How far can I fill up a HDD?

I have Windows7.

I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how much I should
put on them. My present 1000Gb one is over 97% full. Is it time to
change to a new one?

Peter

On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:43:45 +1000, Peter Jason <> wrote:

>I have Windows7.
>
>I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how much I should
>put on them. My present 1000Gb one is over 97% full. Is it time to
>change to a new one?

If you plan to keep growing your media library, I'd say you'll need
another (or a bigger) drive quite soon. As for how 'full' to make it,
I see no reason to stop until you reach the point where the file you
want to save simply won't fit.

--

Char Jackson

On Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:17:07 -0500, Char Jackson <>
wrote:

>On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:43:45 +1000, Peter Jason <> wrote:
>
>>I have Windows7.
>>
>>I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how much I should
>>put on them. My present 1000Gb one is over 97% full. Is it time to
>>change to a new one?
>
>If you plan to keep growing your media library, I'd say you'll need
>another (or a bigger) drive quite soon. As for how 'full' to make it,
>I see no reason to stop until you reach the point where the file you
>want to save simply won't fit.

Thanks. I'll get a new one and do some sorting as well. I have 270
movies on the HDD each with a file size of 2.5 - 4.5Gb. I use the
"Video-Re-Do" software to edit out the ads (which take up about a
third of the movie) and the bits at the beginning and the end. With a
fast system the lip-sync is perfect.
The dual-tuner TV card has the station programming details and
automatically fixes start & end times.
Peter.

In news:,
Peter Jason <> typed:
> I have Windows7.
>
> I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how
> much I should put on them. My present 1000Gb one is
> over 97% full. Is it time to change to a new one?
>
> Peter

If you ever defrag that disk, whiich is wise to do with movies, then you
need at least 15% of space free to run the defragmenter. Other than things
like that, including your page file, there shouldn't be much of a problem.

On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:51:43 -0400, "Twayne"
<> wrote:

>In news:,
>Peter Jason <> typed:
>> I have Windows7.
>>
>> I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how
>> much I should put on them. My present 1000Gb one is
>> over 97% full. Is it time to change to a new one?
>
>If you ever defrag that disk, whiich is wise to do with movies, then you
>need at least 15% of space free to run the defragmenter. Other than things
>like that, including your page file, there shouldn't be much of a problem.

I don't recommend defragging a drive that only contains media files.
Just like Registry cleaning, there's a bit of risk and no reward, so
no reason to do it.

--

Char Jackson

On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:43:45 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:
>
> I have Windows7.
>
> I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how much I should
> put on them. My present 1000Gb one is over 97% full. Is it time to
> change to a new one?

I think it is past time. I have heard statements that anywhere from
10% to 20% of your hard drive should be free space for Windows to
work well.

But you really have 970 GB on your hard drive? Wow!


--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:05:12 -0400, Stan Brown
<> wrote:

>On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:43:45 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:
>>
>> I have Windows7.
>>
>> I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how much I should
>> put on them. My present 1000Gb one is over 97% full. Is it time to
>> change to a new one?
>
>I think it is past time. I have heard statements that anywhere from
>10% to 20% of your hard drive should be free space for Windows to
>work well.

When he said he's using the drive to store TV movies, I took it to
mean it's a data drive, not a Windows drive. If it's a data drive I
see no reason to leave any free space. My media server has 16 2TB
drives and Disk Management shows most of them as having 0% free. The
half dozen 2TB drives hanging off the USB and eSATA ports are also as
full as they can be. The Windows drive, OTOH, does have 20-30 GB free
for Windows housekeeping. It doesn't need that much, that's just how
it worked out.

>But you really have 970 GB on your hard drive? Wow!

A 1TB drive holds about 930 GB, so 97% full would only be about 900
GB. Nothing 'wow' about that.

--

Char Jackson

On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:15:36 -0500, Char Jackson <>
wrote:

> On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:05:12 -0400, Stan Brown
> <> wrote:
>
> >On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:43:45 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:
> >>
> >> I have Windows7.
> >>
> >> I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how much I should
> >> put on them. My present 1000Gb one is over 97% full. Is it time to
> >> change to a new one?
> >
> >I think it is past time. I have heard statements that anywhere from
> >10% to 20% of your hard drive should be free space for Windows to
> >work well.
>
> When he said he's using the drive to store TV movies, I took it to
> mean it's a data drive, not a Windows drive. If it's a data drive I
> see no reason to leave any free space. My media server has 16 2TB
> drives and Disk Management shows most of them as having 0% free. The
> half dozen 2TB drives hanging off the USB and eSATA ports are also as
> full as they can be.
And tonight you need to store 50GB of new stuff (0.2% of your total
space) and have to wait 3 days for a new drive to arrive or stick
the data on yet another external drive. Oh, since you've maxed out
on 16 drives 2TB drives, you have to hope you can add 3TB drives
to your system.)
> The Windows drive, OTOH, does have 20-30 GB free
> for Windows housekeeping. It doesn't need that much, that's just how
> it worked out.
>
> >But you really have 970 GB on your hard drive? Wow!
>
> A 1TB drive holds about 930 GB, so 97% full would only be about 900
> GB. Nothing 'wow' about that.

On Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:37:10 -0400, Mark F <>
wrote:

>On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:15:36 -0500, Char Jackson <>
>wrote:
>
>> When he said he's using the drive to store TV movies, I took it to
>> mean it's a data drive, not a Windows drive. If it's a data drive I
>> see no reason to leave any free space. My media server has 16 2TB
>> drives and Disk Management shows most of them as having 0% free. The
>> half dozen 2TB drives hanging off the USB and eSATA ports are also as
>> full as they can be.
>And tonight you need to store 50GB of new stuff (0.2% of your total
>space) and have to wait 3 days for a new drive to arrive or stick
>the data on yet another external drive. Oh, since you've maxed out
>on 16 drives 2TB drives, you have to hope you can add 3TB drives
>to your system.)

I don't have to hope. This is the age of the Internet. Chances are
excellent that anything you want to do has been tried by someone else
already. In my case, I know in advance that 3TB drives are fully
supported by my drive controller. The better solution, though, is to
simply build a second server and populate that one with 3TB drives.

--

Char Jackson

Peter Jason wrote:

>I have Windows7.
>
>I use a HDD for storing TV movies, and I wonder just how much I should
>put on them. My present 1000Gb one is over 97% full. Is it time to
>change to a new one?


Just format it, you'll get all the free space back! (don't do that)

You don't have to 'change' the drive, add another new one to the system
and continue to use the full one for storage.