255Gig Flash Drives

**Sparks** · 28-Jul-11, 04:31 PM

My 2Tb is full so is the 1.5Tb as is the case with the 80G and 1 of my 120G drives. I have 15G and 41G available on 2x 120G drives. I have just acquired anoth 120G drive. I am already using the external drives for programs. I have made copies of all my software installation files which I keep, then there is a sh*t load of movies, another one of cartoons and then also all the plans I have drawn up including 3D displays of plans for quotes. All my quotes, acceptances and invoices and then to top it off my hobby is 3D which takes up a heck of a lot of space. I want to store my movies/cartoons on it because my TV takes a flash. That will free up more than 1 drive.

**tec0** · 28-Jul-11, 11:05 PM

Right you need about two hundred and fourteen DVDs give or take to backup about nine hundred gigabytes of data. That would set you back a modest R350 and another R190 for a new DVD writer when you are done because it will be cooked. You can load share if you have two computers.

Now if you need to split files use something like 7zip and set it on “store only” and tell it to split on preset for DVD size. I used for my backups and never had a problem. But rather test it first.

Fact is you will not be able to watch all your movies all the time and plugging in a USB Flash of that size in your TV half of your movies will freeze anyway because they do. I tested it with a modest 16Gb Flash.

If you write 20 DVD’s a day you will be done in two weeks or less leaving close to 1Tb open. Repeat this once a month and you will have enough space on your computer And you will have backup of everything. And it is never a bad thing to have.

One last thing please don’t try and put as much data on a single DVD as possible. It cannot and will not work properly. Leave about 200mb or so open per DVD when it comes to data.

Yes for that money you can easily buy another 1.5Tb hard drive but trust me on this one the more hard-drives you have the worse off you will end up being because eventually your computer’s PSU can handle only so much and your USB will last for only so long and then the real cost start.

**Perform Computers** · 29-Jul-11, 05:17 AM

*cough* Get a Blu-Ray drive & burn your stuff on there *cough*

**tec0** · 29-Jul-11, 07:58 AM

Blu-Ray Is expensive, and the software can be improved that said if you have the money test it.

**Sparks** · 29-Jul-11, 08:10 AM

I am almost a perfectionist. When it comes to my PC I am a hoarder. I cannot bring myself to delete obsolete software. I am running Win7, but I also have a Virtual machine with XP Pro and one with 2003. Someone just might be wanting something or have a neat program that I can utilise. I am also hoarding a stack of 3D models, from insects & plants to people. What I really need is a quad core with 5x 2Tb drives

**tec0** · 29-Jul-11, 08:24 AM

I hope for your sake that the SATA controllers last, running Raid with 5x 2Tb drives will consume massif amounts of power. That said Toshiba had an interesting press release not too long ago. Toshiba Write-Once SD Cards. Yes at this point in time it is still early days but it is not too hard to imagine having 32Gb available soon. Maybe it will be the end of DVD’s CD’s soon…

**adrianh** · 29-Jul-11, 01:22 PM

@Sparks What format are your 3D drawings? I've also collected quite a lot. I spend half my day working in Rhino. I prefer collecting DXF or NURBS drawings to mesh drawings because Rhino doesn't work too wel with meshes. Rhino V5 can actually convert meshes to NURBS intelligently without simply converting each facet but rather by coverting the underlying geometry. You still end up having to do a lot of rework but it is a lot less complicated.

**Sparks** · 29-Jul-11, 06:37 PM

Hi Adrianh, I started out using Sketchup to be able to give a visual to my clients for confirmation of what they want the end product to look like. Just to make sure we were both on the same page. From there I moved up the ladder to Autocad. I started fiddling with other 3D formats and now have DAZ Studio, Poser, Modo, ZBrush, FaceGen, 3DMax, Hexagon, Carrara..., you name it. If I try something and it does not work I convert the format & use another program. They all have their own best features. I am by no means good at it so I have to utilise the software to get what I want. It has become a very pleasant, if frustrating at times frustrating, hobby.