I need a new HD.....

[Killjoy]

I'm running a home built monster for my computer, so I am familiar with swapping out drives, etc.
I guess you could say I am my own Geek Squad.

My 500GB internal drive is filling up with photos faster now that I am shooting with a 50D instead of my older 20D.
I was looking in the paper this morning, and there is a Seagate 2TB SATA drive with a 32MB buffer on sale this week.

Does anyone have any experience with this drive?

Now, just for the record, I'm not one to usually put all my eggs in one basket, so yes I do back up my data.

Thanks.

[Gna]

At the rate you're going I'd say get two, and mirror them. Or get a Drobo system, or similar.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Gna

At the rate you're going I'd say get two, and mirror them. Or get a Drobo system, or similar.

Uh...mirroring doesn't increase space. It's just a redundancy technique. And software mirrors take up CPU utilization. Might as well get a RAID card at the same time if the motherboard doesn't support it.

KJ, what's the spindle speed and interface you'll be using on that drive? And how old is the computer you'll be adding it to?

[Killjoy]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

KJ, what's the spindle speed and interface you'll be using on that drive?

Up to 2TB capacity
Up to 3GB/s data transfer
SATA connection
5900 RPM performance

And how old is the computer you'll be adding it to?

The computer is a couple years old. But I had to rebuild it when I lost the OS drive in June to a power spike.
Intel Q6600, Asus Commando MB, 4 Gig of Ram...
My video card is my downfall in my system (besides space).
It's an nVidia 7900GS 256MB PCI-Ex16. But it gets the job done, and I don't play games on it.

Edit: I'm running XP Pro with all the Service Packs.

[Gna]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

Uh...mirroring doesn't increase space. It's just a redundancy technique.

"Just a redundancy technique"? When 2TeraBytes of data are at stake data security is a prime concern before all else!

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Gna

"Just a redundancy technique"? When 2TeraBytes of data are at stake data security is a prime concern before all else!

First, you implied that he needed more capacity with that statement. Mirroring doesn't add capacity.

Look at this from a cost/benefit perspective. He's not a pro. He's already stated he backs things up. Exactly what benefit does running a mirrored set give him?

If the computer is stolen, he's out both drives.
If the computer burns for some reason, he's out both drives.
If the computer gets a virus, the mirror has no benefit.

The ONLY thing a RAID mirror set benefits is production time in the event ONE of the two drives fails. For a business, this is an obvious benefit. For a person with no commercial interest in their data, the benefits aren't tangible.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Killjoy

Up to 2TB capacity
Up to 3GB/s data transfer
SATA connection
5900 RPM performance

The computer is a couple years old. But I had to rebuild it when I lost the OS drive in June to a power spike.
Intel Q6600, Asus Commando MB, 4 Gig of Ram...
My video card is my downfall in my system (besides space).
It's an nVidia 7900GS 256MB PCI-Ex16. But it gets the job done, and I don't play games on it.

Edit: I'm running XP Pro with all the Service Packs.

The only drawback I can see would be the spindle speed. If you're not running games or "fast" apps off of that drive, I doubt you'll notice any difference between a 5900 (or is it 5400?) and a 7200RPM drive.

I run Seagates in all of my servers at work. I think we're running about 250+ of them right now. No issues.

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

The ONLY thing a RAID mirror set benefits is production time in the event ONE of the two drives fails. For a business, this is an obvious benefit. For a person with no commercial interest in their data, the benefits aren't tangible.

spot on

[db83]

what's with the new 5900 RPM hard drives? The standard for desktops is 7200 RPM I believe. Those are gonna be slower drives. Also, if you're running a monster of a computer, get a SSD as your boot drive and a large (or two in raid) storage drives.

[Gna]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

First, you implied that he needed more capacity with that statement. Mirroring doesn't add capacity.

Look at this from a cost/benefit perspective. He's not a pro. He's already stated he backs things up. Exactly what benefit does running a mirrored set give him?

If the computer is stolen, he's out both drives.
If the computer burns for some reason, he's out both drives.
If the computer gets a virus, the mirror has no benefit.

The ONLY thing a RAID mirror set benefits is production time in the event ONE of the two drives fails. For a business, this is an obvious benefit. For a person with no commercial interest in their data, the benefits aren't tangible.

The O.P. needs more space because his internal HD is filling up. That's what the first 2TB external HD is for. It is an 'extension' of his internal HD. Together they are the O.P.'s primary storage. Also, the O.P. indicated he is the type to keep backups. Sensible of course. That's what the second 2TB external HD is for. He can either have no. 2 mirror external HD no. 1, or he can use it to store regular backups of no. 1. The goal in both cases is data security.

