagate in my ol' pentium III just died....
not wanting to complicate your argument....:smile:0ctan3 said:
http://www.seagatemaxtor.com/
running maxtor's for a few years no prob...
seagate in my ol' pentium III just died....
Maxtor's are okay; so are Seagate's. I've been exposed to Maxtor's for years - don't buy their cheapest entry-level HDD's and you'll be fine. Fujitsu is the one to avoid.
<B>95NSXT</B>: While external HDD's are cool, your particular problem sounds like it requires ARCHIVING not another HDD. That means burn them to DVD. Instead of spending AUD$250 on an external HDD, just buy a box of 10 Blank DVD's for AUD$18. (Make sure they are a recognizable brand name). Your 35GB of videos is only 7.5 discs. No need to sort & delete. Problem solved. That's my advice anyhow.
<B>95NSXT</B>: While external HDD's are cool, your particular problem sounds like it requires ARCHIVING not another HDD. That means burn them to DVD. Instead of spending AUD$250 on an external HDD, just buy a box of 10 Blank DVD's for AUD$18. (Make sure they are a recognizable brand name). Your 35GB of videos is only 7.5 discs. No need to sort & delete. Problem solved. That's my advice anyhow.
NeoNSX said:
Hmm so without having an actual DVD burner, could I just use the bigger DVDRs and burn them in "data cd" format? I use Nero Express for burning. Would I have to buy an actual dvd burner to be able to play them at all in my dvd player?
I seem to hit this problem constantly and my only solution thus far has been to back them up on to tape or to DVD / CD. I read that same article about recordable media...not to thrilled about the prospect of their longevity being shorter than magnetic media, but I've long been suspicious of this and usually maintain an archive of the original material on the original DV tapes and completed videos on both DV tapes and DVDs. I also always record the date of when I burned the DVD / CDs so I can make a new backup 5 years down the road (at least the media gets cheaper). And in a year or two, I'll probably own a BluRay DVD burner (which will allow me to put, at the very least, 25GB on each disc)...though I'd be very concerned to do this if BluRay doesn't handily win the war. There's nothing worse than archiving to a non-standard media (I have old Colorado backup tapes that are useless now).
I keep adding external hard drives to my collection, but I have found the safest and best way to do this is to buy drive USB2.0/Firewire enclosures and use standard internal drives. If the enclosure fails, the drive should still be good. If the drive fails, you can still replace it with another drive at a much cheaper cost. And it's often cheaper to separately buy an enclosure and internal drive than buy a name brand external drive.
I keep adding external hard drives to my collection, but I have found the safest and best way to do this is to buy drive USB2.0/Firewire enclosures and use standard internal drives. If the enclosure fails, the drive should still be good. If the drive fails, you can still replace it with another drive at a much cheaper cost. And it's often cheaper to separately buy an enclosure and internal drive than buy a name brand external drive.
95NSXT said:
Simple answer is No.
You'll need to buy a DVD Burner. They are extremely cheap... about ~US$30-35? Get a Pioneer.
Then you can use Nero to burn them to DVD in "data dvd" format.
Or you could burn them to CD-R, that would be 50 blank CD's.
95NSXT said:
The easy answer is no - you can't play them back on a DVD player. You'd be just archiving them and would still a PC to play them back.
BUT if you're not scared of "technical" stuff and can endure a little read... here's how you can play them back on a standalone DVD player:
Based on your first post, I'm assuming they are all downloaded video clips? That means they are all different formats (ie. MPG, AVI, MOV) & resolutions. I think it's Nero Express v6 & later that will convert some video clips to either DVD or VCD (VideoCD) - which are playable on a standalone dvd player. The easiest to make are Video CD's, and you can use your CD burner to create them. However, the quality is about the same as a VHS tape (or worse, depending on the original video clip).
Creating DVD's is a lot more complex.
I should advise while it's cool to be able to play these clips back on a TV, their quality will be poor. For example, you download a 4MB drag race clip. That clip has been compressed small so it's easy to download on the web. When you convert it to DVD or VideoCD you are compressing it a second time. The video starts to get blocky. Anyway if you've read this far, hope this has been of help (or at least of some interest).
edit: i should add there are some cheap chinese dvd players that will playback archived video clips from a data CD/DVD... but i havent had personal experience with them. maybe someone else has?
How often do you view these car videos? If you want to watch them frequently and not have to worry about which vid is on which DVD, then I suggest the HD + enclosure. If you're not gonna watch them very often, then you can just put them on a DVD and store them. I prefer the HD as I can have everything at my fingertips in seconds. JMO.
Neo, thanks for all the info. I didn't know DVD burners were that cheap. I guess I don't necessarily care about watching them on TV, but I just want to keep them but get them off my comp. And yes they are all in different formats.
I don't plan on watching them often, I probably wont watch some of them ever again, but I am a packrat so I can't help it:biggrin:
demigod said:
I don't plan on watching them often, I probably wont watch some of them ever again, but I am a packrat so I can't help it:biggrin:
95NSXT said:
LOL
FWIW I can still play CD-R that I burnt in 1996 (good old SCSI Sony920s)... those are 9 years old now. 
I agree on the DVD-R solution, 10$ of empty DVD and you back up all your movies.
If you want to watch them on TV and your DVD player is not DivX/Xvid compatible, buy one! They cost 40$ here. I imagine it is the same in the US.
I agree on the DVD-R solution, 10$ of empty DVD and you back up all your movies.
If you want to watch them on TV and your DVD player is not DivX/Xvid compatible, buy one!
They cost 40$ here. I imagine it is the same in the US.
gheba_nsx said:FWIW I can still play CD-R that I burnt in 1996 (good old SCSI Sony920s)... those are 9 years old now.
It's not what you used to burn the CD-R. It's the type of dye they used on the CD-R, and how you stored it over the years that determines the lifespan of your data.
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