Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/06/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Jun 2, 2007, at 2:58 PM, Brian wrote: > >>> A 500GB hard drive that costs US$100 can store 5GB per dollar >> ... >> Can you point me to (recommend) brand and place to purchase such >> drives? > > I buy bare "OEM" drives and connect them via a separate USB hookup > that I re-use from disk to disk. I get the disks locally at "dot > com depot" in Santa Clara (408) 738-3895. I'm sure they would sell > to you mail order if you phone them. Their stock and prices vary > from day to day; at this instant their price on a Seagate 500GB IDE > Barracuda is $129.95 but I bet that if I drove down there they'd > have something cheaper. > > I buy drives about 4 times a year; it is pointless to stockpile > them. I like Seagate Barracuda drives; right now I am using the > 500GB drives for archival storage because I got a great price on 3 > of them a couple of months ago, but if I see a great price on some > smaller size I might buy those next time. Recently the 400GB > Seagate IDE drives were going for about $66 on eBay (see item > 260116726684, for example). Those disks (400GB Seagate IDE) are > quite regularly available on Amazon.com under > $100. > > To put data onto a disk, I attach one of these to it and plug it > into my computer: > > http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?productID=13779 > > Then when I'm done, I remove the disk from the USB harness, put it > into a Glad bag, and put it into a fire-resistant strongbox. > And all this is easier than burning picture files into a DVD? You've got to be kidding. Last night I saved the contents of my iPhoto Library (about 11.3 Gb) to 3 DVD discs. The whole process took about an hour. All I had to do was change the DVD when each was ejected from the computer. Mac OS 10.4 lets you multitask so I could surf the web between disc changes. I create a new iPhoto Library about twice a month so the DVDs are labeled with the date and rough notes about the types of images on each. For safety, I burn duplicate DVDs using Toast 6. It's a lot quicker than burning a duplicate from iPhoto. The spares are simply stored in a file cabinet in the garage (in case the house burns down). Simple - no engineering degree required. Larry Z