Price of dvd spindle vs. external HD for backups?

[mike69]

Which method is better and more price efficient when it comes to a person who has 100's of gigs of unsorted files, mpgs, and so-on and having to free up space ?

I keep on having to buy 100 pack spindles of dvd blanks to flush out my hd, but then I get lost when it comes to finding certain things cuz i usually rush in getting rid of stuff from my hd, so I thought I'd make a switch to buying external hd's, cuz then I don't have to worry about sorting and I could stack them up, and as far as sizing, they're smaller and better to equip than having to look through spindles loading and reloading other dvd blanks searching for the files that you want at the time, but they're more expensive in the long run for backing up....ex, velocity 100 dvd-r pack for 27 bucks stores over 400 gigs, versus an average external hd for like 50-70 bucks that stores 120-150 gigs....

so I'm a little lost.......any advice?

 

[crisplinen]

i would go with an external hd b/c dvds can get scratched, broken, or lost whereas an external hd all your stuff in one place so you can't lose your stuff. it saves you a lot of headaches and having to search thru a pile of dvds.

 

[Big Daddy]

I agree with crisplinen. Personally, I'd get an external HD enclosure and a Seagate hard drive (due to their 5 year warranty). Come to think of it, that's what I did.

 

[mike69]

but is it rare on occassion that the hard drives would burn out (for some odd reason, like overuse or unknown electrical surge and have like 130 gigs go down the drain?)

 

[Erik]

I agree on the hard drive. For me, catagorizing DVDs is way too hard and expensive. I like to have my external hard drive and dump everything there, it's faster and easier. I can never catalog backup DVDs right.

 

[mike69]

yeah, I guess the fustration of finding the files that you want and the time it takes to find it offsets with the price difference between buying dvd blanks with external hd....


but wow, I searched under amazon real quick to find out that the average 150 gb hd costs like 130 bucks.......ouch.......the one I had was 140gigs and back when it was black friday I got it for 40 after rebates....

 

[Apocalypse716]

just buy a terabyte harddrive thingy....i know its expensive but hey, 1000 gigs....no complaining

 

[He3x]

... but you will need backups for your backups, just in case ...

 

[nigdonht]

I like the Maxtor One Touch External HDD, You can push one button on the HDD and backup your backup to another computer