Thread: Storage - How do you do it?

Hello guys,

Trying to get some opinions from a few likeminded users here, and I think that this site might be the best place for it.

Now, I love HD Movies, I currently have 4.5 TB of HD movies on my PC, and I'm fast running out of room to store the new ones that I add every day, at the moment they're all being dumped on an external HD which is less than ideal, before I shell out on adding another HD to my already overcrowded box, I'm wondering how you guys deal with it?

Part of me is tempted to start putting money aside now until I can afford a dedicated media server with bucketloads of HD space... but realistically I need 8 TB drives to arrive or something, or I'm fighting a losing battle.

I assume there are a lot of other HD content lovers on here, what are your suggestions? How do you deal with the way that HD movies eat your HD space?

Any advice?



Cheers

a dedicated server is probably the most ideal solution here. i use two different external enclosures: one for actuive stuff and one as a bit of an archive/library. Occassionally I'll burn some material to DL-DVD media as a deep storage. then trash them from the HD to make more room

I am downloading movies (1280x720). Normally they fit in 1 DVD. For people who doesn't have so much space, less than 1TB, I download the same movie and the same resolution in a smaller size. Usually ranging from 300MB to 600MB. I don't know if quality will be significantly lower than you expected, but it is enough with me. I've got more HDD space in return.

Only solution is a dedicated media server. I'm in the same boat as you, space is quickly being depleted as more movies are being downloaded. For right now i'm surviving on external HDD's but that's going to end soon.

Right now I'm surviving on a couple of externals. I'm probably gonna scrounge up an old tower soon and see if I can turn it into a storage server.

I'd say media server as well. I personally have a mac and have been buying the 2tb WD Studio's and daisy chaining them via firewire, its the best way i've found to not have a usb mess and to only have one cord going to your pc/mac. I also have the A200 popcorn hour which can be a good way to store things since you can add externals to it and you can even fit an internal inside it aswell.

4.5TB is about 600 HD movies. I love HD as much as the next guy but couldn't see myself with that many at once. A storage server is a good idea, it doesn't need to be anything fancy... Basically some HD's and an ethernet. 2TB drives are available now, so look into that. It could defianetly help your dilemma. Instead of 8 1TB drives, you could get 4 1TB drives and still have 4 slots for the future. Not to mention that a 2TB drive would be cheaper than 2 1TB drives.

Good luck

Well personally I have only 3 TB drive space at the moment, and it is rapidly being filling up; as I am going all flac for my music. But I am assuming you are not wanting to delete any of your movies? I feel you on the HD thing, I generally download the best quality I can get. But have you considered just deleting some, and re-downloading them as necessary.. I can understand if you have slow internet or just want them immediately. To me it really isn't worth it. The cost of HDD goes way down every year.

Yeah, the plan is that I don't want to delete the movies. Thats the whole point of collecting them right? Before HD, I had around 600 DVD's - I've phased them out now, theres another 100 or so to go but I'm getting rid of them, optical media takes up too much physical space, and is pretty inconveniant (have to find the disc, put it back in its box, etc)

Thank you all for your opinions, its pretty clear that building a proper media server is going to be the best bet... now to convince the wife.