How You guys cope with heavy downloading....

[zazafromjohor]

Well I can t any more... since if I want to download some more I have to get rid of stored and shared files.... I have 80GB + 40GB Hard drives.....
there are currently running with 2 or max 6 GB free memory space.
I am removing files little by little and I am a kind of threat to the share system......
any suggestion - all welcome exept to ask me to stop that addiction   -

[KM]

well, you have 3 options
1. remove unused stuff, free up some space as you're doing now
2. stop downloading as much (why would you do that?)
3. buy 2 or 3 400GB HD's and that should last you a while

[Bearded Blunder]

burn a lot of dvds.. the dual layer ones have middling capacity

[zazafromjohor]

Well, some are addicted to booze... I am addicted to live concert bootleg, live radio broadcast.... in brief a heavy collector ... So I maniacly downloading them ( almost ) all.
I copy to DVD nowdays....

[Kadabra]

Some month ago, i was too beginning to miss hard drive space.

I have a 80 Go SATA, a 120 Go IDE in my computer.  I also have a 120 Go Firewire external drive for backup only.  I have a second tower (or box or whatever) with a 80 Go IDE drive hardly used.

I was not to fond of burning things. Particulary now that i know that CD (and DVD) don't alway last as long as manufacturer say it supposed to.
So, i would greatly prefer to buy more hard drives. But.  My XP Home (french version) is the one prior to any service pack.  And, knowing that the support for big hard drives (more than about 137 Go) was not implemented before the first service pack, how many drives of 120 Go will i be force to buy so i dont loose a single byte of data next time something goes wrong and i need to reinstall XP ?

External drives might be a solution, but every single one cost an arm (or a bundle if you prefer).

I the mean time, i'm burning DATA DVD but my DVD-RW burner doesn't support dual layer DVD so i'm limited to about 4 Go per DVD.  

It's not the end of the world.  But, i'm becomming tired that everywhere i look, there's annoying limitations.  But life goes on...

[Bearded Blunder]

Service packs are a free download..  Most drive manufacturers also have the fix to enable large drive support as a free download by itself too..

I do know that is an issue with EIDE drives, I'd have to check the status RE SATA ones.. the limitation isn't there on SCSI & most SATA controllers report themselves as SCSI.. (havn't researched for lack of SATA controller on my own old hardware).

As long as windows is installed on a drive under this limit though, any reinstall will allow you to reapply the update & regain full access without losing your data.  Should you decide to install a huge drive

[Kadabra]

I have the SP2 on a CD that comes directly from Microsoft, free.

But still, it's a pain have to disconnect hard drives prior to reinstall (and reconnect them after).

[Bearded Blunder]

It's possible (but also a pain) to integrate "slipstream" SP2 into the windows install CD & burn yourself a copy that installs with the service pack applied.. there are websites out there with step-by-step instructions how to do it.. google will find them for you..

Since you HAVE a licenced copy of XP, (I assume) you are also breaking no laws I'm aware of doing so.

[Kadabra]

I know about it...
But, for now, i'm still too coward to trust that slipstreamming do not cause any bugs.  I'll have to try it when i'll be less coward...  
LOL...

[Kadabra]

Oh! And i forgot to say thanks.