First 3TB HDDs released

[Bloodwych]

Thanks for the info. Well worth it - I think I'll avoid the complications of 3TB hard drives for now.

I'm sure I'll end up getting a 3TB'er or bigger one day however.

[Demon Cleaner]

Want to get your opinions here:

I definitely now thought about buying a BD burner, so what do you think, should I buy the LG I mentioned before for 80£, or should I wait for the new model to be released, as it writes the media 10x instead of 2x?

The only question is that would you even burn at 10x, doesn't that affect the data written to it? How safe is it to burn at very high speed with BD media? And so far I only saw 6x media. And compared to the 2x, the 4x is even a bit more expensive.

EDIT: The LG BH12LS35 was due to be released in April already, but it's not been released yet. They were announced at the CeBIT this year! The only LG shop that has it listed so far is the one in the US, but not with any price or such. The shop in the UK still lists the BH10L30 as NEW. And nobody seems to know when they finally get released??

EDIT 2: But what about storing on HDDs? It would be cheaper, 2TB internal disks only being 75€, compared to 40(!) DL BDs, which would cost you at least 100€, plus another 100€ of course for the burner.

Where would it be safer to store data, BDs or HDDs? The only major problem is that when a 2TB disk would die, you would lose more data than if one of your BDs would die. But on the HDD, the data would be easier to access, would be faster, and of course updatable, in case you need it.

It's really a tough decision. Probably I should just get another 2TB disk, put the stuff I don't need to updated anymore on it, and put it away into a drawer.

Any opinions on that guys?

[Harrison]

I personally wouldn't buy an LG drive based on reviews for their other prducts in the past, including DVD Writers.

At the moment I favour Sony writers, especially their Optiarc brand which is a Sony/NEC collaboration and they are very reliable. The Sony Opriarc BD-5300S-0B is a 12x BD-RW SATA drive selling for about £94.

[Demon Cleaner]

Ok, I see. But what's your opinion between the BD and the HDD method? Would you rather buy and jump onto the BD train, or would you just buy another 2TB HDD and use that to backup? Everything has it's pros and cons of course.

[Bloodwych]

For me, I don't consider an external hard drive as a safe method of backup if used alone. I've heard horror stories of them being dropped, or just failing as you mentioned - failures are even more common on these high capacity drives. And as Harrison said, the bigger the drive the more you lose. Of course you may have two hard drives containing the same data (mirrored backup) which helps a lot. In fact, it's probably essential.

Hard drives are for a fast backup, to put paranoid thoughts at ease, but optical disks offer a definite advantage as a once a month kind of fall back option for long term storage. I use a combination of RW media and read only. RW until the disk is full, then burn it to read only. With Blueray, I can even keep a copy round my parents house in case of fire or theft!

[Demon Cleaner]

For me, I don't consider an external hard drive as a safe method of backup if used alone.

I meant internal, as I have an USB3 enclosure which I can use with internal disks. And I intend to not back up some stuff, as it's not so crucial to me, and it will probably never be updated. But that's basically all my BIG sets like Dreamcast, Saturn, CD-i, Sega CD, 3DO...

And as Harrison said, the bigger the drive the more you lose.

I mentioned that, and that's also my biggest concern about too big disks.

Of course you may have two hard drives containing the same data (mirrored backup) which helps a lot. In fact, it's probably essential.

There's stuff I wouldn't need to have a backup, just want it to be stored on safest possible media. The problem with BD discs would only be that some of my stuff is between 100-200GB, so I would have to restructure it to fit on the disc, whereas if I would use a normal HDD, I could leave it as it is, and I would probably find stuff back easier.

But just imagine having all your pr0n on one single disk, would be perfect and also easier to hide from your girlfriend

Btw, the Pioneer BDR-205 seems to be a great burner too, the Sony you mentioned seems also to be good, although slightly more expensive, and they don't have it yet at the shops I usually order. At my favorite review site, the Pioneer got the first place, and the Sony made it second, so I will go with one of these two.

[Bloodwych]

Sorry Demon Cleaner, I got a few things wrong!

But that's my general feeling for my needs - so Blueray would be more useful to me for backup rather than another hard drive.

Pioneer is my fav manufacturer for optical disks. Never had a problem with them. *TOUCH WOOD* Good to hear they still get good reviews.