How much is too much when it comes to Hard Drive space?

[nlmd311]

Hey Everybody!,
Just curious if too much disk space could be seen as a bad thing. Which leads to the question; How much is too much when it comes to Hard Drive space? I think I have found a decent deal on a drive (bestbuy stores, and bestbuy.com...it is a seagate barracuda 300GB 7200 RPM internal for 149.99), but it is 300GB. The price is right considering the size per GB ratio, however I am just curious if such an expansive space could lead to problems down the road? Should I just go with another 200GB that I was looking at for $124.99 online and at a warehouse store by my house (www.tigerdirect.com)? Any better deals anyone has seen?

thanks

-Darrill

[Tim Casey]

From a purely non-technical point of view, too much hard drive space makes you lazy about backing things up.

I doubt there's any other drawbacks, though.

[rolandk]

What computer do you have? On Win XP there is a hurdle you might have to deal with that limits hd space to 137GB. I believe SP2 fixes it.

[nlmd311]

What computer do you have? On Win XP there is a hurdle you might have to deal with that limits hd space to 137GB. I believe SP2 fixes it.

Yeah. It is a Win XP based machine. Thanks.
I have also read this. Luckily I already have a 200GB HD installed in this exact same PC and it reads it just fine. I had to jump the hurdles, haha. In most cases though I have read also that the Service Pack takes care of the misread automatically.
I have a feeling I will just probably save the extra $20 and go for the 200GB instead of the 300GB. I don't think I will ever need that much and there is just something about seeing 300 that seems a little ridiculous the more I think about it. Although....

decisions. I hate 'em.

-Darrill

[mrc]

It's pretty well agreed that the best performance of a drive is in it's first 20% of capacity, so it's best to back up all the time and keep the drive empty. It's easy to see that 20% of 300 will give you a larger high performance area than that of a 200 gig drive..
mrc

[nlmd311]

It's pretty well agreed that the best performance of a drive is in it's first 20% of capacity, so it's best to back up all the time and keep the drive empty. It's easy to see that 20% of 300 will give you a larger high performance area than that of a 200 gig drive..
mrc

ha. I have never heard that, and never heard it put that way. I will have to look more into this. Thanks for the reply!

-Darrill

[japmn]

How I see it

by the japmn.

geta small drive (40-60 Gb) for tracking directly to (or smaller if you can alot tracks to multiple drives) and get a huge drive (200-300 Gb.) for back up.

Now, this is the important part...
after each session, copy your project files and media from the small drive(s) to the large drive. overwrite where applicable.

this way you always havew an extra copy of the project. and drives are almost free these days.

DO NOT TRACK TO THE LARGE DRIVE!

It can take unwanted time for the drive to seek through 300 Gb of Info.

Always back up to a CDR/DVDR/data dat/ what have you at the end of each session also.

A little time = A lot of security

Boom.

the japmn

[maz]

From a purely non-technical point of view, too much hard drive space makes you lazy about backing things up.

word.

[Tim Casey]

I've got four drives from 100 to 200 gigs in my mac now, and I haven't noticed any difference in performance with any of them.

Of course, when they crash, THAT'S an issue.

But I honestly don't think you have anything to worry about. Most of the stories about exactly what to do where are unverifiable.

If you're doing audio and video, though, keep the audio on one drive and the video on the other. That way you're not trying to access both off of the same drive at the same time.

[Tim Casey]

I've got four drives from 100 to 200 gigs in my mac now, and I haven't noticed any difference in performance with any of them.

Of course, when they crash, THAT'S an issue.

But I honestly don't think you have anything to worry about. Most of the stories about exactly what to do where are unverifiable.

If you're doing audio and video, though, keep the audio on one drive and the video on the other. That way you're not trying to access both off of the same drive at the same time.

[nlmd311]

Thanks guys. You're awesome. Good stuff.
I hear you on the lazy end. I try to back up everything atleast every two weeks (more often if necessary), but with the 200GB drive I have now I find myself thinking that I really don't need to, and already get a little lazy.

Alright, now to get the system upgraded and running again. Not that it isn't running now, but well.
I don't think I am going to go with the 300GB, unless I do the japmn way and use it for straight back up. Right now I have been shooting the back up out via LAN to another pc and it would be nice to have it also stored on another set of drives in the case something horrific happens. (I know it should be on 3 or more different types of storage media, but...)

so yeah. Looks like a 160GB SATAII w/NCQ Seagate Barracuda and possibly the 300GB if I can find the extra ching-ching for the bling-bling. Bada bing?

thanks

-Darrill

[logancircle]

I have big FW drives, but use my 60gb for audio, store on the 120. No problems yet.