Music Storage

[jude376]

Looking for an external hard drive to store my music. Recommendations?
 
 I know this has been discussed zillions of times, so if someone can direct me to the proper threads, I'd be much obliged.

[ggw]

I have a 200gb Maxtor.  It works fine and it was (relatively) inexpensive.  But I'm a technodolt and just plug it in and drag and drop my music (and other) folders into it every couple of weeks.  If you're looking to do mirroring or the like, others may be able to give you more advice.

[MindCage]

My opinion is that you can find your best pricing either from tigerdirect.com or from buy.com.
 
 I picked up an IOGEAR 320GB external that has 2 USB2.0 ports and a Firewire port. It was fairly inexpensive as well, plus it had a rebate from buy.com. It was under $200 after the rebate.
 
 MindCage
 Mindless Faith
 Deep6 Productions

[jude376]

Thanks, guys. I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff.

[beetsnotbeats]

Make backups (CDR, DVDR, another drive, etc.) of your tunes. Nothing more heartbreaking than when 200GB of soundage goes pttth. Whatever hard drive you choose it will eventually fail; they all do, whether in 6 years or 6 months. That's why no hard drive manufacturer will guarantee your data. Unfortunately, I speak from bitter experience (45GB **poof**).
 
 I have a smart playlist in iTunes that simply keeps track of anything added. When it reaches 4GB I burn the list to DVD and start a new playlist.

[sonickteam2]

Originally posted by beetsnotbeats:
 
 
 I have a smart playlist in iTunes that simply keeps track of anything added. When it reaches 4GB I burn the list to DVD and start a new playlist.

you're a genius!!! Thanks for the idea!  

[serickson98]

Originally posted by beetsnotbeats:
  Make backups (CDR, DVDR, another drive, etc.) of your tunes. Nothing more heartbreaking than when 200GB of soundage goes pttth. Whatever hard drive you choose it will eventually fail; they all do, whether in 6 years or 6 months. That's why no hard drive manufacturer will guarantee your data. Unfortunately, I speak from bitter experience (45GB **poof**).
 
 I have a smart playlist in iTunes that simply keeps track of anything added. When it reaches 4GB I burn the list to DVD and start a new playlist.

For backups, I would trust a drive before I would trust a DVD-R or CD-R.   Regularly burn backups of your backups if you decide to go that route.

[anarchist]

if you figure it out. it is cheaper to archive on cd than hd.  but use good cds.  fuji-jpn,mitsui,etc.

[jude376]

Originally posted by anarchist:
  if you figure it out. it is cheaper to archive on cd than hd.  but use good cds.  fuji-jpn,mitsui,etc.

Cheaper, sure. But I'm worried about all those music files eating up precious space on my computer. Better to store it all on an external drive or better to get more memory?