1TB HD replacing 500GB - opinion

[zebra14]

I have been slowly replacing my 500GB drives with 1TB drives, and at some point I want to reduce the number of drives in my SageTV box. Usually I am simply copying the recorded folders to the new 1TB drive, basically cloning the new drive, which makes it a simple swap for Sage's database. I was thinking I could copy two 500 GB drives of recordings (drives are not full) onto a single 1TB drive and save a little power.

On each 500GB drive, it has a unique directory name for the stored recordings, like MYVIDEOS1, 2, 3 etc.

I am wondering if it would be better for me to create the two video directories (MYVIDEO1 & MYVIDEO2) on the 1TB drive and copy over the contents of the two 500GB drives to them and then use the FAQ here http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30697 to "move" the recordings so Sage sees it and updates it's database properly.

Or would it be better to simply combine the separate directories into one (again following the FAQ for moving/copying recordings), eliminating one of the storage folders all together?

Anyone care to chime in and voice an opinion? I'd appreciate it.

[UFGrayMatter]

i recently changed my recording drive letter from E:\ to M:\ - i updated this in SageTV - tried to play a show, and it said the file could not be found. I shut down Sage (and the server service) and restarted and SageTV played everything w/o a problem.

Basically - do what you want - sage will find it

[dvd_maniac]

Wow. 1TB worth of recordings? Do you just record everything without any regard for human life(or HHD space)?
Do you actually use that much for just recordings or are you using the recording directories for permanent archive?
If so, why not use compression, create a metadata file to store the episode/movie information and place it in the Imported Videos directory?

[Brent]

With the price of 1TB drives dropping it's not that crazy to use one as a recordings drive. HD shows take up more space and it eliminates the need to compress the recordings. Nice for homes that have two or three different groups of viewing preferences (eg. wife likes soaps & such, kids like well kids shows, geek likes scifi dramas etc.)

It also gives you room to record new series and just let them record for a while before the dust settles to see which ones get good reviews & will survive so you don't invest any time in a dead-already show.

I don't see how it would matter whether you have two drives or a single one. Just up to your preference and room for drives

[UFGrayMatter]

i recently maxed out my 750gb recording drive . With 30+ episodes on the favorites list, most of them HD content from the HDHR - space goes FAST

[Opus4]

I would recommend configuring only 1 recording directory per drive letter/partition. For one thing: if I recall correctly, having multiple recording dirs on a single drive could make it look like there is more free space than there really is.

- Andy

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

Wow. 1TB worth of recordings? Do you just record everything without any regard for human life(or HHD space)?
Do you actually use that much for just recordings or are you using the recording directories for permanent archive?
If so, why not use compression, create a metadata file to store the episode/movie information and place it in the Imported Videos directory?

I've got 3TB of recordings. 2TB of cartoon for the kids, 1TB of home and garden shows for the spouse which leaves a few MB for what I like

[Taddeusz]

I have nearly a terabyte of recording space on my server spread across two 500GB drives with 30GB reserved for the OS on one of them. Since I record everything at DVD quality it really helps out when you have nearly the entire run of STS9 waiting to be watched.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by UFGrayMatter

i recently maxed out my 750gb recording drive . With 30+ episodes on the favorites list, most of them HD content from the HDHR - space goes FAST

Originally Posted by Brent

HD shows take up more space and it eliminates the need to compress the recordings. Nice for homes that have two or three different groups of viewing preferences (eg. wife likes soaps & such, kids like well kids shows, geek likes scifi dramas etc.)

It also gives you room to record new series and just let them record for a while before the dust settles to see which ones get good reviews & will survive so you don't invest any time in a dead-already show.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I've got 3TB of recordings. 2TB of cartoon for the kids, 1TB of home and garden shows for the spouse which leaves a few MB for what I like

Sheesh - do you guys keep everything?

At any given time I probably have 200-300Gb of recordings scheduled, but we watch and delete. I've never watched a TV show and thought "I'm keeping that forever, to watch again and again". I don't think I have ever had more than maybe 100-150 Gb on the HDD at any one time (except maybe when gone for a long vacation, after which we'll take a night or two and have a "marathon" viewing session to get rid of it).

To each, their own, I suppose.

[sic0048]

You must not have young kids

[evilpenguin]

I've got about 1.5 TB. About quarter of it is taken up by hundreds of compressed Food Network shows and the rest is saved so I can go through an entire TV season with deleting any of my prime time favorites. I'm even considering replacing a 300 GB drive with another 1 TB drive because things start to get a little tight towards the end of the season.

[chrisc16]

Originally Posted by sic0048

You must not have young kids

+1

I find that we keep 20+ episodes of each kids show... it's surprising how picky 3 year olds can be about which particular episode they want to watch. Ah, how spoiled our kids are with DVRs...

-Chris

[zebra14]

Thank you for the input, Opus4. I shall combine the two video folders into one.

