HD filled...need to archive

[zoobie]

I got tired of searching and just decided to post.

My HD is getting filled with little projects and I only have 5 gigs left. Obviously, I need to remove this stuff and was wondering how to archive. Maybe someone could point me to a tutorial in case I missed it here.
In the near future, I'll burn these little videos to DVD's for casual distribution but first, I need to get this stuff off my HD. My editing is completed and finished.

I was thinking of AVI...but D1? D2? Uncompressed? Half D1? Half D2? Wtf?

Just too many options out there to read up on each.

I've got a new NEC burner just sitting here. Just not sure how to archive this stuff.

Thanks for any insights and/or links.

[mill48]

With the price of hard drives so low, why not just get another hard drive?

[ROF]

Definitely. The best way to archive compressed video is not to compress it again. Buy another HDD.

[gadgetguy]

To preserve quality, leave them in whatever format they are in now. If necessary, break the files into DVD size chunks. (Discs are cheap) I can't tell you how many times I have edited together clips the way I wanted them, encoded and deleted the originals, only to find that I mispelled someone's name or some other silly mistake that made me wish I had kept the original.

[waheed]

Your current hard drive is only 60GB. I agree with others, an additional hard drive is a siuitable option. Get one with at least 200GB

[ybeard]

Getting a bigger hard drive is always an option, but take some from a computer technician. Buying a bigger hard drive doesn't protect you from data loss in case of a disk failure, and it has been my experience that hard drive failures on these larger capacity drives seems to be higher than it was on the older and smaller ones. I would still recommend you to archive whatever stuff you consider to be important and not replaceable and then get yourself a larger hard drive.

I see that you're in Colorado, so you can go to places like Best Buy, CompUSA, Outpost.com, etc and get drives in the 200gb range well under $100 after MIR. Heck, I bought a 300gb Seagate for $109 after MIR. Unbelievable the amount of stuff you can store on it...

[ROF]

Getting a bigger hard drive is always an option, but take some from a computer technician. Buying a bigger hard drive doesn't protect you from data loss in case of a disk failure, and it has been my experience that hard drive failures on these larger capacity drives seems to be higher than it was on the older and smaller ones. I would still recommend you to archive whatever stuff you consider to be important and not replaceable and then get yourself a larger hard drive.

Beyond a 20GB(WD) of last millenium I've not had any harddrive failures. I assemble and maintain computers for a living and I know if one of these larger capacity drives failed, I'd hear about it. So far, *Knocks on wood*, I haven't had anyone return or report any drive in the last 5 years because of HDD failure. This isn't to say it can't occur, but comparing yesterdays drives to today, the stability of the platters is much better now then it was before. The difference today though is that with larger capacity means greater loss if you should incur the rare experience of a smoking hard drive.

My suggestion, if you are looking to purchase a large capacity drive I'd wait until the end of November if you can hold out that long. Hard drives and other assorted tech will be going on sale at that time. You may find you can get twice your capacity and a boost in speed by just waiting 45 days from now to purchase. Most stores and online retailers entice their buyers with specials around that time of year too.

[Cornucopia]

Modern harddrives do seem to last a lot longer, but there is no insurance better than having a copy archived on another medium (and preferrably in another location).
Optical is probably more secure than magnetic. Recordable more than re-writeable. DVD (with its data layer sandwiched in the center) more than CD (with its data layer very near to the top).

If you have DV-compressed stuff, roll it back out (via Firewire) to tape.
If it's anything else, Data DVD-R is a good and cheap option (~$.12/GB), that'll last (on good brand media) at least long enough for you to work out a long term plan. (Blu-Ray?)

If your stuff is in bigger pieces than 4.37GB, you can always use a binary file splitter app (and include a joiner app on the disc).

You could also try that app that encapsulates generic data in DV-formatted frames so that it can be archived to DV tape as well (don't remember the name). However, I don't know the track record on it AFA later read errors, etc.

Another extra-safe bet is to try a couple of these processes in tandem.

Scott

Scott

[jtoolman2000]

Hey zoobie. Seven repplies to your problem and no thanks to any one yet?

As was already discussed. New HD or start burning all you stuff to DVD/R as it presently exists on your HD.I would suggest the first option.

[whitejremiah]

12 cents a gig? good grief, remind me NOT to buy dvdr wherever you do...i pay more on the order of about 20 cents a DISC........in reguards to the best method to store...i'd suggest something like a zip drive (that sure wouldnt be cheap, but its also a lot less error prone than some of the other methods...) or else, i'd go with dvdr perferably with those disc armor thingers that you can put on the actual disc itself to protect them from scratching...if possible, i'd store them on spindles, as to protect them from any potential damage.......
Also i'd store the spindles in a drawer somewhere or something to avoid potential heat damage, ive seen that happen to a few of my discs...i had a backpack with a bunch of discs in it (i was going somewhere...cant remember where) in the back of my car..little to my knowledge, it was slightly open...just enough to let a few discs roll out...some six months later, i cleaned my trunk out only to find a few heavily heat damaged discs (this was in the middle of summer) i know you wouldnt be storing them in the back of a car, but better to be on the safe side....

[harley2ride]

I currently have my system backed up to dvd's, but the next time they have a good deal on HD's, I will be buying an external enclosure, and get 2 - 250gb hd's and make exact images of both of my systems. Then if one dies, I just pull the HD off the shelf, and slap it in the PC. At around $150.00 for full recovery per system, that is cheap. cheap. cheap...
How much are your photos and videos worth?

