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Running out of HD space

#1
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2/22/08 at 2:15pm
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I have a Dell 8400 with a 40 GB HD and am running out of HD space. I want to upgrade my HD but really don't want to reinstall windows and all my software, not to mention my network settings. Is there a way to just add the larger HD and copy an image of the smaller drive to the larger drive? Circuit City said Norton Ghost would work... but I don't have too much confidence in their so called experts. Any help would be appreciated.

Earle
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#2
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2/22/08 at 3:59pm
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Re: Running out of HD space

There's probably an extra bay in your computer where you could just add another hard drive. HD's are cheap these days, so buy at least 120GBs and just plug it in and start going. It will show up as your E: drive (most likely)
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#3
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2/22/08 at 9:23pm
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Re: Running out of HD space

I don't know if it is still the case, but the last time I purchased a retail boxed HD (not just the bare drive OEM style) it came with software to copy the contents of the current drive to the new drive and make it bootable.

While Ghost will work if you have to buy a product I would recommend Acronis True Image instead. It is currently available for $20 after rebate from Outpost.com.
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-Keith
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#4
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2/23/08 at 12:51am
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Re: Running out of HD space

Would certainly recommend Acronis True Image. Had a hard disk failure last weekend and, thankfully, had an Acronis backup on an external hard drive. Recovery on to the new hard drive wwas painless (about 3 clicks on the mouse) and about 2 hours later all was restored as it was at the time theat the last backup was made. Just make sure you make an Acronis "boot disk" before you take out the old drive.

Brian
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#5
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4/8/08 at 5:46am
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Re: Running out of HD space

As discussed in another thread (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...endations.html)
I recently bought a new PC. Due to seeing a nice deal at the time, I bought one with a TV tuner. I hadn't planned on this, but it is working quite well and using Windows Media Center I am recording a few TV shows every now and then. I am copying some programs to DVD, but I want to keep others as they look very nice on the PC. So, the disk space is going a lot faster than I originally planned. I have about 70 GB free at the moment.

So, the question is whether I should get another internal hard drive or get an external one. I think I'd probably be mostly using the extra drive space for moving shows from the current Recorded TV folder in order to free up space on the C: drive. Any suggestions? Pros or cons in doing any of this? Are there any Windows Media Center issues I need to consider?

Thanks,

Neil
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#6
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4/11/08 at 4:12am
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Re: Running out of HD space

Unless you have a need to physically move the data around, I would buy an internal drive. They are less expensive per GB and have faster throughput rates.

You can get a 500GB Seagate internal drive for under $100 at newegg . . . that's the route I would go.
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#7
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4/14/08 at 12:18pm
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Re: Running out of HD space

Quote:
Originally Posted by SethH
Unless you have a need to physically move the data around, I would buy an internal drive. They are less expensive per GB and have faster throughput rates.

You can get a 500GB Seagate internal drive for under $100 at newegg . . . that's the route I would go.
Thanks for the suggestion. Working with big files the throughput is going to be a big factor, so internal sounds like the way to go. As far as cost, it seems that external and internal deals are pretty close to one another if you can get a deal. I just got an advertisement from buy.com for a Seagate external 500GB USB2.0 for $110 (free shipping).

Neil
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#8
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5/5/08 at 8:54am
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Re: Running out of HD space

I got a Western Digital Caviar SE16 Hard Drive - 500GB, 3.5", SATA, 3 Gb/s - Internal Hard Drive. It was onsale for $90 at buy.com and I had a 5% off coupon as well. Unfortunately it arrived with no documentation at all (luckily there was some decent documentation in my PC manual) and when I went to install it I discovered that of the two spare cables inside my computer, only one of them was appropriate for installing this - a power cable. I still needed to get a SATA cable to connect it to the motherboard.

If I knew more about the insides of my new PC, I could have figured this out in advance and possibly ordered it at the same time. As it was I first called Staples - they didn't stock one. Then I called Office Depot - they said they had one for $15. I drove there and the person I spoke to on the phone wasn't around, but someone else who did know what I was talking about couldn't find one. He recommended I go to Best Buy. So, since I wanted to get one right away I did go to Best Buy and bought one there for $20. (I bet most of the price was markup profit.)

I hooked it up and then as opposed to when I added a second hard drive on previous XP and ME machines in my house, Vista didn't recognize it. Luckily I was able to do a quick google search and saw that this was a universal situation with Vista. I can't see the post I saw then, but Second SATA drive is not recognized - Vista Forums
is a similar one.

Anyway, after going through the instructions, waiting for the drive to get formatted and such, I went to my Windows Media Center and changed where new recordings go. Then I moved a couple of shows to the new drive and it was able to find them. I also tested recording something briefly with no problems. Last night I recorded about three hours worth of stuff. It looks like I am set for a while.

Neil
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#9
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5/14/08 at 6:15pm
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Re: Running out of HD space

Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilO
Last night I recorded about three hours worth of stuff. It looks like I am set for a while.
Famous last words.
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#10
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5/29/08 at 6:21am
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Re: Running out of HD space

There are also some independent computer companies that would be willing to clone your drive for you, if you buy a larger one from them (of course, they keep and wipe the old one). Assuming of course, if you have an IDE drive that you can still get them...

