Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I agree. If I currently have 1Tb of files and add 1/2Tb each year, I would not install a 10 as it would take years to fill it, like maybe 7-8 years to get up to 5Tb? The second 5 was not necessary, and the drive will probably need replacing before one hits the half-full point. Cheaper to install a 4 now and do the 10 later.

Of course it DOES depend on how fast one adds files to the drive.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

You shouldn't be content. If you were getting a new computer system you would get it fitted with TWO 4TB hard drives so you can easily make a second copy of your data. Otherwise I have to assume that you really don't care too much for any of your data and wouldn't worry if you lost 3TB of photos.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Can easily make a second copy to an external also.....

(You know what assuming does/is.)

Why stop there, four internals, and four externals, plus the cloud, that ought to be enough.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

Interesting arithmetic - 2.6 GB rounds up to 3 TB? I know, you meant 1.3 TB, but you are no better than I am at proofreading

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

At today's prices for storage I tend to save everything. That one picture of my mom and hamming it up on the beach at Santa Cruz 1938 in is more important than any shot I have ever taken. To save that one picture I have 2-2TB and 1-4TB external hard drives one of which always resides in the safety deposit box plus a 1TB as my "D" drive. Also Cloud storage on Carbonite. Am I paranoid? Absolutely. Paranoid enough? I can only hope so.

While we are talking about storage, all the storage in the world is meaningless without robust anti-everything virus protection. A topic for another time.

drc023 Loc: North Little Rock, Arkansas

Based on what I paid in the early 80's when the IBM PC first came out that was a bargain. My system was 48K with an optional 16K, two single sided 160K diskette drives, a copy of Visacalc and an 80cps dot matrix printer. All that for only $2600. That was a bargain since I was an IBM employee and it was 50% the actual retail cost. The monitor was so expensive that I used a small TV with an RF modulator. I upgraded on the open market not long after with a pair of 360K double sided diskette drives and an 80 character per line monitor. Systems now are a minute fraction of that first generation PC, especially when it was purchased with 1980's dollars compared to valuations now.

RF-4 Phantom Flyer Loc: Gilbert, Arizona USA

And it probably cost about $2000 for that setup too.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

At one point years ago, when still using 3-1/2" floppies, I also had a tape cartridge for backups.

jpgto Loc: North East Tennessee

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

I have a Korg i-2 Music Workstation that I bought back in 1997 for my wife to perform in our family band. It did not get much use, so it's like new, and now that I am retired I wanted to get to playing it myself. It had an on-board 3-1/2 inch floppy drive, single density, single sided, for storing data (MIDI files, songs, instrument programs, musical accompaniment styles, etc). While I have plenty of floppies on hand I just felt they were too unreliable and cumbersome to use.

I looked online for storage upgrade solutions and found a "Floppy Disk USB Emulator Drive" for under $150. The device is a direct physical replacement for the floppy drive and provides storage for up to 1000 floppy disks on an 8GB USB stick. You access the virtual floppies with up/down buttons and the digital display (000-999). The emulator runs at the speed of the floppy (yeah, slow), so the keyboard does not know that anything has changed. The advantage of this system is that no changes were required to anything in the keyboard firmware.

I just thought I would pass this along to anyone with devices that use floppies but who might want an upgrade. It may work on other devices as well and could extend the lifetime of some classic older hardware.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Understand a solid stat drive does fail and it will do it without warning and you will never recover the info. I don't know if that is the same potential problem with floppy disks.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Both solid state and hard drives (and floppies) can fail without warning.
If a hard drive has a head crash, any data at the crash area will not be recoverable.
Other data MIGHT be, only if they take replace the heads and polish the affected disks.
(Which means completely disassembling the drive.)

chrisscholbe Loc: Kansas City, MO

I recently purchased an 8TB external drive, NOT SSD, for just over $100.

I'm thinking I won't have to worry about having enough space, for backups......ever.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Probably.
I'm using less than 1Tb right now.