[Cornucopia]

12 cents a gig? good grief, remind me NOT to buy dvdr wherever you do...i pay more on the order of about 20 cents a DISC

You probably have different needs than I do. I wouldn't trust a 20cent DVD-R to last more than 2 years, but I've been burning DVD-Rs for clients for near on 6 years now without a single glitch or loss. And I have CD-Rs that our company archives Audio projects on which go back to '94-'95 that are still completely readable without any errors. It's about the quality of the media. You get what you pay for.

Scott

[jtoolman2000]

12 cents a gig? good grief, remind me NOT to buy dvdr wherever you do

12 x 4.7 = 56.4 cents

Hell, that's Tayo Yuden Prices,, and they are the
best!

You must be getting robbed. Just what ridiculous price are you paying?

[ROF]

I pay approximately .20 per disc or about .05 per gig. I do not buy anything but name branded discs and only buy them when they are on sale. I wouldn't pay anymore. I've been burning DVD-Rs since late 98. My nephew now watches shows that his aunt watched back then. Granted, discs cost more back then, but beyond the slight change in labeling I'm still using the same discs. Going on 8 years now and I would never pay the premium of 50 cents of more per disc unless they are dual layered. They aren't worth the cost. In my opinion, the breakdown in material is no more true for DVDs as it is for floppies. I still use a tandy system that has dual 5 1/4" floppy drives. The info recorded on those is from the early 80's and after 25 years, they are still reading exactly as they did the day they were recorded.

The key to longevity of media is how you store it. It's not how much you pay for it or who manufactures it. How many times have we heard japanese discs are better or worse than others. It's how it's stored that will determine it's length. I dare say my DVDs will be around long after I'm gone, considering everyone told me my 5" floppies wouldn't survive into the new millenium.

[RDS1955]

I have both a secondary 80 GB hard drive inside the PC and an external 120 GB HD which I use for storage..My new system (Which Ihaven't hooked up yet) has two 250 GB internal drive's, plus I'm gonna hook up an external 250 GB HD... Man I can remember my 1st PC which had a 12GB Harddrive and a CD-Rom and a floppy... And I though that was big back then in 96-97....They say we are presently in the time of PC Development akin to the same era as when Ford built the Model T... Just think what's coming down the road..

"Space...the Final Frontier"

[ROF]

They say we are presently in the time of PC Development akin to the same era as when Ford built the Model T... Just think what's coming down the road..

Quantum computing and nano storage.

[VegasBud]

...in reguards to the best method to store...i'd suggest something like a zip drive (that sure wouldnt be cheap, but its also a lot less error prone than some of the other methods...

I've had 2 zip drives and 1 Jaz drive, and lost data with all 3 of them. The only good thing I can say about them is that it was so bad that I got my first CD burner (very expensive at the time) to escape the cost and unreliability of zip/jaz. Even after all these years, those very first CDs are still perfectly useable (reliable).

Also, my CD/DVD archives are readable in any CD/DVD drive. Zip/Jaz are only readable in their drives.

Finally, a zip disk that holds as much as a CD currently costs $15. That's 60 times as much as a Taiyo Yuden CD blank. If you went with DVD instead, it would be even cheaper per megabyte archived.

As to the question of storing on DVD or hard drive, there is a practical limit to how much can be stored on hard drives without swapping them in or out of the computer, which is awkward to say the least. DVD's are more granular in terms of finding what you're looking for, can be accessed on any computer with a DVD drive (without opening the case), are reliable and cheap.

[ROF]

DVD's are more granular in terms of finding what you're looking for, can be accessed on any computer with a DVD drive (without opening the case), are reliable and cheap.

USB to IDE

You mean there are still people who open their cases to find out the contents of a hard drive?

[zoobie]

Hey zoobie. Seven repplies to your problem and no thanks to any one yet?

I posted that right before I went to bed...4:30a.m. here...and just woke up to all the answers...heh heh.

I was afraid the answer would be another HD which I actually bought off eBay a few months ago. It was a new 160gb Maxtor for $57 delivered. Only one problem...it was d.o.a....When the seller paid for the return shipping, I printed it out and went to the UPS store. I told the kid it was pre-paid and asked if I need a receipt. He said 'no...not if it's pre-paid' so I turned around and left. Turns out the kid went into the back room and stole the HD not knowing it was dead. You actually have to stand there and watch them scan it into the UPS system...otherwise, it never happened. I'm still in a bug tussle with the seller and UPS over this.

So I guess the answer is a HD or several discs in the AVI format.

I just thought of something...I'm going to be getting a new camera this Christmas...Maybe I can just firewire them into it...killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Thanks all

[VegasBud]

USB to IDE

You mean there are still people who open their cases to find out the contents of a hard drive?

I doubt that very much.

Yes, USB is just fine (if it's 2.0) for hard drives in an enclosure. I currently have 2 external USB hard drives connected to my video computer, but my computer would look like a mutant octopus if I installed enough external hard drives to hold all the archives I have on CD and DVD.

In regards to opening the case, if you want to move large amounts of data to an older computer with USB 1.1 using an external hard drive, it's so slow that it's just faster to open the case, and swap in the hard drive. Or you could just use a CD/DVD.

[ROF]

Yes, USB is just fine (if it's 2.0) for hard drives in an enclosure. I currently have 2 external USB hard drives connected to my video computer, but my computer would look like a mutant octopus if I installed enough external hard drives to hold all the archives I have on CD and DVD.

Most people don't keep their externals connected all the time. I was just curious as to why people might still open their case to examine or explore the content of a drive they might not plan on keeping inside the case. It's much easier to just Plug/Play/Unplug as needed.

[edDV]

I'm filling out the Frys rebate now for 200GB Seagate ($89-50 rebate = $39 or 20 cents/GB).

I have a stack of hard drives filled with various projects. High priority stuff gets a backup.