Storage Advice

I've almost completely filled my two 500gb HDD's. I have about 20gb left. If I really weed out stuff I don't need/want/use, I can probably free up another 15gb.

Either way, 35gb won't last me for very long. Maybe a few months if I'm conservative.

I have an external Sata docking station via esata. I have a 320gb HDD and a 250gb HDD that I use through that. I have Win 8 installed on the 320gb. I don't like using either for general storage as I like having all my data on me at any given time. I mainly use those drives for backing up important things I can't loose.

So here's how I see my options none of which I really like.

1) Buy two 1tb HDD's to replace my two 500gb HDD's. I'll gain 1tb of storage space which will last me at least 1-2 years. The major con is that all the laptop 1tb HDD's I can find are SLOW compared to my 7200rpm 500gb drives. I really don't want a decrease in performance.

2) Buy two 750gb HDD's to replace my two 500gb HDD's. I'll gain 500gb of storage and won't sacrifice speed as I have found some quick 750gb laptop drives. The con is they cost nearly as much as 1TB drives, and I don't feel the price would be fully justified for only a net gain of 500gb of storage.

3) Replace my Bluray drive with a 750gb HDD. The pros are it's much cheaper than the other two options and I'll gain 750gb of storage which is a happy medium. However, I won't have use of my Bluray drive. It would require disassembling the entire laptop every time I wanted to use it. I don't use it frequently, but I do use it regularly now and then for DVD's, CD's, etc.

I think my best option is #3, but only because I dislike it the least out of options #1 and #2. Can anyone think of an alternative?

4) Replacing my Bluray drive with a HDD made me consider replacing it with a small, but quick SSD for the OS. It would cost as much as #4, and I would gain massive performance which is very important for me. But at most I would gain only 30 or 60gb of space.

I need some of your opinions. I can't make up my mind lol. I've been trying to find the best scenario for a week now.

 

Well think about it this way. You have 1TB of data that MUST be on your laptop. 1TB seems to last you 1 year. What will you do in 2 years? You gonna get a laptop of 5TB?
I think you need to find a way to live without some data on your laptop!

 

how you literally have to carry 1tb of data with you always? for option 3 you can buy an enclosure with usb connection for the bluray drive. just another option for you.

 

Why not pull out the blue ray and put it in an external drive like I did. Then when you need it just plug in the USB cord. See my 1TB link in the sig for details. Then you can swap in an OS sad and two 1TB drives. Or put in 3 1TB drives.

 

Maybe get an enclosure for the optical drive? Use it as an external?

You could also look into a 500/750GB Momentus XT. They're relatively expensive, but very worth it, IMO. 750GB XT for OS and applications, then you could have up to another 2TB of storage drives, and still be able to use your optical drive.