Well, it finally happened. I have 12 TB

[Small White Car]

I just counted it all up and I have 12.25 TB connected to my home computer.

I didn't think I'd have that much space by early 2010, but here we are!

This is actually kind of disturbing, but deeply satisfying on a very geeky level.

 

[Diddle]

I always wondered what would I do if I had 1T, let alone 12, I don't even like that much stuff to fill it all.

 

[RoJoHen]

That is ridiculous.

 

[JonathonWally]

I only have 5 TB, I feel so inadequate.

 

[Small White Car]

It's all about redundancy!

I have 100 GB of personal photos, for example. Copies exist in 4 different places. 3 different drives here at home and one off-site location. So my family photos alone are taking up 1/3 of a TB on my computer.

Everything in iTunes takes up 310 GB (I capture my DVDs. I've got stuff like every DS9 episode in there, for example). So all that takes up 0.9 TB once you count the 2 backups. It has to be backed up very well because all my home movies are in there too!

So that kind of stuff alone has a big impact. Those things are irreplaceable family memories...2 backups is the least I'd do. (Plus I also back them up to a remote online backup service. I suppose you could say I "own" another 2 TB out there I didn't even count!)

I also back up my wife's entire laptop to 2 places on my computer. Also, all the HD video editing I do takes its toll. (40 GB per hour of video.) I've got a bunch of my mom's old films in there now that I'm working on which add up to 1/2 TB...so that means 1.5 TB of space for THAT project once you count the 2 backups.

And I've got 327 GB of DVD images I've made which, as with the other stuff, all gets backed up to 2 other places.

It adds up quickly. I just described 4.1 TB to you in this post alone.

 

[Docbrown777]

That's a ton of porn!

 

[Small White Car]

That's a ton of porn!

Oh, please. There's none of that on here.

I use the server farm in the shed out back for that!

 

[RoJoHen]

It's all about redundancy!

I have 100 GB of personal photos, for example. Copies exist in 4 different places. 3 different drives here at home and one off-site location. So my family photos alone are taking up 1/3 of a TB on my computer.

Good lord, that's a lot of photos.

My computer has 2 GB, and it's not even remotely full.

 

[Mallory]

Geez, and here I am limping along on my laptop's 120gb hard drive (of which 90gb is free).

 

[Small White Car]

Good lord, that's a lot of photos.

My computer has 2 GB, and it's not even remotely full.

Yup, I'm a shutterbug. Our last 2-day trip to Disney World gained me 1,374 photos for a gain of 5.1 GB.

BUT HOW CAN YOU STOP AFTER TAKING A PICTURE LIKE THIS??

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

"Our shields can't repel cuteness of that magnitude!" "It's a trap!"

 

[BigFoot]

12TB? Holy crap... I have 4TB and most people I know think I'm a bit nuts.

 

[Mr. B]

I have 100 GB of personal photos, for example. Copies exist in 4 different places. 3 different drives here at home and one off-site location.

That's good, not as much point backing stuff up a bunch of times if they're all in one place... gottta have contingencies for your house burning down.

I'm "lucky" in that a single 1.5tb drive at work and a website has my bases covered on that front.

 

[RJDiogenes]

My Father had TB when I was born, so I was inoculated.

 

[Aragorn]

My first real knowledge of computers was back in the days of the 1.44 MB floppy disks, so my first thought of TB was tuberculosis.

 

[BigFoot]

^ Dude, you're forgetting about the 1.2MB floppy disks. Those were "awesome".

 

[Geckothan]

Congratulations.

I barely use a TB up myself, but if I can see how it would add up quickly if I ripped all of my DVDs (which seems like a waste of time when it would be quicker, even in the long run, to just watch the disc, as opposed to ripping every single one and then ENCODING every single one), took gigabytes worth of photos every weekend, did lots of video editing and backed everything up multiple times.

 

[Omnius]

You got them in a RAID configuration?

 

[Small White Car]

gottta have contingencies for your house burning down.

Automatic and online! The most important stuff goes there too.

Congratulations.

I barely use a TB up myself, but if I can see how it would add up quickly if I ripped all of my DVDs (which seems like a waste of time when it would be quicker, even in the long run, to just watch the disc, as opposed to ripping every single one and then ENCODING every single one)

The problem was, I was NEVER getting things down off the shelf and putting up with all the 'FBI Warning' stuff. Things would just sit on my shelf.

Now I can switch to the Apple TV, open up the Remote app on my iPhone and search for any DS9, Simpsons, or Futurama episode by typing in its name. And bam...there it is! As a result I actually watch all this stuff I paid for AND I can switch between shows quickly without re-loading disks...waiting for FBI warnings...etc.

In addition I can decide to just drag 1 onto my cell phone on the days when I know my coworkers are going to be away for lunch. Gonna be alone for my lunch break? Ok, here, I'll take a Futurama with me. I'd never take a laptop and a DVD to work to do that. It just wouldn't happen.

Similarly, if we're going on an airplane I can throw my daughter's favorite movies on the laptop the night before in about 10 minutes and I don't take up any extra space in my carry-on bags.

So yeah, it took time, but it's the difference between actually watching these things and hardly ever watching them. It was well worth the time it took.

You got them in a RAID configuration?

Two of the four internal drives are RAIDed for speed. I use that for the video files that I edit. I know that doubles the chance of failure there, which is another reason backups are important.

The other "RAID" I have isn't exactly a RAID. It's a Drobo robot which acts like a RAID by keeping data redundant on 2 different drives, but it's not really a RAID. It's a mini-computer that is keeping track of stuff and moving it around when it needs to. Any 1 of the drives in that thing could fail and I can just pop it out and replace it and I'm done!

 

[Jadzia]

I have 12.25 TB connected to my home computer.

I have 1% of your drive space.

Do memory sticks/media cards count? Could dvd-rw count as usable space aswell?