External HDD-Help please

[LadyGrey]

I am considering an external HDD. I have over 400 music files that I would like to back up. It would take 46 CD-Rs to do this, hence the external HDD idea. My question, what do I need to do this? What's the best external HDD, what do I need to hook it up?
System:
W2K pro SP2
AMD Athlon 1000 mhz
2 Maxtor HDD, 30 gig each
MoBo- MicroStar MS-6167
Bus clock 100 mhz
BIOS Award 6.0 PG 8-30-00
Audio SB live 5.1 gamer
Video Voodoo 3dfx

Any help or suggestions would be apprecitated. LG http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Jhorner1]

The easiest way I know to add an external hard drive is by using USB 2.0
The simplest thing that you can do would be to convert those music files into MP3's they would take up much less space (about 1/10 of their current size).

[Rick]

USB is not the option
You could also add a removable drive if you have an open IDE connector .
and an open drive bay. ( You didn’t list your cd, dvd, or cd-rw installed.)

You could also use SCSI for external But they are a little more expensive.

[skhips]

You might want to look at a DVD burner, obvious a lot dearer, I know a lot of DVD players will play music CD's, you would have to investigate that if you have a DVD player that it can read DVD-R and play the format music you are using, even though dearer it may work out ideal as you then play them back on your entertainment system, but please check out compatability first. (All your songs should fit onto one DVD).

If you convert to mp3 as already suggested it will only take 4 or 5 CD's.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Skhips,
What is the capacity of a DVD disk?

I can usually fit 16 or so songs in WAV form on one CD-R and I seem to remmember that they average 6 or so megs each. That would figure to 25 or so CD-Rs needed or about 150 megs for the total file. therefore a 2 gig HDD could hold more music than I'd ever have time enough to listen to! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif Let's see http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif , 2000 megs divided by 150 = 13.333 which in turn, times 400 songs = 5,333.33 songs! That would be quite a collection, WOW! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif

(edit)
Something isn't right I just refigured and came out to a totally different figure with 17 or so gigs needed. I'll blame it on my calculator, yeah, it couldn't possibly be me now could it? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

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Journey on through ages gone, to the centre of the earth.
Past rocks of quartz and granite, which gave mother nature birth.
Burial ground of ancient man, his life no more is seen.
A journey through his time unknown, I wonder where he's been.
The shore now gone behind the hills, a forest in our sight,
Rocks and distant mountains, bathed in waves of blinding light.
Forests from a far gone time, no living man has seen,
A private prehistoric world, for you and I, a dream...
(Rick Wakeman: Journey to the center of the earth 1974)

[This message has been edited by Fruss Tray Ted (edited 06-09-2002).]

[mjc]

That 17.5 GB of songs would come out to just under 2 doupble sided DVDs (9.something GB each)....yes converting them to mp3 would cut down the required space considerably like to 1.5GB which would be about 3 CDs...but there wiould be some quality loss (especially if they were orignially recorded in wav format). There are other formats available to convert them too, one of my favorites is .ogg, not quite as small, not near the quality loss, either. Going to ogg you would end up with about 6 or 7 CDs....

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mjc
Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[LadyGrey]

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. I didn't give all the info I should have. All the music as far as I know is already in MP3 format. The file extentions all say .mp3. I have a CD-ROM drive and CD/RW drive. I don't know the makes as this is an inherited computer that was built. I must be really confused, I'm running Nero 5.5 as my burning software and I could have sworn it told me it would take 46 CD-Rs to put all the files on disk. What am I doing wrong? It has used 6.08 gig of the 30 or so it has. But there are other files on there in different folders that I would not have to backup. Thanks! LG http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Jhorner1]

Your software is probably converting your MP3 files into .wav or .cda.
these formats take about 10 times the soace if MP3's. Try burning them as data instead of music, this will maintain the file format, and should allow you to store them on 4 or 5 CD-R's. These will be playable in your computer, most DVD players, and a few of the newest high end CD players, particularly high end car stereos. Hope this helps.

[mjc]

Actually the format that most CDs are in is cda (a specific type of wav ..CD audio), it is a "music" format...hence the the audio Cd, which will be more or less universal, they will play on just about anything that plays CDs. mp3 is a data format....so in order to preserve the disks (and cut down the number to something reasonalble) then you need to burn the disk as a data disk (easy to do with the Nero wizard, just select Data, instead of Audio)...just like Jhorner1 said.


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mjc
Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[LadyGrey]

Thanks all, very much! It never occured to me that old Nero was pulling my leg. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif I can't remember if I had been trying to burn them as audio or data but I'm going to take another look today! I had the idea for an external hard drive because if I had to buy 46 good quality CD-Rs it would have cost me just as much as that and the exteranl HDD would have been alot easier to store! Thanks again! LG http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Lady,
If you're interested, there's a free update available for Nero 5.5 It becomes 5.5.8.2 here (http://www.ahead.de/en/download.htm). Yeah yeah, you don't have to thank me, just remmember me in your will. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif