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External Hard Drive Question

bigbadbillbigbadbill Posts: 1,758
edited November 2007 in All Encompassing Trip
I already posted this in "Technical Stuff and BBS Help," but I thought I'd repost here.

I bought a 250 GB external harddrive on Black Friday at Best Buy for only $99, and I find it very cool that I can copy all my files (documents, pictures, videos and music...especially music...all 10,900 of the songs from my iTunes library (my iPod)) onto this so I won't lose anything in case my computer crashes. The brand name is Seagate FreeAgent. Does anyone else use this brand, and is it a good brand to use?
11/6/95, 11/18/97, 7/13/98, 7/14/98, 10/24/00, 10/25/00, 10/28/00, 6/2/03, 6/3/03, 6/5/03, 7/6/06, 7/7/06, 7/9/06, 7/10/06, 7/13/06, 7/15/06, 7/16/06, 7/18/06, 10/21/06, 4/10/08, 4/13/08, 9/30/09, 10/1/09, 10/6/09, 10/7/09, 10/9/09
Post edited by Unknown User on

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    LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    It's Seagate and they are just fine..

    People and their digital files though, all of which will probably be corrupt and lost in 10 years.. I know people with thousands of digital photos.. those files deteriorate over time.. and instead of traditional photography and just turning yellow over time, those things won't work at all in a few years..
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    PegasusPegasus Posts: 3,754
    LikeAnOcean wrote:
    It's Seagate and they are just fine..

    People and their digital files though, all of which will probably be corrupt and lost in 10 years.. I know people with thousands of digital photos.. those files deteriorate over time.. and instead of traditional photography and just turning yellow over time, those things won't work at all in a few years..
    what are you smoking?
    the CD/DVD you save them on might, you might not in x years time find a program to read them, but files don't 'deteriorate' by themselves.
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    intodeepintodeep Posts: 7,225
    I purchased a seagate from best buy over a year ago and i've been happy with it.
    Charlotte 00
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    Atlanta 12
    Greenville 16, Columbia 16
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    NYbenbenNYbenben Posts: 1,020
    Seagate is great for hard disks... they have been in the business for a very long time... i have two external drives that i use... i have a 120GB Maxtor and a 250gb Western Digital...

    all 3 of the companies mentioned above will be fine...Files SHOULD NOT deteriorate from a hard disk... it is DIGITAL!
    4/12/92, 8/11/92, 9/28/96, 9/11/98, 8/23/00, 8/24/00, 7/9/03, 4/30/03, 10/1/04, 10/3/05, 12/9/05, 5/12/06, 5/17/06, 5/28/06, 6/3/06, 12/9/06, EV LA 4/12-4/13/08, 6/12/08, 6,19,08, 6,20,08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 7/1/08

    and still jonesing for another show....
    "the waiting drove me mad..."
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    LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    Pegasus wrote:
    what are you smoking?
    the CD/DVD you save them on might, you might not in x years time find a program to read them, but files don't 'deteriorate' by themselves.
    I know. Not the files themself obviously, but the media they are saved on. Essientially the files are the media though if you think about it. Hard drives eventually go bad. Blank CDs and DVDs don't have that long of a life span before they start deteriorate. I haven't run into problems yet, but I've heard burnt DVDs can start to go bad after just a few years..
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    PegasusPegasus Posts: 3,754
    LikeAnOcean wrote:
    I know. Not the files themself obviously, but the media they are saved on. Essientially the files are the media though if you think about it. Hard drives eventually go bad. Blank CDs and DVDs don't have that long of a life span before they start deteriorate. I haven't run into problems yet, but I've heard burnt DVDs can start to go bad after just a few years..
    hence why as long you make regular backups, no problem.
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    LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    NYbenben wrote:
    Files SHOULD NOT deteriorate from a hard disk... it is DIGITAL!
    Digital files don't magically float through the air. Digital files are saved onto materials, dyes, which corrode and oxidize over the years. Sensitive digital information has no chance against it. Nothing lasts forever. good luck with that.. Depending on what dyes, materials the data is saved on, how you treat and store the media, your stuff might last 100 years, it might just last 2 years.
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    LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    Pegasus wrote:
    hence why as long you make regular backups, no problem.
    Which brings up another problem, computers are not perfect.. how many times can you duplicate a files before errors start to pop up?

    I'm just saying, don't make your pc your life. I work in pc repair and I've seen enough people have nervous break downs over loosing files. Don't be expecting to show your grand kids your digital media. It's possible, but not very likely.
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    PegasusPegasus Posts: 3,754
    LikeAnOcean wrote:
    Which brings up another problem, computers are not perfect.. how many times can you duplicate a files before errors start to pop up?

    I'm just saying, don't make your pc your life. I work in pc repair and I've seen enough people have nervous break downs over loosing files. Don't be expecting to show your grand kids your digital media. It's possible, but not very likely.
    data verification.
    digital medias can be put on newer supports as they become available.
    they're much easier and cheaper to copy than analog ones, who degrade anyway too.
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    Get_RightGet_Right Posts: 12,478
    I have a maxtor and Im very happy with it
    totally portable too

    and as long as you have your filed backed up on a hard drive, you dont have to worry
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    senninsennin Posts: 2,146
    If it's a drive that you use rarely, just to back things up, and is kept in a nice environment (dust free, kept at room temp, no major magnetic devices near by, etc).....the data should stay intact for many years. The drives may fail much sooner than the data is lost.

    I'd say to back up your backups on to a new drive or disk every 5-10 years to be safe.
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    Indian SummerIndian Summer Posts: 2,296
    Get_Right wrote:
    I have a maxtor and Im very happy with it
    totally portable too

    and as long as you have your filed backed up on a hard drive, you dont have to worry

    that's what I own....got it about a year ago....300 GB for like 80 bucks. Never had a prob with it.
    "It's all happening"
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