Media Center shrunk my hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary Mount
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Gary Mount

I had a large 300 GByte hard drive before I installed 2 TV tuner cards and
now I have a tiny 300 GByte hard drive. Would the new perpendicular
technology in the newer hard drives help solve my problem? I see that one is
available with 750 GBytes.
 
All that you care about is size, the technology is irrelevant to you.
Obviously, 750GB is larger than 300GB. And more expensive.
 
I'm not quite sure I understand your issue. You have a 300Gb hard drive. If
the issue is that you are using a PVR and running out of space on your drive,
the solution may be as simple as changing your MCE settings to a smaller file
size in recoprding, or, instead of replacing your current hard drive with a
bigger one, if you are going to spend the money for a 750Gb hard drive, place
it as a second hard drive, dedicated for media.
Me, I have 3 - 250Gb Hard drives. My system drive, which only holds my
system, an external Firewire drive dedicated for Media (Movies and music),
and a USB drive dedicated for "anything else"
How this helps is that my system drive stays clean for the most. of the 232
Gb totally available, I have around 200 Gb after all my Vista and other
program installs. Keeps my system clean and room to expand. My two other
drives allow for back-up and safe storage. If I have to re-load Vista, I
don't lose anything that is important.

This is just one idea to help with the shrinking drives.

Hope this helps :-)
 
Please, what "are" you babbling on about?

Large 300 gig hard drive - tiny 300 gig hard drive??

300 gig is 300 gig

And, what does T.V. tuner cards have to do with a hard drive being big or
tiny?
 
Its a relative observation. What one does with their computer today, such as
recording TV that can use over 1 gig for each hour of video. 2 tuners means
twice the ability to record more shows, especially when there are conflicts.
As a side note, 18 minutes of UHDV would use 3.5 terabytes.
 
Well, the technology is relevant because you can fit more in the same size
package with the newer technology. It might perform better as well since the
data is closer together hence should be able to read/write faster.
Are 3 drives totaling 750 GB of the older technology cheaper than one 750 of
the newer technology?
I only have 1 sata port available, but 3 pata still unused. I did have 2
more 120 GB drives, but they overheated and failed one week. I won't put
them so close together like that again, not without a fan.
 
I like how the media center version of the files keep the information about
the show from the guide such as plot, cast and a graphic. 4.7 GBytes is too
small to hold a movie when about 2 hrs uses 7 GB. That's why I would like to
keep the files on the hard drive. I suppose a dual layer DVD that holds 8 or
so GB would do the trick. However I am thinking of getting a Media Center
Extender so other members of my family can access the Media Center TV
functionality and recorded shows, so would be nice to keep it all
accessible on the computer without having to stick disks in and out.
 
Gary Mount said:
I had a large 300 GByte hard drive before I installed 2 TV tuner cards and
now I have a tiny 300 GByte hard drive. Would the new perpendicular
technology in the newer hard drives help solve my problem? I see that one
is available with 750 GBytes.
Click to expand...

Pack in some bigger hard drives into the machine. The perpendicular
technology sounds interesting but it isn't that much of a jump over existing
technology at the moment.

I've got my recordings spread over 1TB across 4 hard drives and 2 machines.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*
 
If these are normal TV shows (e.g. NTSC, not HDTV), you are making them
excessively large for no really good reason. You should be able to fit
2 hours on a DVD at a quality that is higher than broadcast NTSC TV.
 
Richard Urban said:
Please, what "are" you babbling on about?

Large 300 gig hard drive - tiny 300 gig hard drive??

300 gig is 300 gig
Click to expand...

The hard drive has shrunk. It's pulled away from the mounting screws and
now needs a smaller mounting bracket. My 5.25" hard drive did that once
and now I have a 2.5" hard drive. 8^)

Tom Lake
 
Well I added a 500 GB drive WD Caviar, not perpendicular technology, but it
was a little cheaper than I thought it would be. I put it in a 5 -1/4 bay,
removed a tape drive (1.6 GB) that wasn't even plugged in to allow for more
air circulation, I also removed the floppy cable to give more air
circulation. The floppy shouldn't be needed now that backups in vista don't
ask you to put in a floppy disk, after you have just backed up the entire
system.
As for the tape drive, that was a waste of money. 50 dollars for a
cartridge. Of the 3 I did buy, one was bad from the very beginning, though I
didn't know it for a while.
I seem to have an annoying buzz from the new drive, maybe after I put the
covers back on it will be quieter.
 
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