Removable media storage devices

[Pseudolus]

My circa 1998 hard drive (~9 Gb) is getting clogged up, mostly because it's holding many large image files from my photography hobby. I don't really need immediate hard-drive access to the files, but they're way too big to store on regular 3.5" floppies. The two options I've been able to identify are:

1) CD-R/RW

Pros: Cheap media; most computers have CD-ROM drives (so I wouldn't need to carry the drive around to access the disks elsewhere); plus, the whole being-able-to-burn-audio-CDs thing.

Cons: As I understand it, I wouldn't have truly random read/write access (how does that work in practice?); some lingering concerns about CD-Rs being readable in other drives.


2) Zip drive.

Pros: Random read/write access, just like a really big floppy drive.

Cons: More expensive media, drives less common on other computers.


Any advice on choosing between the two? Any other options I should be considering? Bear in mind a) that I have an older computer (PIII, I think?) and b) that I'm very, very cheap.

Thanks.

[glenn]

mostly because it's holding many large image files from my photography hobby. Right. :roll2: :D

I would go with one of two options:
1) CD-R/RW. Dirt cheap drives and media (100 packs are something like $35). Don't worry about the sequential access. Great for everything including music, backups, etc. Figure .75 gigs per cd and you've got your entire hard drive stored on 12 CD's. Pretty much any CD/DVD drive will read the CD R/RW's - my $75 DVD player does. I think you should go this way.
2) Get a new/second hard drive. Hard drives are cheap. Here's a 60 gig for $99:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000062TTH/qid=1035381751/br=1-16/ref=br_lf_e_16//103-6619429-4316662?v=glance&n=595046

Forget the zip drive route. It's not designed or suited for what you're trying to do.
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[Cho Da]

Forget about Zip.

I use CD-R to back up my digital photos and music and CD-R/W for most everything else.
CD-R is very cheap and CD-R/W is getting cheaper.

CD-R's work almost everywhere.

The real choice is trying to decide if you can wait for prices on DVD burners to come down and standarize on a R/W format.

My CD burner software will mimic random access (they call it "direct access") for a CD-R/W, but the capacity is brought down to about 500MB and it is really slow.

[glenn]

My CD burner software will mimic random access (they call it "direct access") for a CD-R/W, but the capacity is brought down to about 500MB and it is really slow.
Huh? I don't dispute this, but it seems that the way a CD accesses info is the same as a HD. Gets the location from the directory, moves the head to the track then waits for the sector to spin under the head. That's as direct as pretty much anything. I think of sequential access as applying to tape media.

[Cho Da]

My CD burner software will mimic random access (they call it "direct access") for a CD-R/W, but the capacity is brought down to about 500MB and it is really slow.
Huh? I don't dispute this, but it seems that the way a CD accesses info is the same as a HD. Gets the location from the directory, moves the head to the track then waits for the sector to spin under the head. That's as direct as pretty much anything. I think of sequential access as applying to tape media.The standard file system for a CD assumes that each file is contiguous, unlike FAT (DOS) which keeps a table of blocks that let files grow and shrink (which is why defragging the HD can help). Since a CD was originally a write once, all the map needed was where each file started and how long was it.

The "DirectCD" plan has to manage the equivalent of the FAT

[Schroeder]

If you are intested in portability, a portable hard drive might be the way to go. I have an MP3 player / portable hard drive from ARCHOS. It holds 10 GB of files and connects through a USB port.

It is great when I got to visit family and I can download 1-2 gb of baby pictures, video to their computers. The USB is a little slow, but not to bad.

It is also handy as an MP3 player, it will hold 100's of CD's. Great for those long flights.

Cost about $200 for the 10GB size. They make larger (20gb?) and smaller.

My second choice would be a CD-RW. Or a DVD-R if they ever get lower in price.

[Pseudolus]

Thanks for all the good advice already. When I click around and look at CD-RW drives, many of them say they connect via "USB 2.0". I know I have USB, but I don't know anything about 2.0. (Remember, this computer is a few years old.) Is that an entirely different hardware system? If I buy one of these drives, will I also need to buy a new card or something. (The main reason I want an external drive is because I don't want to screw around with opening up the box.)

[Cho Da]

Thanks for all the good advice already. When I click around and look at CD-RW drives, many of them say they connect via "USB 2.0". I know I have USB, but I don't know anything about 2.0. (Remember, this computer is a few years old.) Is that an entirely different hardware system? If I buy one of these drives, will I also need to buy a new card or something. (The main reason I want an external drive is because I don't want to screw around with opening up the box.)If this is an older box, it doesn't have USB 2.

Opening the box really isn't that hard. Most MBs have 2 IDE connectors, each good for two drives. You could even just replace the existing CD with the burner.

[Pseudolus]

Thanks for the help, guys.

I ended up ordering a dirt-cheap slow USB 1.1 drive. It seems that my computer doesn't have the horses to handle USB 2.0 even if I wanted to change out the card. With the great rebate deals on CD-R media now, I ended up getting nicely set up for well under a hundred bucks.

[Pseudolus]

Well, I got the thing, but all I've made so far is a very nice matched set of shiny coasters. And the error messages seem different each time: started with "unable to close session" (OK, my fault, I think I tried to pack on too many bytes), then two instances of "power calibration error" (which the help file claims means I'm using crappy media - I went with a little fly-by-night company called "Sony"), I tried the Iomega-branded CD-R that came with the drive and got "unknown error". Real helpful.

I'm going to try to beat on it some more this weekend. Is it typically this difficult to get started with a drive like this, or has what little techspertise I once had fled from me?

[Cho Da]

Be sure that you are not asking it to write (burn) faster than you are pushing data down the USB. This usually the source of coasters in my house (and mine is internal :()

Is the dirve pulling power through the USB port, or is it separately powered? Are you trying to use any other USB items at the same time?

[Pseudolus]

Thanks for the tips.

The drive only goes to 4x. I think one of my "power calibration error" runs I set it manually to 2x, but I'll give that another shot.

The drive has a power source separate from the USB connection. The only other USB device I have is a scanner that's plugged into the other port. I haven't been doing _anything_ on the computer while trying to burn the CDs. Should I totally disconnect the scanner (which doesn't have a separate power supply, if that matters) when I do my CD thing?

[Cho Da]

Disconnecting the scanner is worth a shot, but if you aren't using it then it shouldn't matter. Good luck!

[Pseudolus]

Got it to work this weekend. I don't think I did anything differently, actually. Maybe my biorhythms/feng shui were just off last week.