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[Lizzie_Zoom]

I have ordered a new desktop computer, and I wanted to back up all my important files, along with pictures, before I receive it.

I went to Staples and asked what memory devices would be best for the purpose, thinking with my old brain about discs and memory sticks, although I know the latter are too small in memory terms.

I was shown these "Passport" portable hard drives; one with 500GB - ok no surprises there I suppose.  But then I was told about the 1 Terabyte  ---- WOW!!! I was amazed ------ a TERABYTE!!   It was like telling a stone age woman about a fridge!  I know computer power is constantly doubling, and so must the storage capacity, but I never knew we had got to a Terabyte!!

For £64 I left the store with this great device, and a feeling I had at last arrived in the 21st century.  But I felt old!!

[Gaffers]

Ah, you need to pop around to mine once I have finished networking the entire house with Cisco switches, network drives/printers, raspberry pi based media centres (kitchen & bathroom) and consoles 

My passport drive follows me around when I am mobile and syncs with the network drive when I get home 

[aaronjb]

I have a couple of 1TB portable drives laying about at home .. although I seem to have misplaced one (and that one isn't even mine .. oops!).  That along with 40TB (~30TB usable) of networked storage

Guffer, what are you going to be using on the RPi's? I trialled one in the bedroom with XBMC on but in the end got fed up of the lack of codec support (I have some stuff that is native MPEG2 so while the RPi supports VC-1 etc with additional codec licenses there was still a significant amount of stuff it b0rked at) and bugs (no HD streaming from the TVHeadend box, for example) and replaced it with a near silent mini PC the same as I have downstairs.. but I'd still like to use the RPi's somewhere for music rather than video (say in the garage, bathroom & kitchen)..

[zirk]

Probably the easiest route to go down is get hold of a 2.5 USB drive of your choice, Clone your existing Drive(s) to it, then pull off what you need on to your new machine at your leisure, leaving you with a spare back up drive in the future. You may need to take Ownership / Permissions of the back up drive on the new machine, but thats a doddle on new OS these days.

[Rog]

For £64 I left the store with this great device, and a feeling I had at last arrived in the 21st century.  But I felt old!!

£64 well spent. Although there are all sorts of fancy things you can do, just keeping an independent copy of things that are importent to you makes it worthwhile. In the last few months both my "kids" (well into their 20s) have had laptop failures. Did they have copies or backups ? Well I gave them external drives and memory sticks and synchronisation software. Did they use them ? No. Are they sorry ? Yes, very much so. I resisted the "I told you so . . . . "   

[SandBoy]

And I bet it was the same old "oh shut up Dad" line

[Gaffers]

Guffer, what are you going to be using on the RPi's? I trialled one in the bedroom with XBMC on but in the end got fed up of the lack of codec support (I have some stuff that is native MPEG2 so while the RPi supports VC-1 etc with additional codec licenses there was still a significant amount of stuff it b0rked at) and bugs (no HD streaming from the TVHeadend box, for example) and replaced it with a near silent mini PC the same as I have downstairs.. but I'd still like to use the RPi's somewhere for music rather than video (say in the garage, bathroom & kitchen)..

XMBC too, I know about the codec limitations but there are packs you can get which help.  I have been preparing my media collection in to the compatible formats for the last year anyway

[tunnie]

Guffer, what are you going to be using on the RPi's? I trialled one in the bedroom with XBMC on but in the end got fed up of the lack of codec support (I have some stuff that is native MPEG2 so while the RPi supports VC-1 etc with additional codec licenses there was still a significant amount of stuff it b0rked at) and bugs (no HD streaming from the TVHeadend box, for example) and replaced it with a near silent mini PC the same as I have downstairs.. but I'd still like to use the RPi's somewhere for music rather than video (say in the garage, bathroom & kitchen)..

XMBC too, I know about the codec limitations but there are packs you can get which help.  I have been preparing my media collection in to the compatible formats for the last year anyway

I was running XBMC on my Pi, also tried Plex on it, both work but very clunky & slow.

I recently bought a NowTV box for £9.99

https://shop.nowtv.com/

It's basically a Roku box, but WiFi only and a restricted apps (easily got around) for £9.99 including HDMI cable it's a bargin. Sky must be selling these at a loss, so can't see them doing these long term.

I put mine in developer mode and installed Plex on it, now links to my PC for all my Media needs. Works very well, much faster than Pi. Also NowTV box has BBC iPlayer, C5 on Demand, Sky News, Radio, Spotify ect.

NowTV for Movies works quite well too, good stream quality and works well.

Planning on getting another, as this one will go hopefully in my new front room with big tv in a "minimal" tech setup of just TV and that box.

[Gaffers]

There are ways to safely overclock the Pi which gets rid of the clunkiness 

[aaronjb]

There are ways to safely overclock the Pi which gets rid of the clunkiness 

Except it doesn't (in my experience) - I overclocked to the point of instability and it's still hideously slow compared to even an underpowered Atom w/ hardware video acceleration..

The codec support was a killer - it's not possible to decode 720p in software on a Pi

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Ah, you need to pop around to mine once I have finished networking the entire house with Cisco switches, network drives/printers, raspberry pi based media centres (kitchen & bathroom) and consoles

My passport drive follows me around when I am mobile and syncs with the network drive when I get home 

Oh dear Guffer, it is like reading a foreign language for me.  Now I know I am primitive. I hope I can one day come back as a five year old to master computer technology - well five year old's have far more of a grasp on it than I ever will / have to!

[Lizzie_Zoom]

I have a couple of 1TB portable drives laying about at home .. although I seem to have misplaced one (and that one isn't even mine .. oops!).  That along with 40TB (~30TB usable) of networked storage

Guffer, what are you going to be using on the RPi's? I trialled one in the bedroom with XBMC on but in the end got fed up of the lack of codec support (I have some stuff that is native MPEG2 so while the RPi supports VC-1 etc with additional codec licenses there was still a significant amount of stuff it b0rked at) and bugs (no HD streaming from the TVHeadend box, for example) and replaced it with a near silent mini PC the same as I have downstairs.. but I'd still like to use the RPi's somewhere for music rather than video (say in the garage, bathroom & kitchen)..

What!!   Now you are blowing my mind.  Unless you are planning a space run to some distant planet, with full back up, can you ever use all that available storage space?

PS Yes, I do know that the Apollo missions were accomplished with less computer power than the average smart phone!

[Shackeng]

Ah, you need to pop around to mine once I have finished networking the entire house with Cisco switches, network drives/printers, raspberry pi based media centres (kitchen & bathroom) and consoles

My passport drive follows me around when I am mobile and syncs with the network drive when I get home 

Oh dear Guffer, it is like reading a foreign language for me.  Now I know I am primitive. I hope I can one day come back as a five year old to master computer technology - well five year old's have far more of a grasp on it than I ever will / have to!

You and me both Lizzie.

[TheBoy]

aaronjb, you mention vc-1, but there is also a MPEG2 licence to do MPEG2 in hardware.

My problem with PIs, as I use them as MCE extenders, is their inconsistency with .wtv files over SMB


Lizzie, 1Tb is small fry now. 4Tb disks are readily available in 3.5", 2.5" tends to lag behind. We have racks and racks at each site of disk arrays, from floor to ceiling, of 2.5" 750Gb drives.  Its all very well having this capacity, but its a pain to back up - we're slapping petabytes to tape at each site each and every night.

[TheBoy]

PS Yes, I do know that the Apollo missions were accomplished with less computer power than the average smart phone!

They said it was less powerful than a Sinclair ZX81.  Most smartphones have the power of a 10-12yr old desktop...