englishmen Posted October 14, 2005 Share Posted October 14, 2005 I currently use a 80Gb internal Hd for my back which has my music and pic on i also use it with synback to copy files i want to keep from my C drive i.e firefox profile saved games my documents folder etc. I was going to get a Maxotr One Touch II but someone left a review staying the software that comes with it for what he wants is useless so he found a neat bit of software called sync back which i already have. He went on to say he therefore wish he just got a internal one because its just another thing to plug-in. It got me thinking it my data any more secure external then internally because when you think about the internal back hd is just plugged in via a cable as is the external one, the internal one would also be cooler because i have more fans on my pc then a office block. They also plugged in via the same socket so if my pc goes puff so will the external drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators rridgely Posted October 14, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 14, 2005 For back up most people dont keep an external hard drive plugged in all of the time(or I don't). If your just needing storage deffinately get a internal one. One word of advice is make sure you get a firewire drive if your pc supports it. I don't care what anyone says for a hard drive firewire is leaps and bounds ahead of usb2.0 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 15, 2005 Share Posted October 15, 2005 The best choice for hardware or software depends on your backup requirements and strategy. What is your concern ... hardware failure, data corruption, fire, and/or theft? What cost and effort is acceptable for the protection you'll get? What are you backing up ... static files (e.g., photos, music) and/or changing files (e.g., creative work in progress)? An internal drive is the least cost and effort but for the most part only protects you against failure of your primary drive. An external drive costs more but, if you're willing to make the effort, can offer more protection. Like rridgely, I don't have my backup drive on all the time. I scan the primary system for viruses before connecting the backup drive, run backup, disconnect and into the fire safe it goes. I have files that I am constantly editing so I use software that automatically stores historical versions and allows me to select which to restore (handy when I realized I shouldn't have changed all that formatting 6 weeks earlier). If it was just my photos and music, I could use the simpler duplicating option and use less disk space. I also favour FireWire but have dual connectivity in case I have to recover to a computer with only USB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
englishmen Posted October 15, 2005 Author Share Posted October 15, 2005 Thanks for the replays guys, the Maxtor external i was contemplating getting has firewire so that's good. Why there are chances of fire and theft is someone steals my pc not only are they likely to get ripped to shreds by my dog but are also likely to take the shiny box thing i.e. the backup drive on the desk so what's the point. So i guess its really hardware failure and data corruption but then i have read reviews of the Maxtor drive i cant remember where i read it but one review said the drive inside is a diamondmax which is the internal drive i was thinking about buying so the likely hood of hardware failure is surely the same is it not. The data i currently have on my second drive is pictures, music a few videos, .exe of the software i have installed i also use syncback to backup stuff that is on my c drive for example CCleaner's winapp2.ini, firefox profile, my documents saved games ntlite pre-sets etc. The external drive is ?107.00 and the internal drive is ?57.85 both are the same size 200gb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 I have a 250 gb western digital external harddrive using a USB 2.0 and am very happy with it. I was told by some buddies that firewire was faster, but my computer is 4 years old and doesnt have firewire inputs. I do have to say, that my external is accessed very fast and i never turn it off. I have had it about 6 months now and am VERY happy with the performance. Just my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard382 Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 i use this http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;js...d=1122654273195 It works great for me. Proabably will never run out of space. I guessing there are no bestbuys were you live? You probably could shop around and find one if you wanted it anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 That looks like an excellent hard drive. Is that American or Canadian dollars? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators rridgely Posted October 17, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 17, 2005 I can't see anyone needing a 300gb external hard drive. For back up I would think that 100-200gb is more than enough.(and these drives are almost half the price) 120gb firewire $106 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822154602 160gb firewire $115 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822154603 250gb USB 2.0 $140 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822140169 I couldnt see anyone using more than that. My pc has a 200gb hard drive and its not even close to being full. Thats counting windows and all of my programs. Here is the search I did at newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....e&InnerCata=414 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I can't see anyone needing a 300gb external hard drive. For back up I would think that 100-200gb is more than enough.(and these drives are almost half the price) Back in April, Popular Mechanics magazine gave away a computer they had built. The damn thing had 5 harddrives that added up to 1.145 Tb. Talk about overkill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Andavari Posted October 17, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 17, 2005 300 GB and 1.145 TB isn't overkill to me and some of my other music comrades. I have a huge music collection that could easily feel up some of the largest hard drives or combination of hard drives you guys can think of because I ripped and encoded my audio CD's to a lossless audio format, WavPack to be precise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 For those really concerned about speed: Some manufacturers, e.g., Maxtor, LaCie, are offering FireWire 800 / IEEE 1394b (800 megabits/sec) in their newer external drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