I have always preferred putting all data (audio, video, docs and even Outlook's .pst address book and email master file) on a separate disk, in order to keep my machine from running slower and having to defrag on a more regular basis.

I don't like SPAM!

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#11
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5/30/08 at 2:03am
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Re: Running out of HD space

One of the things I have been looking at lately is the Media Server from HP that has four slots to it so you can add up to 4TB drives. You can also upgrade the RAM and CPU on the server. What I am going to do is use it for my main server and then dump all my recordings and data backups for all my PCs to this main server. Then from there I will be able to watch a show that I have recorded from my HTPC in my bedroom on my livingroom HTPC and vs. versa. And at the same time backup my data daily.

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#12
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5/31/08 at 9:44am
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Re: Running out of HD space

Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilO
So, since I wanted to get one right away I did go to Best Buy and bought one there for $20. (I bet most of the price was markup profit.)

Yeah, about $18 worth of markup profit.

"Bobby is and idiot"
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#13
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5/31/08 at 10:44am
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Re: Running out of HD space

Quote:
Originally Posted by EarleD
I have a Dell 8400 with a 40 GB HD and am running out of HD space. I want to upgrade my HD but really don't want to reinstall windows and all my software, not to mention my network settings. Is there a way to just add the larger HD and copy an image of the smaller drive to the larger drive? Circuit City said Norton Ghost would work... but I don't have too much confidence in their so called experts. Any help would be appreciated.

Earle
If you want a dead-simple, no thought required solution, simply buy a 500GB external USB hard drive and plug it in. It's $130 retail, but can be found on sale for about $100 sometimes. Set this as your D: drive (or whatever) and use it for all your personal data, etc. No need to bother with cloning or reinstalling Windows.

SethH said that internal drives are cheaper than external, but as I've looked the past year or so, I've found that they are very close in price.

The next level of complexity is to buy an internal drive and install it. This is not hard; I've done it several times with Dell computers. And again, just make it a data drive.

Or, as you ask, you can do a full clone, install an internal drive, and use it as your new system drive (the C: drive). If you do that, keep the 40GB as well; you might find it useful for backups, etc.

Finally, you can install a new internal drive and do a full reinstall of all your software. This is time consuming: my experience is that this takes an entire weekend to fully restore all applications, data, and most of your settings. And you'll be fiddling for the next two weeks getting things just so. But, it also cleans things up, often fixing little quirks that had developed as you added and removed programs over the years. And might prompt you do house clean and get rid of data and apps you no longer want.
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#14
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5/31/08 at 10:49am
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Re: Running out of HD space

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parker Clack
One of the things I have been looking at lately is the Media Server from HP that has four slots to it so you can add up to 4TB drives. You can also upgrade the RAM and CPU on the server. What I am going to do is use it for my main server and then dump all my recordings and data backups for all my PCs to this main server. Then from there I will be able to watch a show that I have recorded from my HTPC in my bedroom on my livingroom HTPC and vs. versa. And at the same time backup my data daily.
Have you considered the Data Robotics, Inc.? Not server, but a high-capacity, hot-swappable RAID-like system. Plug in up to four harddrives you have and it presents itself to your system as a large pool of storage. Change drives on the fly, with no data loss. It will accept at least the upcoming 4 TB drives for about 12 TB of available storage. Or plug in whatever mongrel assortment of internal drives you have handy. It can be networked.

I've not used one -- overkill for my needs. But I've only heard great things about it.
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#15
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5/31/08 at 8:07pm
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Re: Running out of HD space

The one advantage to the Drobo over something like the HP Media server is that the Drobo comes up as a local drive whereas the Media Server connects via ethernet, so you really need a home network to use it. The Drobo is cheaper as well -- you can find it online for >$500.

I looked at both of those solutions, and I came up with this:

External 10-bay eSATA Enclosure

Coupled with a the necessary 2 port eSATA RAID card, you can cram up to 10TB of drives into it. I've just started out with 3X1TB drives running at RAID5 for 2TB of data storage. I can't do more because XP 32-bit can't handle more than a 2TB array. But I can have multiple RAID5 sets, and I am also looking at some other non-traditional RAID ideas like FlexRAID. I like this solution because it leaves the files intact, ie, if I lose 2 drives from the RAID5 partition, the entire dataset is wiped out. But if that happens with FlexRAID, whatever drives are still working have all their data. Also, FlexRAID isn't hardware dependent, so I can move the drives here and there and just need to resynch. But it's still immature and so far there's only a CLI, and I will wait for a web based GUI. My plan is RAID5 for now, wait for FlexRAID, get 2 more 1TB drives, transfer that data over, and then set up a 5 disk FlexRAID.

The case is a bit loud (I'm not sure about the db levels of the media server), but I plan on replacing the case fans with quieter ones.

For the OP: I would suggest just installing another 500GB or 1TB drive internally. However, those USB ones are pretty cheap too, and they're fast enough to stream hi-def video. My biggest concern (and the reason I got the 10 Bay enclosure) is that I've lost too many drives and data over the past couple of years, and I have decided that some sort of fault tolerance is a must.

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