1 TB optical discs on the way

[Jouster]

I saw this and thought holy crap...that's a lot of room for roms and music!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/133610;_ylt=AkynohDc.HqRK8QBCu7J_AMDW7oF

Jouster

[dstone]

Very interesting... I wonder how they account for vibrations, dealing with the layers at such a small scale?

[Jouster]

Beats the heck outta me, but I like the part about it not being too different part-wise from what's in use now.  That means quicker adoption by manufacturers, cheaper prices and it gets to market quicker.  I could put my entire CD collection on one 1TB disc!  And I have over 250 CDs...and more mp3s on my laptop.  That would be pretty sweet for a long car ride.

Jouster

[RandyT]

Mind-boggling.

But one has to ask whether all of this increased storage actually makes data safer.  The more you put on one disc, the higher the data loss when something bad happens.  It will mean redundancy will become even more important.

It also didn't really speak of resistance to things like scratches or dirt, which will probably be compromised due to the higher bit-densities.

I have a full-height 1GB hard drive that has pretty much been on for about 10 years straight and it hasn't lost a byte.  But I can't seem to make an 80-gig last for more than a few years. 

RandyT

[ahofle]

Exactly.  I've just about given up using optical media for backups.  They are just too unreliable -- a simple scratch or a few years of bit rot and some of your data is toast (if you have kids, you can certainly attest to this).  You either have to create par sets for everything or burn 2 or more copies.  Plus they are so slow.  HDs are so cheap now (just got a 500 gig for $99), I've started putting all my stuff on external drives and storing them on a shelf, instead of burning 120 DVDs.  Also this way I have one drive for emulation, one for music, etc.  When I need something, I just plug into my USB port.  It remains to be seen how well it will hold up in storage, but I can't imagine it would be any worse than optical media.

[ark_ader]

My guess it will be caddy based, to ensure that the conditions of the disc will be contaminate free.

Do we really need TB? 

Why not 250 GB discs with some sort of smart technology that will estimate if the disc is going to fail, or a built in array to reduce redundancy like a mirrored DVD both spinning on the same drive spindle?

That would make more sense.

[RobotronNut]

here's my backup strategy:

keep all the family's important files on a mirrored RAID file server.
nowadays, you can build a NAS ("network-attached storage") appliance
with two 500GB drives for $400 or less. first get an enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822155003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822122002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&SubCategory=124&N=2050240124

then add your choice of drives. here's my current fave:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101259

then once a year, build an external 2.5" USB drive, for example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145124
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136114

dump your "important" files onto it and drop it in your safe deposit box.
repeat annually with a new 2.5" external drive.
for me, that's a $400 up-front investment and around $100/year.

you can get 2.5" drives up to 250GB nowadays.
if you need more than 250GB, you'll have to get a 3.5" external drive.
be careful to distinguish PATA from SATA.
your external enclosure & drive must both be PATA or both be SATA.

[torez]

More space is always nice.  I burn all movies to dvds, but other data stays on external hard drives.  Used to keep them in a big computer, but as it's always on, decided to remove some of the drives for longevity purpose and less power consumption/noise.
Expect 64 GB and up USB memory sticks by 2010.  4 GB sticks (and memory cards) will cost around $10 .
I like solid state hard drives for laptops and desktops.  Expect them to grow and mature by 2009/2010 as well.  In a way I wish time stood still, but with all the new technology on the horizon, somitimes I wish it would be 2010 or 2012 lol.  Meh, prefer to wait bit longer and stay younger 

[torez]

My guess it will be caddy based, to ensure that the conditions of the disc will be contaminate free.

Do we really need TB? 

Why not 250 GB discs with some sort of smart technology that will estimate if the disc is going to fail, or a built in array to reduce redundancy like a mirrored DVD both spinning on the same drive spindle?

That would make more sense.

S.M.A.R.T. is already used in hard drives for many years to detect and inform you of imminent hard drive failure.  Your mobo/bios just has to support it.  Check Wiki for more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis,_and_Reporting_Technology

[SavannahLion]

My guess it will be caddy based, to ensure that the conditions of the disc will be contaminate free.

