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Thread: How much storage do you REALLY need?

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    Registered User Beowulf's Avatar
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    How much storage do you REALLY need?

    prompted by this comment on the Norton AV thread.

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin View Post
    I have an external hard drive which is 80G which I use as a backup, unfortunately it is now full of music, and not all of the music I have, and has not got my business files on it, so must sort it all out soon. Probably buy a bigger hard drive laptop and then also buy a bigger external hard drive to back up.
    I have a 40gb External HDD, and am continually upping my Home PC's HDD's . But what I find is.. the bigger the hard drive I have.. the more JUNK I accumulate.

    If I actually went though my HDD's deleting duplicates, older backups of stuff, backups of backups of backups etc..stuff I've not looked at (and not likely to look at again) for ages.. I'd probably only need about 1/3 of the storage capacity I have at the moment.

    I suspect software/data is like a gas.. "It expands to fill the space available"

    Estimated... what %age of your storage (not counting OS or APP installs) is actually used by stuff you use often.. and how much is filled with "accumulated junk"?

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    Registered User David Franklin's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Funnily enough, I set a new record for my system overnight.

    430+GB for a single file. (A 5 terapixel composite image of the planet).

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    Funnily enough, I set a new record for my system overnight.

    430+GB for a single file. (A 5 terapixel composite image of the planet).

    So obviously I need more than 250G then

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Oh come on - you can't seriously expect me to give an honest answer to this?...

    If I really come clean on this front, I won't have an excuse to buy that new hard drive I've been thinking about looking at.

    On the other hand, maybe I can buy an iPod Touch instead. Hmmm.

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    Registered User Beowulf's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    Funnily enough, I set a new record for my system overnight.

    430+GB for a single file. (A 5 terapixel composite image of the planet).
    Sire.. I pass thee my Geek crown !!!

    I've attempted my own Mega/gigapixel images but I find the end results somewhat lacking (not to mention the sheer processing power needed to produce them!)

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by Beowulf1970 View Post
    prompted by this comment on the Norton AV thread.



    I have a 40gb External HDD, and am continually upping my Home PC's HDD's . But what I find is.. the bigger the hard drive I have.. the more JUNK I accumulate.

    If I actually went though my HDD's deleting duplicates, older backups of stuff, backups of backups of backups etc..stuff I've not looked at (and not likely to look at again) for ages.. I'd probably only need about 1/3 of the storage capacity I have at the moment.

    I suspect software/data is like a gas.. "It expands to fill the space available"

    Estimated... what %age of your storage (not counting OS or APP installs) is actually used by stuff you use often.. and how much is filled with "accumulated junk"?
    I have very little accumilated junk, as I am a minimalist both in my home and on my computer...

    Thing is I use my computer for work and play... Sometimes I still do the odd day training people in Ms products so I need 5 versions of Ms on there due to the fact that some companies have older versions... I also need all the manuals and coursework, then there is my investment business stuff, then of course the music, and photos, most of which are of houses and properties, which is business stuff. Then tax stuff and related spreadsheet projections.
    The odd movie of a new development site, or new resorts, again for business.

    It all adds up.

    All of this I expect my laptop to deal with and to back up 100% on an external hard drive.

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    Registered User David Franklin's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin View Post
    So obviously I need more than 250G then
    Obviously it's a bit harder when you're talking lap-top drives, but for externals, I certainly wouldn't get a drive under 500GB these days. I had to get a drive for that satellite image at short notice, so I had to go for what the store had in stock (500GB), but I'd have gone for 1TB otherwise. Storage is ridiculously cheap these days.

    Quote Originally Posted by Beowulf1970
    I've attempted my own Mega/gigapixel images but I find the end results somewhat lacking (not to mention the sheer processing power needed to produce them!)
    I confess, it's not my own work, it's from a data supplier. I've just repackaged it to work with my company's mapping software.

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    Obviously it's a bit harder when you're talking lap-top drives, but for externals, I certainly wouldn't get a drive under 500GB these days. I had to get a drive for that satellite image at short notice, so I had to go for what the store had in stock (500GB), but I'd have gone for 1TB otherwise. Storage is ridiculously cheap these days.
    In Aussie, we are a lot behind UK, so not sure I could get a 500G - but I would if I could (not checked resently though, so I could be wrong)

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    Lovely Moderator ducasi's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Got a couple of 500GB disks and a portable 250GB. Main uses are for backups and media.

    I do tend to keep a lot of old stuff, though I don't think I'll be filling up all the disks I have any time soon.
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

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    Registered User David Franklin's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin View Post
    In Aussie, we are a lot behind UK, so not sure I could get a 500G - but I would if I could (not checked resently though, so I could be wrong)
    Having just looked out of curiosity, there are a lot of 500GB drives available in Oz, and even a few TB drives. (500GB has been available in the UK for over a year I think).

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    Having just looked out of curiosity, there are a lot of 500GB drives available in Oz, and even a few TB drives. (500GB has been available in the UK for over a year I think).
    Thanks David, I am not too hot on the internet search thing, can you help me with a link or 2?

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    Registered User David Franklin's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin View Post
    Thanks David, I am not too hot on the internet search thing, can you help me with a link or 2?
    Hard Drives - External - Compare Prices and Buy at MyShopping.com.au in Australia

    Of course, I don't know anything about the stores it links to, so they might be a right bunch of cowboys...

    For what it's worth, I've got a stack of the Porsche Lacie drives, but I've had 1 failure and 1 sort-of failure (I suspect it's an NTFS corruption problem so it may not be the drive's fault, but it barfs when I try to copy a 160GB file onto it. This is probably not going to be a problem for the typical user), so I'm hesitant to recommend them now.

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    Hard Drives - External - Compare Prices and Buy at MyShopping.com.au in Australia

    Of course, I don't know anything about the stores it links to, so they might be a right bunch of cowboys...

    For what it's worth, I've got a stack of the Porsche Lacie drives, but I've had 1 failure and 1 sort-of failure (I suspect it's an NTFS corruption problem so it may not be the drive's fault, but it barfs when I try to copy a 160GB file onto it. This is probably not going to be a problem for the typical user), so I'm hesitant to recommend them now.
    Thanks David

    I will stay clear of Lacie, is western digital OK ?

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    Registered User killingtime's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    Funnily enough, I set a new record for my system overnight.

    430+GB for a single file. (A 5 terapixel composite image of the planet).
    I knew 64-bit systems were made for a reason.

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    Obviously it's a bit harder when you're talking lap-top drives, but for externals, I certainly wouldn't get a drive under 500GB these days. I had to get a drive for that satellite image at short notice, so I had to go for what the store had in stock (500GB), but I'd have gone for 1TB otherwise. Storage is ridiculously cheap these days.
    Could you not use multiple smaller drives in a storage pool of some sort (ZFS or something)? Though I agree you are probably better of just getting a single drive rather than worry about the additional complexity of multiple drives.

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    Registered User David Franklin's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by killingtime View Post
    Could you not use multiple smaller drives in a storage pool of some sort (ZFS or something)? Though I agree you are probably better of just getting a single drive rather than worry about the additional complexity of multiple drives.
    6 external drives is quite enough thank you... (Plus it's a lot easier to ship a single HD drive than an array).

    Pretty clear case where the bandwidth of a FedEx courier beats what you can get from broadband though...

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    Registered User Beowulf's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    I did render a MegaPOV HDR image once that I worked out was just under 100MP in size. It was about 600mb in size (TIFF) when I finished.. I won't tell you how long I left my Spare PC processing to draw it though... (don't think HOURS.. or DAYS.. )

    it was about 12000 pixels in width and IIRC about 9000 or so high.

    EDIT

    a quick calculation

    printing that at Hi res 300dpi
    12000 / 300 = 40 inches wide

    at 72 DPI that's going to be 166.7 Inches Wide.. about 13 feet wide
    Last edited by Beowulf; 27th-September-2007 at 04:45 PM.

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin View Post
    Thanks David

    I will stay clear of Lacie, is western digital OK ?
    I quite like Lacie's drives, but we've had much better luck with Western Digital disks recently.
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by Beowulf1970 View Post
    I did render a MegaPOV HDR image once that I worked out was just under 100MP in size. It was about 600mb in size (TIFF) when I finished.. I won't tell you how long I left my Spare PC processing to draw it though... (don't think HOURS.. or DAYS.. )

    it was about 12000 pixels in width and IIRC about 9000 or so high.
    Now you are talking a differnt language, earth to B...

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    Registered User Beowulf's Avatar
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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin View Post
    Now you are talking a differnt language, earth to B...
    Ok.. allow me to translate..

    erm..
    Quote Originally Posted by Beo
    I drew a big picture !!

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    Re: How much storage do you REALLY need?

    Quote Originally Posted by Beowulf1970 View Post
    Ok.. allow me to translate..

    erm..


    ok, I like pictures

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