Advice needed: handling multiple storage devices

[Song0330]

I've come to the point where I must decide how to proceed in order to prevent headaches along the way.

My system currently has a 200GB and 2 120GBs on the IDE channels, and a CD-RW filling up the last IDE slot. I've had to abandon a 60GB and a DVD-ROM in order to achieve this, because SATA drives (at the time) were expensive. I needed to reformat and add additional storage, so I purchased a 250GB (IDE) which I have planned to replace one of the 120GBs. And yes, every gig of data I have on those drives is valuable to me.

Background: I backup my music and movies on my drives, and also use my computer as a TiVo to record TV shows. I also backup all of my CD-ROMs so I no longer have to search for those damn discs around the room (and it also greatly improves loading time). I'm also a heavy gamer, and frequently lug around my box to LAN parties (much to the dismay of my body, as my fully-loaded system easily weighs a LOT more than your average mobo/vid card/1 HD/1 optical drive loadout). And since the lan parties I goto can last anywhere between a few hours to a few days, bringing a wide variety of entertainment along with me is helpful when I'm "gamed out". Oh, and I'm also into digital movie-making and digital photography.

Dilemma: I plan on installing additional HDs in the future as my needs arise. I also format frequently (twice a year) due to problems faced with Windows (and just standard maintenance) I'm now faced with several options:
1. Convert all future drives to external drives with USB 2 or SATA enclosures. Lug ALL of those around and get another power strip to handle the power needs of those enclosures.
2. Turn my primary system into a fileserver/at-home only system. Get a mini-form factor PC to bring to lan parties, and just plug into the network when at home to access the fileserver.
3. Many many other solutions I have not thought of yet.

As I'm also a part-time college student, money is not easy to come by. I'd rather not spend more than $200 on a solution.

Insights/suggestions?

 

[normanbatez]

well you pretty much sound like you want everything when you go to the LAN parties so your setup is going to be the only way to go. You could consolidate those harddrives and get a bigger hd but that really isn't going to go down on the weight that much. by going external you are going to be carrying a little more weight plus you risk your stuff being stolen a little easier. I recommend keeping everything in 1 case. The only thing I can think of for you is to just make your case a little easier to carry (handle) as ugly as it looks.

the other thing you could do depending on how fast your connection is (at the lan party and at your residence) would be buy an older computer to set up at your house (one that is old enough to be cheap to use but new enough to support your large hard drives) and set it up an ftp so you can access the files from it from anywhere. This would push the $200 mark pretty close especially if you purchase a kvm so you can use both computers at home.

 

[unhappy_mage]

sell off some stuff, get a pentium-III'ish machine, ide/sata controller, gigE, go from there. I can't say it will be sub-$200, but it's the way to go. put linux on it, get another pair of 120's, make raid5. software r5 on a pIII should be fast enough for long-term storage.

get a shuttle for the main box.

this kind of thing sucks, i see a huge market for 1TB'ish storage in the really near future and nowhere to get it from. i'm in practically the same spot, but without the budget

 

[TED]

Why not buy a cheap (20$+shipping) ide controller card and stick that in an open pci slot? That will allow you 4 more drives to be installed in your system.


TED