Growing Library Size

fresnopup

I am assuming that downloaded files must remain in the library ( I use uTorrent) to remain available to seed.
As time goes on sooner or later my hard drive is going to reach its capacity. I know I'll have to "thin out" my files and transfer to other media. Even if I added new and larger drives to my system I would still eventually
come to the same situation. Is there any sort of strategy to follow that would handle this issue that is most helpful to the network?

PS: To my big brother - are you not 58 yrs young?

fresnopup

amice

no, it's not necessary to keep them on disk. i've many of them burned on CD/DVDs and only add them if someone's asking for reseed and there are no good seeders present. how to decide if to removed them from disk or not, there is no real schedule, but you can see the torrent statistics if there is a chance to have them being seeded or better move them.

rupertshubby

So I have everything available, I have two external Hard drives that I have put almost my entire collection on (With the exception of maybe 150 or so other titles). But alas I too am running out of room again (On Ext HD is 750Gb the other 320Gb). I am thinking of checkin out ebay for a 3 tb external, and keep the other two as back up.

cumeaternc

My way may not be the best way but it seems to work for me. I archive all my videos on data DVDs and number them. I have a spreadsheet of every video larger than 100MB I have downloaded. It includes the Studio Name, Video Name and DVD number. It frees up my HDD for more videos(like I need more) >:D and it helps me pull a DVD out and put a video back in my torrent queue if someone request a reseed. It also helps me fill video request. Right now I have collected about 3100 videos and thousands of picture and gay comic collections. Hope this helps. What are some other ways you guys archive your videos? Lets let rupertshubby know so he won't have a shelf full of external HDDs.

Brandon

Popper

DVD-R have are become unreadable quite soon. It depends on the disc media, storage conditions, the burner etc… but it can happen in less than 2 years.

Since big hard disk drives are quite cheap these days 1TB ~ 75 (compare with 200 DVD-R) and the manufactures don't stop to progress, I upgrade regularly my drives. In addition, I keep a backup copy on another drive.

Currently my downloading drive is almost plenty and I need time to move files in an orderly way to regain ability to download.

Hopefully I can effort next month an additional 1.5 TB drive, so that I can use my 2 older 1 TB drives to replace my 2x 320 GB system drives (RAID 0).

But anyone here should be aware, that what ever he does, it's never enough (storage space).

fresnopup

Excuse me Uwe,

Did you say that DVD-r discs deteriorate and become unusable in about 2 years time? I did not know this.
I was under the impression that the media would last indefinitely if handled carefully .

fresnopup

Popper

Yes, it is what I mean.

However, the time to deterioration is very variable and depends on many factors, some listed above. Other potential sources are sticker (glue), prints, notes on the discs.

Of course they can last for more (or less) than 2 years in most cases, you will only know when it is too late…I don't want to seed panic. Anyway, if you look around, you will find that the perfect backup / storage does not exists and numerical creations are more on risk as classical support arts (Books, pictures, vinyl, celluloid) if not backed up regulary.

Best is you search in specialized forums about recordable media.

Pressed CD and DVD are lasting very long, their manufacturing process and structure is different. However in early times, there were issues by glue or other chemicals used.

ziamond

@fresnopup:

Is there any sort of strategy to follow that would handle this issue that is most helpful to the network?

What I do is strategic 'thinning out' of the hard drive. When the drive reaches its capacity I delete some torrents from the BT client and transfer the files either to my external HD or dvd discs. Torrents that I delete can be:

The ones that have the most seeders (and if needed reseed them in the future when the seeder numbers dropped)
The ones that have been seeding the longest.
The ones with higher ratio (according to BT client statistics)
The bigger size ones, as it will make more space.

Not ALL these 3 factors have to apply. Can be just one or combination of them. It also depends on how much space I want to free.

Rotating the torrents is healthy for the community as you give a chance to more people and torrents to circulate.

@cumeaternc:

What are some other ways you guys archive your videos?

I keep my porn archived in my external hard drive according to studios but without the spreadsheet. I use a similar spreadsheet to cumeaternc 's but for my cinema movies (alphabetically the movies & numbered dvds).