[Killjoy]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

If the computer is stolen, he's out both drives.
If the computer burns for some reason, he's out both drives.
If the computer gets a virus, the mirror has no benefit.

Bite your tongue.

Originally Posted by brian.austin

The only drawback I can see would be the spindle speed. If you're not running games or "fast" apps off of that drive, I doubt you'll notice any difference between a 5900 (or is it 5400?) and a 7200RPM drive.

I run Seagates in all of my servers at work. I think we're running about 250+ of them right now. No issues.

Yeah, it's 5900. Straight off the manufacturers site.

Thanks for the info.

[swampler]

I'd probably stick with a 7200 rpm 1 TB versus a slower, larger drive.

[Killjoy]

I seriously only gave this any consideration because I saw it in the paper this morning on sale.

Here's the link right to Fry's electronics for the drive info.

[L. Robinson]

I'll second what Brian said about Seagate HD's. I run nothing but Seagate in all the systems we build and sell. All our business class machines also get the Perpendicular recording technology drives that offer MTBF's of, and, upto 1.2 million hours. Second thought for you, would be the lower power consuming 5900RPM drives if this will just be a storage drive and not the main system drive, I really don't think you will notice a performance difference and the prices are ruffly 40% less.

[soxOZ]

Gee, some of these suggestions here one would think you are setting up a workstation for Warner Bros Studio and cost is no concern....

If your just going to add it as a 2nd drive for Storage and keep you original 500Gb HDD as your Boot and OS drive, well get the Seagate 2Tb, as this would be my suggestion...
OK it might spin a little slower but it will really only effect you and I doubt that you would even notice is when opening a file or saving it to the 2Tb HDD as all your temp and working programs will be on your primary drive, the 500Gb.
This IMHO is the most cost effective and sensible way to do it...

[cadmium]

Actually Seagate has had some issues with their larger drives in the past year. 2TB drives in general are still pretty new and have a slightly higher than normal failure rate. Things should be smoothing out about now and you probably wouldn't have any problems, but just keep that in mind.

[Killjoy]

Originally Posted by soxOZ

Gee, some of these suggestions here one would think you are setting up a workstation for Warner Bros Studio and cost is no concern....

If your just going to add it as a 2nd drive for Storage and keep you original 500Gb HDD as your Boot and OS drive, well get the Seagate 2Tb, as this would be my suggestion...
OK it might spin a little slower but it will really only effect you and I doubt that you would even notice is when opening a file or saving it to the 2Tb HDD as all your temp and working programs will be on your primary drive, the 500Gb.
This IMHO is the most cost effective and sensible way to do it...

Actually, I'm already running dual drives.
One for my OS as well as loading all my programs to run things off of, and the other is just for storage of my photos.

This past June, a power spike took out my C: drive. So I had to replace that.
Funny thing is, I went with a 1TB drive for it.
I thought about swapping the drives so the larger one would have been my storage drive and the smaller one (500GB) my OS drive, but it was a hassle.
Now I'm having to deal with it.

[db83]

Originally Posted by cadmium

Actually Seagate has had some issues with their larger drives in the past year. 2TB drives in general are still pretty new and have a slightly higher than normal failure rate. Things should be smoothing out about now and you probably wouldn't have any problems, but just keep that in mind.

I have a Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200RPM hard drive. Bought it just a bit after Seagate's reported problems with this particular drive. Turns out, I had a later batch in which the problem was already fixed. Still though, I was skeptical about the drive. I haven't had any problems with it since. Probably gonna get a SSD pretty soon to use as my boot drive.

[soxOZ]

Originally Posted by Killjoy

Actually, I'm already running dual drives.
One for my OS as well as loading all my programs to run things off of, and the other is just for storage of my photos. This past June, a power spike took out my C: drive. So I had to replace that.
Funny thing is, I went with a 1TB drive for it. I thought about swapping the drives so the larger one would have been my storage drive and the smaller one (500GB) my OS drive, but it was a hassle. Now I'm having to deal with it.

Why not then add it as a 3rd drive for storage and leave your 500GB in there... Or put the 500Gb into an external case as a back up unit and fit the 2Tb into its place...
I have 4 HDD and 2 DVD drives running in the computer... And another 6 External HDD (3 are laptop size portable units) that are used to back up.

Plus I use a program called ACRONIS that is superb at doing disk images so that an OS can be moved/placed onto another drive or partition...
Also great as a backup program, but I usually use Second Copy for that... Good Luck with it all...