From what I recall of previous caddy systems... it really doesn't work as well as people think. In the end, it either makes people more careless with their media (3.5 floppy) or adds unnecesarilly to the cost (CD). Yeah, I know manufacturers keep going back to the caddy, but how often do manufacturers actually produce a good product without having to convince us?

I saw this and thought holy crap...that's a lot of room for roms and music!

Not to pick on ark_ader....

Do we really need TB? 

  I still remember my first conversation along those lines.

Teacher, "I just won a second 1GB HDD for our video editor at an auction."
Myself, "How much did you pay?"
Teacher, "Just under a $1,000!"
Myself, "Sweet! That's a shitload of video!"
Student, "Do you really need 2GB?"

That kind of conversation always seems to get repeated every few years. When I bought my first 30GB drive, my ex and I got into a massive argument because she thought it was a waste of money. Two years down the road, she crying to me that she doesn't have enough drive space.  Few years later, my friends ask me why I'm so excited about a mini 60GB drive I got a hold of, now iPods exceed that capacity. I bought a 500GB drive for the buy-in (Sorry about the delay Randy) and my current GF wonders why I need so much capacity. Right now, I'm eyeing dedicated NAS boards to exceed even that capacity.

As consumers, do we need 1TB? Not right this second, but I'll guarantee I'll be filling that space up in the time it takes to download and rip it all.

I'll be damned if I let some corporate hog enjoy uber storage.

[Level42]

Pffff....my first HD was a 10 Mbyte (yes Megabyte). With a special controller (RLL) I could format it to 15 MB !!!! That was huge than.....it's like with money, if you get more, you need more....

[ark_ader]

Pffff....my first HD was a 10 Mbyte (yes Megabyte). With a special controller (RLL) I could format it to 15 MB !!!! That was huge than.....it's like with money, if you get more, you need more....

You would have a job since RLL (Run Length Limited) drives were proprietory to 10MB.  I never saw a 15MB RLL drive - you probably mean the MFM drives that was 15MB.  My first EDSI was 20 MB and I thought I was a cool dude.  Both were Seagates.

Yeah I had two of those full height drives, daisy chained with those huge terminators that looked like a 6510 processor.  Ahh  those were the days.

To think of it, now we are at the TB stage, whats next Ecta Bybe Drives?

[stuckpixel]

I for one, welcome the oncoming of extabyte hard drives. More space = easier.

I love that my cell phone has 2 gigs of storage in it (micro SD card).

Seriously, Terabyte media? That is insane. Don't even want to think about how expensive that junk will be (dual layer DVDs are still a bit spendy!)

[NightGod]

I can't even imagine building a computer with less than a TB of storage these days (I tend to fill up 250MB drives about every three months with movies and TV shows-more storage = less time swapping drives down the line). Being able to drop a TB on an optical drive would be a dream come true-as it is today, DVDs are useless for me when it comes to off-line storage of media, I'm better off getting another cheap 250+ drive and dropping it on there and keeping that on the shelf. The only time I burn CDs/DVDs is when I want to give a couple of episodes of something to a friend, I don't think I've used more than 25 pieces of optical media in the last two years.

[cowguy]

Pffff....my first HD was a 10 Mbyte (yes Megabyte). With a special controller (RLL) I could format it to 15 MB !!!! That was huge than.....it's like with money, if you get more, you need more....

You would have a job since RLL (Run Length Limited) drives were proprietory to 10MB.  I never saw a 15MB RLL drive - you probably mean the MFM drives that was 15MB.  My first EDSI was 20 MB and I thought I was a cool dude.  Both were Seagates.

Yeah I had two of those full height drives, daisy chained with those huge terminators that looked like a 6510 processor.  Ahh  those were the days.

To think of it, now we are at the TB stage, whats next Ecta Bybe Drives?

I'm pretty sure next on the ladder is petabyte and I think you mean exabyte. instead of ecta