Downsides to too much memory?

[descending138]

I have an 80 gig hard drive, and have the opportunity to get a 120 gig one, as well. I was wondering if there were any downsides to too much memory like this. Having 200 gigs would be nice for a lot of things, but would there be any detriments?

Thanks

[shifty]

That's not memory,it's drive space.I could never use that much but I guess some people do.Just make sure you need it and you have a good power supply.You can always find another opportunity to buy a hard drive on sale and there getting cheaper all the time.If you start filling up your 80 then get a new one.What are you using it for?How fast is your old one?Can you use serial ATA?What kind of mainboard do you have?If you post your specs it would help.

[james8547]

I don't see any major disadvantages to having a big drive. I have a 160GB HD (for about $95 from OfficeDepot) and I'm happy with it. I only use about 10GB on it. I bought it expecting I would need to make backups of websites that I work on. However, I don't have the time now to do some part-time work. So most of the drive is empty space.

[Strider]

If you ever get into editing video or using your computer as a PVR then you'll find the use for all that Hard Drive Space.

[jeffr]

Just remember....the bigger the hard drive...the more you lose in a CRASH! I've also believed the bigger the harddrive the more the problems. the more applications or programs you install, the greater the conflicts and Windows issues!

[bailey]

I've also believed the bigger the harddrive the more the problems. the more applications or programs you install, the greater the conflicts and Windows issues!


JEFFR:

could you explane that a littel better and why you belive that.
I totally disagree with that statement

[shifty]

If your just adding music or video files or games it will probably be ok but with that much data I would defragment offen.If your adding all different types of programs I think your asking for trouble.

[jlowmt]

To my knowlege there is no real disadvantage to having tons of drive space.

I think what it boils down to is whether or not you need it.

I tend to get 40 to 80 gig hard drives just because I don't store much information.

If you don't need it then maybe there's no point going to the trouble of adding it. If you download MP3s, videos, store your digital photos etc then go for it.

[njskatchmo]

The only thing i can think of, is a bigger drive has a higher PROBABILTY of crashing, or getting bad sectors, just because its bigger.

[Panama Red]

The key to using large hard drives is learning how partitioning works and disciiplining yourself to defragement more often. Keep your OS on a separate partiton, non-hardware related programs on another. Games, music, video, and pics all on their own idividual partitions. I also prefer to put my page file on a separate partition for XP systems. To me, the most powerful utility out there is Partition Magic.

Hard drives are just places to store stuff. There's no such thing as "too big" a garage if you're a car guy. Same for computers, IMHO. Just realize that a hard drive is a mechanical device and will, over time, wear out. Have a plan to back up your non-replaceable data.

[njskatchmo]

when you put non-system programs on a seperate partition doesn't that mess with the registry when you format unless you foramt both partitions?

[Panama Red]

Not sure I understand your question. All partitions are formatted to begin with. You don't reformat to do a repair unless absolutely necessary on any machine. Do an over-the-top repair instead.

[njskatchmo]

I format my hard drive like 4 times a year. It's the best way to clean up the system. I'm just wondering if you ahve two partitions, one with OS, and one with programs. Let's say you want to format, wouldn't you ahve to format both partitions, cause all the program partitions registry entries would be wiped with the os partition.

[Panama Red]

Probably true, but don't you create the same reinstallation problem when reformat? Why not use a Registry repair program regularly and an os repair if you need it. I've only done one repair to my XP in six months and that was because I had a brain fart.

[njskatchmo]

I was just wondering,'cause i had been planning to seperate them, but my friend brought up the registry issue, and was just wondering.

[TwoRails]

Originally posted by descending138 ...Having 200 gigs would be nice for a lot of things, but would there be any detriments?

In a word, no. Size has nothing to do with failure rates, but quality sure does. I'd much rather have a 250GB Maxtor (or WD) than a 40 or 80GB Samsung any day of the week.

Ya, if you poured two beers into a mug, and then spilled it, you loss two beers instead of one, but then you can't backup beer, but you sure can, and should, backup your data. Besides, if you have more than 40 or 80 gigs of data, like I do, then how else are you going to fit it all in??

Like Panama Red, I don't think there is such a thing as "too much" HD space. And yes, I've run multiple partitions since the days of DOS, when 30MB (MB, no GB) drives were considered "excessive."

TwoRails

[RobH]

with programming getting as bloated as the Goodyear Blimp-the more the better.IMHO

[flsurf420]

I have 320gb cuz the drives were on sale, havent filled anything but 20 with lots of vids, and like 10 high quality/space game ie. CoD and Empires

[imbest123]

I thought this would be a ram question. There are no disadvantages to too much hard drive space.

[Ang88]

wouldn't it be faster to have 2 80 gb drives instead of 1 160 gb drive

[njskatchmo]

thats because both heads cna read at the same time

[TwoRails]

Only if they were on seperate IDE channels, which is virtually never done. But, again, what does one do if they have more than 160GB of stuff?

[Ang88]

right now i have 2 hard drives on one channel, would it be faster to have in on another?
does this apply to cd and dvd drives?
right now i have 4 ide channels on my mobo and only 2 are used but both with 2 hd and the other with a cd, and dvd drive

[TwoRails]

That's the traditional way, both HDs on IDE 1, and both opticals on IDE 2. And that's the way I have mine set up, too. If you had the room and or special cables to run one HD and one optical on one channel, and the other HD and optical on the other channel, you may gain a slight performance boost, but only depending on how you use your computer.

I don't feel it's worth the additional hassle as the most demanding thing I do is analog video capture and since I don't drop any frames, I'm running fast enough for me.

TwoRails