I had been thinking about getting an external hard drive for my laptop to back up all of my digital media. but then after doing some math, I realized that external hdd space costs about $1 per gig, while a single layer dvd holds basically 5 gigs at a cost of 50 cents. so basically it seems that hard drive storage space costs 10 times what it does to burn something to a dvd. now I don't have a dvd burner yet, but I'm planning on getting a new computer in a little over a year, and a dual layer burner in that one. is there any reason to prefer an external hdd to storing info on dvd's/cd's?

 

Speed and convenience. I used to back up to DvD, but after I picked up an external HDD I do most to it. The downside is though, it is a HDD so it's going to fail at some point just like any HDD. Granted it's not used that often so it should be a long time before that happens. I still backup critical stuff to DvD and throw them in my fire safe.

 

yeah, that's what I'd be worried about. I would think that the optical discs, if treated right, should last years, if not decades. but the hard drive, I wouldn't be so sure about. and the reason I'm looking for is literally just basically for archiving. I watch all of my downloaded toons once and that's usually it, though I want to keep them SOMEWHERE incase I ever want to watch them again. my music collection, though, is going to be entirely mp3, as I'm about to sell of my hundreds of cd's I don't use anymore. this is what I'm most concerned with archiving.

 

Actually, I've heard optical disks will only last two years, more or less depending on the quality.

I'd get a HDD, for speed, convienience, and space savings.

 

if you or your family has a Sam's Club membership, i saw a Western Digital 250GB HD there for about $130... I use that brand and have no problems. I do both... Well right now my burner is giving me problems but it is also on the HD so it is safer..

 

ditto. Ever since I left my PC at home and took my laptop with me I've been planning on getting one myself for my media real soon.

 

The jury's still out on that. Depending on the individual, manufacturer, or standards organization that you ask, you'll get different answers - and even then, those answers depend on the physical makeup of the discs themselves as well as the conditions in which they're kept. Plus there's the fact that such recordable optical media hasn't really been around long enough to conduct rigorous longevity tests (factory-written discs are completely different).

That said, I have 5.25" floppies that are over 25 years old and still retain their data. I feel relatively confident about my DVD+R and CD-R archives.

 

At one point Optical Media producers said they had a shelf life of 100 years. Rather bold thing to say, but we don't really know one way or the other. Discs I burned almost 10 years ago are still fine and dandy so who knows. Talk about an expensive burner, those first generation cd burners hurt when you bought one.

 

I use an external HDD to back up (and store) most of my stuff. They're faster, they save space, the info is easier to organize and sort through, and there's less risk of the data becoming screwed up (ie, if you're not carefully with the disc and get a scratch on it, you're kind of screwed).

That's my take, anyway.

EDIT: Oh, also, the external HDDs I got off of edealinfo.com were Western Digitals that, after the discount, were around $.50 a gig (an 80 gig for ~$40 and a 160 gig for ~$80). Make sure you check out that site if you're considering an external HDD.

 

yeah, I'm asking this because I just got an ad from buy.com with a 250 gig porsche designed hdd for $130, again, .50 per gig

 

I was wondering what all the Porsche designers have been doing with thier time since the late 90s, they certainly haven't been working much on the cars.

 

Lately Ive found that buying an external HD kit and buying the HD seperately has been pretty cost effective. However I also back up stuff to DVD... except I need a faster DVD burner if Im gonna do a lot of that.

 

I have a secondary internal HD for my PC and it is much better saving to than having to burn stuff to a disc. Definitely go with the harddrive.

 

do you have any links to what you've bought? my girlfriends brother is a computer genius and was telling me about this, but I couldn't get specifics out of him.

 

Well my burner is dead so i need to save up and buy a big 250gig external HD to back more files on to.. Then comes the long long task of moving all my files around so they are nicely organized

 

I bought the 2 external Harddrive kits I use from Compusa. The one I like is the maddog brand. The have them on sale semi regularly for 20 - 30 bucks. Works out great for me as I have a bunch of smaller harddrives kicking around that I haven't been able to use.

 

If it is for genuine archival purposes ( backup of infrequently used data ) I would suggest using DVD +/- R. If it is something you would need to acess frequently, back it up to harddrive.

For instance my media collection is kept both on hard disk and DVD. Anything I download/rip/whatever gets put on my secondary disk, after I've watched it I will burn it to DVD. If I ever have the urge to watch it again I will simply pop the dvd into my computer and watch it off that.

~X

 

Ideally you would want to make duplicates of all your backups and store them offsite (i.e. at someone elses house). Realistically if you can put them on a secondary HD and on DVD you should be all set.

 

Buy a seperate USB hard drive enclosure, and a good hard drive. Use the hard drive only when you're backing up, or retreiving the files. When that drive's full, buy a new HD and put it in the enclosure.

It's cheaper to do that, than to buy multiple external drives.

 

so for the external kits, are the hard drives you buy the ones that are supposed to be internal hard drives, or are they made specifically to fit inside external kits?

also, I got this from amazon, and it seemed like a really good deal.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CBUXBI/ref=pe_ce_out208_b1/103-3389105-0610245

is it, or is this a company I should avoid? for that matter, are there really any companies that make crap hard drives, or are they about the same? thanks for all the help guys.