HD Suggestions, Formatting, Partitioning & File Transferring Questions

Digital-Nitrate

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D-Nitrate / GTP_DNitrate
Here is my situation. I have a 60GB PS3, four Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVRs, three laptops and a HTPC.

My PS3 60GB 2.5" SATA drive has been full for some time now so I have been storing many files for the PS3 on my laptop and using media sharing to access them, but now my laptop HDD is also filling up.

Also, like Solid Lifters:


I too would like to be able to archive some of the HD movies from my DVRs, and also like Solid Lifters, my DVRs all have eSATA inputs for use with external drives, making this possible.

I also want to be able to connect this drive to the PS3 and to my PCs for additional storage and playback.

I have been looking at several 500 and 750 GB external drives that support both USB 2.0 and eSATA. I really don't know much about Cavalry drives, so I'm not sure how they stack up against similar drives from companies like Western Digital and Seagate, although the price for that Cavalry drive that Solid Lifters got is quite impressive, and it also comes with a SATA cable, which is another $10 savings.

So currently here are the 7200RPM Dual Interface (USB & SATA) external drives I'm considering, and the best total price (tax & shipping incl) I could find:

For those familiar with these drives or have other recommendations, please let me know what you think.

Reliability, speed, multi-platform use, and low operating sound levels are all criteria that will impact my decision.




I am also thinking about replacing the 60GB HDD in the PS3 with a 250GB HDD. I'm currently considering the following 2.5" 5400RPM SATA drive:
Again, if anyone has other recommendations please let me know.




Now once I get this new HDD, does anyone know a quick way to copy all the data from the 60GB HDD currently in the PS3 to the new 250GB HDD?

Currently I've been copying files to a USB memory card, and then copying them off the card to my laptop's HDD, but that's very inconvenient.

Also, it is going to take a VERY long time to have to download all 50+ games I have on the PS3's HDD, so if it is possible to copy the entire 60GB HDD to the new HDD that would save me a ton of time!



One last question regarding formatting the external hard drive. If I am going to use the 500-750GB drive for the PS3, DVRs, and PC, do I have to partition the drive accordingly?


Thanks all!
 
Thanks for the heads-up.

It looks like the only 750GB drive from Western Digital that supports both USB and eSATA (excluding the My Book Studio, which looks like it is for Mac's only) is the WDH1CS7500N My Book Home Edition... but oddly enough it isn't showing up in any price searches I've done so far on pricegrabber.com or mysimon.com or froogle.com ???
 
A hard drive is a hard drive. The only reason it says "creative power for Macs" is because it has FireWire 400/800 connections.
 
Thanks, for some strange reason the Western Digital WDH1Q7500 My Book Studio Edition is also not showing up in any of those price searches.


I do appreciate all the corrections... but do any of you have any recommendations or even suggestions regarding my questions?

Thanks. :)
 
Now once I get this new HDD, does anyone know a quick way to copy all the data from the 60GB HDD currently in the PS3 to the new 250GB HDD?

If you buy the external HD, you should be able to just back-up the PS3s HD onto the new external, the way you do with the USB memory card. However, since it needs to be FAT32 and obviously your new external will be larger than 32GB, you'll have to make a partition on the drive that's less than 32GB and format it in FAT32, but for only a 60GB HD that's going to take 2-3 transfers which is a hell of a lot shorter than using a USB key.

Take out the old 60GB and put in the new 250GB and then let the PS3 back-up from the external. I think that should work.
 
Thanks, for some strange reason the Western Digital WDH1Q7500 My Book Studio Edition is also not showing up in any of those price searches.


I do appreciate all the corrections... but do any of you have any recommendations or even suggestions regarding my questions?

Thanks. :)


Well, i've got a Western Digital My Book Pro 250gb and I absolutely love it. It looks great, it's fairly silent once its running, although it's a tad noisy when it spins up. I've had no problems with it and I would get another if I needed it. 👍
 
Well, I took it as a sign of good fortune when I got an email promo from buy.com today that happened to list one of the drives I was looking for on sale:
$120 shipped with an eSATA adapter cable included was too good a deal to pass up. If it turns out to be a great drive I might end up getting another as I think I'll fill a 500GB drive pretty quickly with HD movies off the DVR. 500GB is enough space for only about 60 hours of HD or 250 hours of SD.


I'm still on the hunt for a good deal on a 160-250GB 5400RPM 2.5" SATA internal drive.


As far as the question I had about the best way to copy everything from the PS3's HDD to the new HDD, thanks to Pako, it looks like I have found an excellent solution. 👍
 
It sounds to me like you need to plan for off-line archiving, as well. You've got larger drives now, but they're still gonna fill up if you keep all the stuff you wanna keep.
Make some DVDs, even if it's just DVD-ROMs of your files, rather than DVD-video.

Or, you could just keep getting external drives and switch them on and off line.

I don't think you're up to the level of my Dad's wife, who records EVERYTHING in prime time to "watch later," and can't figure out why stuff has to get deleted before she's had a chance to watch it. I've tried to explain to her that she gets 3 days behind with every day recording, but. . . She has STACKS of VCR tapes that nobody's allowed to touch, because she hasn't watched them yet.

Women and high tech. That's all that needs to be said.
 
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