How far can I fill up a HDD?

[Peter Jason]

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

 

[Char Jackson]

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.

 

[Peter Jason]

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.

 

[Twayne]

In

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.

 

[Char Jackson]

In

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.

 

[Stan Brown]

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!

 

[Char Jackson]

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.

 

[Mark F]

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.)

 

[Char Jackson]

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.

 

[G. Morgan]

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.

 

[G. Morgan]

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.

That, and defrafgging a 97% full 1TB drive won't work too well!

 

[Peter Jason]

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.

I'm buying a new 1Tb HDD on Saturday. I have a large case with many
drive bays. I'll start storing more TV movies and still more from
eMule but I will take the opportunity to group the movies over two
drives by decade etc.

 

[Bob I]

That, and defrafgging a 97% full 1TB drive won't work too well!

Just copy to an empty drive and erase the original when done. All defragged.

 

[Stan Brown]

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.

That makes sense to me. I failed to pick up that the drive was used
exclusively for AV storage.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Peter Jason

I'm buying a new 1Tb HDD on Saturday. I have a large case with many
drive bays. I'll start storing more TV movies and still more from
eMule but I will take the opportunity to group the movies over two
drives by decade etc.

I find it interesting that no-one in this thread has asked _why_ you
have all those movies. What are you going to do with them?

I'm not in any way saying you _shouldn't_ have them, just wondering!
(When are you going to watch them? Are you accumulating them far faster
than you'll ever have time to view them even the first time, apart from
to take the ad.s out?) Are you young enough that "sometime" is still a
large concept?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"... four Oscars, and two further nominations ... On these criteria, he's
Britain's most successful film director." Powell or Pressburger? no; Richard
Attenborough? no; Nick Park!

 

[Rob]

I'm buying a new 1Tb HDD on Saturday. I have a large case with many
drive bays. I'll start storing more TV movies and still more from
eMule but I will take the opportunity to group the movies over two
drives by decade etc.

Get yourself a 2TB one instead - they don't cost much more and if you
run out of space again in the future, you will eventually run out of
spare SATA ports. A better solution may be to get a NAS box with
(say) 4 bays. Then you can easily just add new drives when you need
them. You can also turn the NAS off when not using it, saving money
on power bills.
HTH

 

[Twayne]

In

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.

It sounds like you don't do any serious video editing/rendering. If that
stuff gets too fragmented, you're going to be riding a child's tricycle, not
a Harley.

I do recommend defragging and do so after EVERY movie; keeps the time down
and disk faster. I've only done hundreds of videos like that, so what would
I know?

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Twayne]

In

That, and defrafgging a 97% full 1TB drive won't work too
well!

True! It's unlikely that any defrag program will be able to successfully a
97% full drive. Just move a video off, defrag, put it back. There won't be
much defrag then and reading speeds will be fine regardless of which one you
pick.
During defrag, there needs to be room somewhere to put the pieces of
programs while it's moving things around. If it did work at 97%, you're
looking at days, not hours, to perform the defrag. In this case, I would be
afraid of poddibly damaging files - and I'd return whatever the program is
for a refund. No such problem with the win defrag or Norton's scandisk.
If you're just thieving and stealing video, then there might not be much
fragmentation but if you're editing you really need at least two separate
physical disks to keep things moving at any reasonable rate.
You will NOT gain any disk space worth mentioning from doing a defrag;
but it helps accessing time immensely, as in when you play the video.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Char Jackson]

In

It sounds like you don't do any serious video editing/rendering.

I don't. I used to, but I no longer have any need. For the past few
years I've been ripping and storing my DVD and BluRAY collection,
storing them as either ISO images (DVD) or in mkv containers (BR).
They are static files, just waiting to be streamed to the TV.

If that
stuff gets too fragmented, you're going to be riding a child's tricycle, not
a Harley.

It takes a tremendous amount of fragmentation before a modern hard
drive won't be able to keep up with reading a data file. I'm not even
sure that level of fragmentation is possible. I'd venture to say it is
not.

BTW, a Harley is arguably the slowest motorcycle available today. Is
that really the example you wanted to use?

I do recommend defragging and do so after EVERY movie; keeps the time down
and disk faster. I've only done hundreds of videos like that, so what would
I know?

I doubt that defragging is buying you anything, but as you say, you've
been doing it that way for a long time so why change.

 

[Char Jackson]

You will NOT gain any disk space worth mentioning from doing a defrag;
but it helps accessing time immensely, as in when you play the video.

I have no problem with the parts of your post that I snipped, but I
completely disagree with the notion that defragging will help a video
play smoothly. Try this as a test: play your video and watch the disk
access LED. See how it blips every second or two? In computer terms,
there's tons of time in between each access. Defragging isn't going to
buy you anything with regards to playing a video.