mollyegan Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 1)So....I'm no longer in denial. I need to buy an external hard drive. Suggestions? Caveats? Comments? 2)I am also having a really annoying issue with itunes (especially since it is prohibiting listening to Dark Neon on my ipod). I have successfully downloaded a few tracks, and they play in itunes on my computer- but for some reason cut off when playing on my ipod. BLERG! I am loathe to Restore without having backed everything up to an external. DILEMMA! Am I missing some simple trick here? I have the current version, etc. Ideas? Thanks, VC!! Molly Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isadorah Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 1)So....I'm no longer in denial. I need to buy an external hard drive. Suggestions? Caveats? Comments? 2)I am also having a really annoying issue with itunes (especially since it is prohibiting listening to Dark Neon on my ipod). I have successfully downloaded a few tracks, and they play in itunes on my computer- but for some reason cut off when playing on my ipod. BLERG! I am loathe to Restore without having backed everything up to an external. DILEMMA! Am I missing some simple trick here? I have the current version, etc. Ideas? Thanks, VC!! Molly have you tried resyncing the ipod with itunes? not a restore, just a resync. that might fix the song cut off problem...it could have glitched transferring those songs onto the ipod and will be fine if you retry. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I've bought a couple of external drives over the years, but I'm hardly an expert. I currently have a 320 GB Seagate Free Agent Desktop drive. No problems with it so far, and I've had it for over two years. Be aware that just because the box says 500 GB, or 750 GB, or whatever, that doesn't mean you'll actually get that amount of storage. They're always quite a bit short of that. My 320 GB drive only has 298 GB of real capacity. Why they can label drives with capacity numbers that they don't actually possess, I don't pretend to understand. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mollyegan Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 have you tried resyncing the ipod with itunes? not a restore, just a resync. that might fix the song cut off problem...it could have glitched transferring those songs onto the ipod and will be fine if you retry.I'll give that a shot...thanks, Isadorah! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mollyegan Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 I've bought a couple of external drives over the years, but I'm hardly an expert. I currently have a 320 GB Seagate Free Agent Desktop drive. No problems with it so far, and I've had it for over two years. Be aware that just because the box says 500 GB, or 750 GB, or whatever, that doesn't mean you'll actually get that amount of storage. They're always quite a bit short of that. My 320 GB drive only has 298 GB of real capacity. Why they can label drives with capacity numbers that they don't actually possess, I don't pretend to understand.I don't pretend to understand ANY of it! I don't know how much GB I really need. Thanks for the tips- I really appreciate it, Cryptique. We'll see! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Speed Racer Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I don't pretend to understand ANY of it! I don't know how much GB I really need. Thanks for the tips- I really appreciate it, Cryptique. We'll see! What would you be storing on there? Are you using it only as a back-up, or additional storage? For just backup storage, you obviously don't need anything much larger than your computer's hard drive. For additional storage, will you be using it for music, photos, DVDs or what? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dude Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I've bought a couple of external drives over the years, but I'm hardly an expert. I currently have a 320 GB Seagate Free Agent Desktop drive. No problems with it so far, and I've had it for over two years. Be aware that just because the box says 500 GB, or 750 GB, or whatever, that doesn't mean you'll actually get that amount of storage. They're always quite a bit short of that. My 320 GB drive only has 298 GB of real capacity. Why they can label drives with capacity numbers that they don't actually possess, I don't pretend to understand. This is due to fact that the binary number system doesn't quite line up with our base 10 numeric system. A kilobyte = 1,024 bytes (2 to the power of 10), which is close enough to 1,000 that it is often rounded down for convenience's sake. This isn't a big deal of course when talking about one measly kilobyte, but when you get all the way up to a gigabyte, there is a difference of 73,741,824 bytes or around 70.3 MB of data between binary and base 10. You can multiply 70.3 times the advertised GBs of the hard drive to see what the discrepancy is: 70.3 MB x 320 = 22,496 MB, or ~22 GBs. 320 - 298 that you reported also equals 22. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 This is due to fact that the binary number system doesn't quite line up with our base 10 numeric system. A kilobyte = 1,024 bytes (2 to the power of 10), which is close enough to 1,000 that it is often rounded down for convenience's sake. This isn't a big deal of course when talking about one measly kilobyte, but when you get all the way up to a gigabyte, there is a difference of 73,741,824 bytes or around 70.3 MB of data between binary and base 10. You can multiply 70.3 times the advertised GBs of the hard drive to see what the discrepancy is: 70.3 MB x 320 = 22,496 MB, or ~22 GBs. 320 - 298 that you reported also equals 22.I understand all that. What I don't understand is why they are allowed to advertise a 298 GB drive as a 320 GB drive, when it never did and never will have 320 GB of capacity. Call it a 298 GB drive instead, and everyone's happy. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DAngerer09 Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 1)So....I'm no longer in denial. I need to buy an external hard drive. Suggestions? Caveats? Comments? Get firewire, not one with just USB. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dude Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I understand all that. What I don't understand is why they are allowed to advertise a 298 GB drive as a 320 GB drive, when it never did and never will have 320 GB of capacity. Call it a 298 GB drive instead, and everyone's happy.True, or round it up to 300 GB, which is both accurate within 2 GB as well as a round number people can wrap their tiny little brains around. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Boots Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I'm actually picking up an external HD myself this weekend. I finally got a 120 GB Ipod and need to get everything on there (had a 20 GB Dell DJ for years) and I wanted to be able to back up picures, DVD's, etc so I wanted 1 TB I think I'm picking this one up. In the price range I wanted ($100 ish) and a brand I've generally heard good things about. Western Digital - My Book Essential 1TB External Hard Drive http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8475777&type=product&id=1185271084278 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I understand all that. What I don't understand is why they are allowed to advertise a 298 GB drive as a 320 GB drive, when it never did and never will have 320 GB of capacity. Call it a 298 GB drive instead, and everyone's happy. Yes. I have a 2GB iPod that when picked clean has something like 1.7GB available. It's bullshit that these things get marketed that way. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jules Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Yes. I have a 2GB iPod that when picked clean has something like 1.7GB available. It's bullshit that these things get marketed that way.calm down Quote Link to post Share on other sites
watch me fall Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I don't have an iPod. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jules Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 yay Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 calm down Quote Link to post Share on other sites
uncool2pillow Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Yes. I have a 2GB iPod that when picked clean has something like 1.7GB available. It's bullshit that these things get marketed that way.In the case of the iPod, isn't part of that .3 gb loss due to the OS? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 In the case of the iPod, isn't part of that .3 gb loss due to the OS? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
uncool2pillow Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Ummm... The operating system would take up some of the available memory. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Ummm... The operating system would take up some of the available memory. I get it now. I'm not that smart.But they should really advertise available space when giving size specs, is my point. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mollyegan Posted July 26, 2009 Author Share Posted July 26, 2009 What would you be storing on there? Are you using it only as a back-up, or additional storage? For just backup storage, you obviously don't need anything much larger than your computer's hard drive. For additional storage, will you be using it for music, photos, DVDs or what?I will primarily be using it for backup storage. I have no idea what size to buy.... I'm actually picking up an external HD myself this weekend. I finally got a 120 GB Ipod and need to get everything on there (had a 20 GB Dell DJ for years) and I wanted to be able to back up picures, DVD's, etc so I wanted 1 TB I think I'm picking this one up. In the price range I wanted ($100 ish) and a brand I've generally heard good things about. Western Digital - My Book Essential 1TB External Hard Drive http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8475777&type=product&id=1185271084278Did you pick this up, Boots? How do you like it? I did read some of the reviews on your link...what is your assessment? I am finally going to buy one this week so I'm back on the research. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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