Personal data storage options - Page 3

I decided to purchase two DeskStar 7k2000 2 TB hard drives for my Cavalry Storage USB 3.0 Dual Hard Drive Dock. Thank you for the tip because it saved me a significant amount of money.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MCC 

You don't need a drive with 64MB of cache for backups. I have a couple relatively cheap Hitachi 7k2000 2TB drives and they have stellar performance. Beware the warranty though- one of them died on me and I discovered that Hitachi doesn't offer advance replacements like Seagate and WD. 

 

Edit: Clarification for stellar- 70MB/s+ actual read/write continuous over eSata which is quite good. These drives are a full $100 cheaper than the Seagate you linked to.

 

I use the second 7k2000 as a boot drive and it feels quicker than my old 1TB WD Caviar Black.

1. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00365MF8Q/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

2. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003RH08Z0/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=AKJJGJ0JKT8F1

I also decided to purchase Buffalo Technology's USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 accessory and an external USB 3.0 Blu-Ray re-writer plus Super-Multi optical drive. I am going to buy SlySoft's AnyDVD-HD Lifetime and Illustrate's dBPowerAmp Reference R14.

My plan is to use the first Hitachi hard drive to store my MozyHome Unlimited backups exclusively. The second Hitachi hard drive is to store .FLAC music files, uncompressed dual-layer Blu-Ray & DVD-Video discs.

I verified through my intensive research that both of these products are fully compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Edition and my ASUS N61JV-X2 can utilize them. Buffalo Technology has up to date device drivers for both products for my operating system.

I own an APC BackUPS ES 550. My ASUS N61JV-X2, LGE Super-Multi CD & Double Layer DVD burner drive, Buffalo Technology Blu-Ray & Super-Multi re-writer burner drive, and Cavalry Storage USB 3.0 dual hard drive dock will be protected by the internal battery. I will have four surge protected outlets available.

This is definitely worth it for my intended usage which is to build up my digital music and video library. I have been dreaming about adding these capabilities for years. The time has come to seize that dream and turn it into reality. CD, DVD-Video, and Blu-Ray technologies are here to stay and I can rent them for free from my local public library.

I will buy the Amazon Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi on Black Friday with the leather case.

Maybe. My public library does not have much of a classical or opera selection and the movie collection is smaller with very few titles that I am interested in.

Obviously, I have my own library of legally purchased music and movies that suit my tastes. To be honest, I plan on subscribing to Yourmusic and buying movies from Amazon albeit that I am currently very busy with graduate school and my job on campus.

I expect it will take a year to convert my existing library to the second Hitachi hard drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nebby 

You are planning on renting them from the library, ripping the media, then keeping them?
 

 

I bought a ThermalTake BlacX. It can fit either a 2.5" or 3.5" SATA I or SATA II hard drive in its one bay. There are USB 2.0 and eSATA ports for connectivity. I also bought a Western Digital 1.5 TB Advanced Format SATA II - 300 MBps Caviar Green hard drive. Amazon shipped the goods in perfect condition within two business days to my home. I followed the Western Digital instructions on how to setup the Advanced Format drive within Microsoft Windows 7 and I utilized Bitlocker to encrypt the entire drive. It works great. Now, I have more than enough storage to build a music and movie library. I am slowly converting my massive collection of CDs to Apple Lossless format and I use DVD Decrypter to decrypt and rip DVD-Videos onto the hard drive. Finally, I back up everything to Mozy Home Unlimited.

I plan on purchasing another Western Digital Advanced Format Caviar Green hard drive in the near future. I am waiting for the prices for the 2.00 TB hard drives to come down to $60.00 USD which should be by next Christmas 2011.

eSATA is fast. I do not notice any slowdowns whatsoever when accessing the hard drive. I could boot off of it, but I choose to keep it as a media storage drive.