englishmen Posted October 17, 2005 Author Share Posted October 17, 2005 Thanks for all the suggestions guys i currently have 2 80Gb Hd 1 i use for xp and installing my software the second is purely music, pictures, videos and other various files. While i have nearly 20gb free on the second hd i just want to get another drive so when it comes to it im not having to delete files to fit other stuff on there. Apart from hardware failure which can occur on both external & internal drives, a fire which will cook both my pc and a external drive. A thief who is likely to take both pc and external drive, then there is of course a virus which i have not had in a year and a half since i am now alot more careful how i browse and where and what i download(but still may occur). What else can go wrong with a second hd that has no software installed on it? For me the safest method for back would be on-line storage which i would be willing to do if i did not have a crap upload speed. I found a on-line download speed calculator and it will take 4272 hours or 177 days to upload my second hd. I think i will go for a Maxtor Diamondmax 10 160GB HD. Also what is the difference between SATA & ATA and which is faster if any? Another question does anyone know a app which allows me to lock the second hd similar to a firewall so i have more protection for my data? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators rridgely Posted October 17, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 17, 2005 300 GB and 1.145 TB isn't overkill to me and some of my other music comrades. I have a huge music collection that could easily feel up some of the largest hard drives or combination of hard drives you guys can think of because I ripped and encoded my audio CD's to a lossless audio format, WavPack to be precise. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> How many gb of music do you have? I have close to thirty on this pc and my hard drive isnt half way full. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Andavari Posted October 17, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 17, 2005 How many gb of music do you have? I have close to thirty on this pc and my hard drive isnt half way full. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> A complete guess would be approximately 900 GB in lossless music, but I haven't encoded all my CDs to lossless as of yet so it'll only get bigger. Add onto that the lossy versions encoded as mp3's, ogg's, and mpc's, and you'd have to add another 150 GB or so. I currently don't have the hard disk space for all of it, which is the reason I have a mile high stack of DVD's it's all recorded onto. I primarily listen to lossless music on my PC, whilst I listen to mp3's on my home DVD player only because it doesn't support any lossless format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 This should answer all your questions about SATA and ATA. http://www.lsilogic.com/technologies/indus...technology.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators rridgely Posted October 17, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 17, 2005 All of my stuff is encoded in 256kb mp3. Its something I regret now because if I try to listen to anything on something that dosent support mp3 it sounds like crap. I have to ask what exactly is all of you music? Is it live recordings and bootlegs or is it all officially released albums? Since you seem to be the audio expert I have a few questions for you. 1. I encoded about 5 my cds in the new windows media lossless format. What should I use to convert that into some other format so that I can burn cds and play them on my mp3 player.(I dont like burning discs with WMP) 2. My sister bought some songs on walmarts music service. Is there a way to strip the copy protection? I know that I could burn the discs and then rerip them but that takes a long time. 3. What lossless codec do you use? Also what do you use to convert them into that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard382 Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Hey Andavari if you have that much music you should get a program like Qnext. It is an Instant messanger client which suppoirts most regular Clients except jabber. The cool part is with any other qnext member you can let them any music form your computer. You can also download music form them. Really fun and cool way to et music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Andavari Posted October 17, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 17, 2005 All of my stuff is encoded in 256kb mp3. Its something I regret now because if I try to listen to anything on something that dosent support mp3 it sounds like crap. I recommend you read up on what I've discovered over the years on Hydrogenaudio.org, I'm not advertising the forum or anything, it is however the best information about anything audio. Your mp3's were unfortunely not recorded using a high quality variable bitrate (vbr) proven to be transparent, e.g.; undistinguishable from the original audio CD with the LAME Encoder. In the past the recommended vbr switch with older LAME versions was "--alt-preset standard" ("--preset standard") however with LAME 3.97b and up that has changed to "-V 2". I have to ask what exactly is all of you music? Is it live recordings and bootlegs or is it all officially released albums? All CDs were legally bought from either local music stores, or from music clubs like BMG or Columbia House. Live recordings ain't my scene, too uncontrolled and I can't standing fan chatter, and I say this after making several recordings with various area Black Metal and Death Metal bands. The only downloaded crap I have came from mp3.com in its hayday before lawsuit's and various buyouts, and iuma.com when the site used to load. The only online music site which offers free mp3 downloads I'd even consider downloading anything from now is BeSonic.com. Since you seem to be the audio expert I have a few questions for you. 1. I encoded about 5 my cds in the new windows media lossless format. What should I use to convert that into some other format so that I can burn cds and play them on my mp3 player.(I dont like burning discs with WMP) 2. My sister bought some songs on walmarts music service. Is there a way to strip the copy protection? I know that I could burn the discs and then rerip them but that takes a long time. 3. What lossless codec do you use? Also what do you use to convert them into that? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm not an audio expert by any means, I just found various sites, forums where myths were squashed like a bug and only truth prevailed. 1. WMA lossless is propriety meaning you'll need some version of MS Windows for playback in order to access your encodings. It's at least lossless meaning you won't loose any quality while at the same time saving some disc space. I personally don't use the WMA lossless format and I've only played with it without any serious content another bad point is it doesn't support Replaygain. For conversion the audio software on the dBpowerAMP website can convert a boat load of formats. There's other lossless formats such as: WavPack, FLAC, OptimFROG, Monkey's Audio, etc., .Google search for Lossless Audio. You can download a good number of lossless codecs from RareWares.org, along with other audio codecs and utilities. 2. I won't talk about circumventing copy protection, companies will sue like there's no tomorrow giving out such information. Sorry bro! Burning them and re-ripping them would be considered transcoding, and the resulting encodings would sound worse. 3. I use WavPack and have been for the last three years. It supports Replaygain which is necessary for how commercially available audio CDs are created these days with loads of clipping. --- I'm thinking you should move our two posts to a new thread so this thread doesn't get completely off-topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Andavari Posted October 17, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 17, 2005 Hey Andavari if you have that much music you should get a program like Qnext. It is an Instant messanger client which suppoirts most regular Clients except jabber. The cool part is with any other qnext member you can let them any music form your computer. You can also download music form them. Really fun and cool way to et music <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No. A. I don't want anyone accessing jack s**t on my system (sorry for the language). B. I don't need or want a lawsuit from the RIAA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard382 Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 oh... ok... i guess thats cool... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators rridgely Posted October 17, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 17, 2005 Thanks for the very indepth explenation. I guess I should have read up on this when I was ripping all of my cds. I will seriously consider looking into one of those lossless codecs. My question is can you burn them into cds without loosing anything? Or is that considered transencoding as well? Sorry about the walmart thing. It just pisses me off that they put copy protection of songs that she paid for. I know what you mean about the live music scene but some bands its almost a crime to not hear live. I'm not really a collector but I have about a show or two of some of my favorite bands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 I filled up my 250 gb harddrive in a month, and am now looking at getting one or two more. Movies, music, video games, ebooks, personal files, pictures (god my wife takes a lot of gigs of room with all the pictures!) take up a lot of gigs quickly. unfortunately when i bought this computer i didnt even know what a gigabyte was, so i only got 40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Andavari Posted October 18, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 18, 2005 My question is can you burn them into cds without loosing anything? Or is that considered transcoding as well? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Lossless is lossless is lossless, it would be no different than burning a .wav file onto a CD in data format (not audio cd), it would still be the same if you copied it back to the hard disk. If you create an audio cd from a lossless file it will sound identical to the original ripped .wav file. You can use a lossless encoding to encode to a lossy encoder, rather it's considered transcoding or not is up to the individual however you have to remember lossless to lossy is as if you were ripping the audio cd to a lossy encoder to begin with. The reason lossless is important is because if the original source audio cd becomes damaged or unrippable you'll have an identical backup without any quality loss. The reason lossless is the way to go (if hdd space permits) is because it will end the endless chore of re-ripping audio cd's when a new codec comes out. I went that path with mp3->ogg->mpc, now I just rip to lossless and then use the lossless file to encode to whatever lossy format I want to use. Of course in order to insure you're really ripping everything correctly without errors, skips, etc., a secure audio cd extraction program is needed namely Exact Audio Copy ("EAC"). EAC however has to be properly configured to rip the audio cd in EAC's secure mode, which is an option it will allow you to configure during installation. However; if lossless is out of the question due to not having enough hdd space then Musepack (mpc) is the ideal lossy codec to use, hence using it's quality 5 (standard profile) you can/should generally get tranparent encodings, while at the same time having a slightly smaller filesize compared to a vbr mp3. The only drawback to mpc is that it isn't widely supported (e.g.; portable devices, hardware), however as long as you have a PC it really wouldn't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Andavari Posted October 18, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 18, 2005 I filled up my 250 gb harddrive in a month, and am now looking at getting one or two more. Movies, music, video games, ebooks, personal files, pictures (god my wife takes a lot of gigs of room with all the pictures!) take up a lot of gigs quickly. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Movies and music are one of the two quickest ways to fill up an hdd. I was watching a Gateway computer presentation on HSN over the weekend and they stated the included 250 GB hdd could hold a certain amount of hours of digital video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators rridgely Posted October 18, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 18, 2005 I think I understand now. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now