I have not yet done the advanced way of moving/copying files according to the new FAQ - so I am a little concerned... but I am sure one step at a time and it will be fine.

Currently I have about 4.1TB of storage on my Sage box... saving recordings for a rainy day!

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by chrisc16

+1

I find that we keep 20+ episodes of each kids show... it's surprising how picky 3 year olds can be about which particular episode they want to watch. Ah, how spoiled our kids are with DVRs...

-Chris

Sure, but almost all kids shows (cartoons and the like) are SD, and take a lot less room....

Not trying to be argumentative. I just personally (and my wife too) don't ever see the point in keeping an episode of a show (adult shows, such as prime time sitcoms and such). Once we've watched it, it's gone. A few years back we actually bought, or received as gifts, a few DVD seasons of shows (Friends, Arrested Development, Seinfeld, Simpsons, South Park, etc.), and none of them have ever left the box. None of them, not once, ever. And I really thought, when I shelled out the $40 or $50, that we would watch them again. Nope....

Again, everyone has different TV habits... not trying to start an argument. From the way DVD sales of TV shows are, apparently I am in the minority. (but on the bright side, it saves me money by not having to buy more and larger hard drives )

[Shield]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

2TB of cartoon for the kids

lol that's rich. If my 2 year old had his way it'd be all Dora/Diego, all the time!

[davephan]

I have 1.7 TB of disk space, and it isn't enough. The diskspace is almost alway full, most of the videos are compressed too. It is hard to delete shows you might want to watch someday...

All my drives are single IDE drives. Eventually one of them will fail, and all the videos will be gone on the drive that fails. I backup a handful of really important videos to two drives or a normally detached USB hard drive. I would like to eventually move everything to 1 TB SATA drives setup in RAID 5. I'm not sure which 1 TB SATA drives are the most reliable, since I've heard a lot of stories about 1 TB drives failing.

Dave

[Yalbik]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Sheesh - do you guys keep everything?

At any given time I probably have 200-300Gb of recordings scheduled, but we watch and delete. I've never watched a TV show and thought "I'm keeping that forever, to watch again and again". I don't think I have ever had more than maybe 100-150 Gb on the HDD at any one time (except maybe when gone for a long vacation, after which we'll take a night or two and have a "marathon" viewing session to get rid of it).

To each, their own, I suppose.

Heh. I find it as strange that you can survive on 200-300GB as you probably find us 1TB+ people. Here's a few reasons

1) Movies. Especially kids movies. I have probably 20+ kids movies and 20+ of my own. Basically I check the Upcoming movies list every so often, and anything I want to see that I missed in the theatres / rentals, I record. Saves a ton of money on renting....who cares if it's 4-5 years old (or older)...it's still new to me.

~250GB gone right there. Another ~50GB gone for those few movies I keep to rewatch.

2) Kids shows. I generally keep 5-10 episodes of my kids favorites, with full seasons for those few "ultra-favorites".
~100GB

3) DVD Rips. I had approx 60 DVD's before getting into the whole DVR thing. Most of those I've now ripped for easy access.
~300GB

4) Regular programs
~200 GB of just regular stuff. This is just the watch/delete churn.

5) Pictures / Home Movies
Another 100GB here - some of that is "reserve space" so I can continue to archive home movies.

6) Free space.
I usually try to have ~100GB recording space free...this is enough to cover vacations.

So my total is:
300+100+300+200+100 = 1.1TB

Admittedly, I could compress some of the above, but I really really notice the compression artifacts whenever I've tried. That, and leaving things as mpeg2 makes it easy to burn to DVD for road trips.

Now, the 4TB+ people....they're crazy

[zebra14]

Originally Posted by Yalbik

Now, the 4TB+ people....they're crazy

GUILTY!

[ybrew]

Only 3 500 gig drives for recordings. I'm suffering at about 200 gig available (actually 180gig now).

I really want to replace these 3 drives with 3 1TB drives. No money yet.

[garyellis]

OK...listen to my logic, I think I heard this in another thread discussing drive speed...

I think (4) 250GB drives set in a Raid config and thus labeled as 1 Drive, would be much better than (1) 1TB drive...

Why, because with 4 drives you have 4 read/write access points vs just 1 on the single drive. Logically, 4 access points would significantly improve the read/write speed.

I've noticed this when I built my latest computer. Before I had (2) 250GB drives in a Raid config as 1 drive letter. Now I do not have them in a raid on the new computer and each is their own drive letter. I have noticed more spinning circles since I made the change. Yes, it could be other things. But, as I eliminate "causes", the problems point to read/write speed. And this becomes even more important as we go more toward HD recording.

Imagine the read/write accesses if you are recording 2 HD shows and watching 2 all at the same time from the same drive and maybe trying to run comskip, too...

Anyway that's my opinion, and I'd love to hear if you agree or not...

Gary Ellis