Ways of Storage

[FamicomFreak]

I have a bunch of CDs hundreds with files of my own Anime, old Dos Games, Word Files, Photos that I want to put all together in one place. The CDrs are just taking too much space and would like to know what do you guys recommend to store these important files and not having to worry about them being erased by time. Thanks for you help in advance!

[133MHz]

A sealed plastic container you can get at your local Home Depot might do the trick. You put your media in it, close it and tuck it away from light and temp. changes.

[FamicomFreak]

A sealed plastic container you can get at your local Home Depot might do the trick. You put your media in it, close it and tuck it away from light and temp. changes.

Hmm I already have something like that but I'm thinking of getting rid of the CDrs so was wondering what external hard drives do you guys recommend if any? I have little knowledge and don't want to loose all my data. Thanks!

[JC]

I use a Maxtor device. But that's the only one I've tried for mass storage. So far I've liked it. It's simple, as a storage device should be. And so handy to carry around...I can use it to entertain myself at work when I can't access great sites like this one.

[FamicomFreak]

Thanks I'll need at least 300gb+ to store one fourth of all my data....then I'll gradually buy more storage devices but there are so many so which one to pick!

[133MHz]

I simply don't trust hard drives, or any type of writable media in particular. Hard drives died on me, CD-Rs developed pinholes which rendered them unreadable, etc. It gave me a valuable lesson though:

* Backup! backup backup backup! I can't stress this enough.
* 'Refresh' your media collection every few years or so. That means re-recording the CDs that look bad, etc.
* Keep your media safe, away from sunlight, dust and the environment in general. As I said before a plastic storage box from Home Depot might be the best idea.
* If something is very valuable to you, don't keep it in one place! Make at least two copies on two different media.


There's some old saying which goes something like this:
A hard drive only has three possible states: New from the factory, almost full, and dead.

[FamicomFreak]

I simply don't trust hard drives, or any type of writable media in particular. Hard drives died on me, CD-Rs developed pinholes which rendered them unreadable, etc. It gave me a valuable lesson though:

* Backup! backup backup backup! I can't stress this enough.
* 'Refresh' your media collection every few years or so. That means re-recording the CDs that look bad, etc.
* Keep your media safe, away from sunlight, dust and the environment in general. As I said before a plastic storage box from Home Depot might be the best idea.
* If something is very valuable to you, don't keep it in one place! Make at least two copies on two different media.


There's some old saying which goes something like this:
A hard drive only has three possible states: New from the factory, almost full, and dead.

Haha thanks I really liked that saying.

[FamicomFreak]

Well I decide to try a small HD first for some of them "I don't give that much about CDs" so I can throw them out. I have such a huge task ahead....over 2000 CDs to check for anything worth keeping....

[133MHz]

Wow... my CD collection isn't more than a few hundred

[FamicomFreak]

Wow... my CD collection isn't more than a few hundred

Yeah I have over a decade of files with me...some are important to me and some are just for plain fun. I never though I would end up with so many...

[kezja]

You could always burn the files onto DVDs as data...  They hold over 4 gigs of storage per DVD, compared with CD-R's 700 megabytes.  If you really want to get rid of disks, then I agree with buying another hard drive.  They aren't TOO expensive.  I got a 500 gig SATA for $110 a few months back.  Only gripe I have is that it gets hot, but I have a fan on it to keep it cool.