Computer Geeks: Should I invest in a second hard drive?

[elperromagico]

Here's the situation: I record music on my PC, and all of those .wav files take up a lot of space. I'd transfer them to .mp3, but the bitrate is so low that everything sounds dreadful on CD. I inevitably wind up deleting about 1 GB worth of files every month or so.

So, should I invest in a second hard drive, which I can devote entirely to music files? If so, which brands should I look into? Oh, and don't tell me I ought to buy a Mac... I know all about how much better they're supposed to be for music production. Thanks! :)

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Definitely get another one!

Just make sure you have room for it on your computer, or get an external USB (or Firewire) one.

I've had excellent luck with Maxtor harddrives.

In terms of external USB drives, I haven't used any, so can't offer suggestions, but considering how well-pleased I am with all iOmega stuff I have, I'm sure the Iomega external drives are solid, well-built, and will last a long time.

[MsUnderstood]

2. HOw big is your hardrive now?

Why are you deleting 1 gb of space? Are your running out?

HD are less than $100 for 40gb--I'd definitely get one.

I don't like Western Digital--Maxor is a good brand.

[elperromagico]

4. Freakin' 19 GB.

Not enough at all, and my digital music software freezes up if I get over 14 GB.

[Ready4Change]

13. Oh yah, get a 2nd one, then.

Maybe even get two, and move the files from your 19mb onto one of the new ones.

Price per GB, hard drives are cheap nowadays.

[MercutioATC]

15. Keeping below 50%-75% speeds up your system. Get another drive.

I've actually had great luck with the Western Digital hard drives with the 8mb cache. Really fast!

Best Buy runs specials every month or so...you should be able to get an 80G Western Digital *mb cache drive for about $60 after mail-in rebates.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Yes. They're cheap now.

I regularly see hundred giggers on sale for $50. You have to pay $100 up front and then send in a coupon to get a $50 rebate, but it's worth it.

DVD-recordables are also becoming inexpensive. They hold 4.5 GB per disk. I am thinking of getting one for archiving since they are much easier to deal with (for multimedia pigs like me) than CD-Rs.

--bkl

[POed_Ex_Repub]

5. I'd invest in a Writable DVD Rom

More transferable than a hard drive for your next computer (I imagine you're going to want to keep all of your music) and you can use it as a DVD player. Just a thought.

[Deja Q]

6. Buy a burner instead - DVD+R/RW standard

Save everything on to disc and library them and make a couple of copies for redundancy.

Another hard drive would give you instant storage, but you;'d have to back it up.

What if it crashes? You lose it all. Not good.

I use DVD+RW technology myself -> http://www.dvdadept.com/DVD_NewTech.asp for more...

http://www.dvdrw.com/ for more... (check out the new dual layer DVD+R format, yummy yummy yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Blank DVD+R discs' prices are dropping as well.

Can't go wrong here...

[POed_Ex_Repub]

7. Great minds think alike

;)

[elperromagico]

9. I've been burning my wavs onto CD-RWs lately,

but quite frankly, I regard that as a pain in the ass.

Maybe I'm just lazy...

[brainshrub]

8. If you have to ask, you don't need one.

[FloridaPat]

10. I got a 160 gig external hard drive from Sam's for around $160.

Easy to install and it works great.

[Old and In the Way]

11. I have a 120GB Acom Data External HD backing up my PC

Has either USB2.0 or IEEE1394 firewire connections. Have a great little software utility called Clone that backs my files up every 4 hours.

If you go this route, you can simply plug and play when you upgrade to a new PC. Works slick.

[ET Awful]

12. You can get 160GB drive for under $100 if you know where to shop

I recently picked up two from CompUSA for $109 each after the instant rebate, and they'll be even cheaper once the mail-in rebate gets here.

OR, you could order from a place like newegg.com and get them just as cheap (newegg is one of the most reliable online vendors of computer goods).

Hard drives are cheap, easy to install and well worth the money :).

[Florida_Geek]

14. I just replaced both hard drives

on my system with OEM Maxtors from http://www.softwareandstuff.com/hdwstorage.html

I did it for age more than need of space. If you need to dup a drive, Norton's Ghost is GREAT.

I picked two 40 Gig drives. their 80 Gig is only $64 dollars. Only problem is the instructions are a little tag on the drive for switch settings :(

Total time to replace and clone two hard drives around 2 hours. And I am still sane. :)


on edit: sorry I am moving to a Mac but have to live on a XP today

[MattBaggins]

16. Few questions first

What size hard drive can your BIOS handle?
You may need a PCI IDE card if you try to install a newer 160GB ATA133 HD when your MB is only able to handle 80GB or less ATA100

Why aren't you ripping those .wav's as .mp3's or ogg vorbis?

You can speed up your system if you pay attention to which IDE controller you attach each device. If you are ripping from CD to a HD put them on different controllers. If you are recording your own music then put the two HD's on different controllers.

To hell with Mac. If you are doing some serious MIDI recording and file conversions then use plain old BSD or Linux (Gentoo of course). Set your HD's on the right controllers, plan your swap files properly, and you can convert .wav's to mp3's while fragging some serious asci in UT2003 without so much as a hic-up from your box.