Hard Drive Capacity

hibner · Nov 19, 2005

I have an 80GB harddrive for storage that is getting pretty full, about 88%. I was wondering how full should you let a hard drive get. I know that you need a certain amount of blank space for defragmenting, I think about twice the size of your largest file. So is 5GB of blank space acceptable for a hard drive to still perform well, even on sat a 250GB or 400GB drive. :burn:

telexen · Nov 19, 2005

I believe the windows defragmenter needs 15% to defragment efficiently...I wouldn't let it get below that unless it's just temporary

darksparkz · Nov 19, 2005

Yep, so try to keep at least 15% of it free to be able to defrag, high capacity HDDs aren't too expensive nowadays anyways.

K15 · Nov 21, 2005

hibner said:
I have an 80GB harddrive for storage that is getting pretty full, about 88%. I was wondering how full should you let a hard drive get. I know that you need a certain amount of blank space for defragmenting, I think about twice the size of your largest file. So is 5GB of blank space acceptable for a hard drive to still perform well, even on sat a 250GB or 400GB drive.

How did you fill 80GB?

Anyhow, like they said. About 15%. Also, defrag works many times better with LOTS of free space. It will still work, but will take a long time.

Yuriman · Nov 22, 2005

I try to keep 20% free, you never know when you might need that space for something... anime torrent, swap file, or windows? It really pains me to delete stuff when I'm done watching it though.

attack · Nov 22, 2005

I only fill about 40gb with everything I have....But I'm thinking of buying alcohol 120 and backing up all my game CD's....that way I can just mount the image when I want to play it too....

That said, I'd stick to 20%. You can get new HDD's for 33 cents/gb...so a 120/160 for around 50 bucks. If you have the cash I'd say it's time to upgrade.

Mr.Guvernment · Nov 22, 2005

i think some of you need to invest in DVD burners.......

as for %120, thas alot of ripping - i iwould just get the no cd items

hibner · Nov 22, 2005

Mr.Guvernment said:
i think some of you need to invest in DVD burners.......

as for %120, thas alot of ripping - i iwould just get the no cd items

I think some are missing the point. I am not looking for backup options, I backup all my stuff to dvd. I was just wanting to know in general, for good hard drive health, how full should a drive get. It looks like about 80-85%. Thanks for all the info everyone. :thup:

Mr.Guvernment · Nov 22, 2005

I know, i was just refering to the others

tom10167 · Nov 22, 2005

Seriously Yuriman, a good DVD burner is like $40 nowadays.

I'd weep if I had to delete movies etc.

Anyways, ~68GB is about 15%, so that's your 'fragment level, however, there are no risks in filling your HDD to the full, that is after all why they advertise the size that they do.

I think JigPU had like 47KB free on a hard drive once. :EEK:

Quailane · Nov 22, 2005

hibner said:
I think some are missing the point. I am not looking for backup options, I backup all my stuff to dvd. I was just wanting to know in general, for good hard drive health, how full should a drive get. It looks like about 80-85%. Thanks for all the info everyone.

I have a couple of those big (250-300GB) maxtors that are filled to the brim. Each has less than 200-300MB left it. The drives aren't slower or anything. Also there is no reason to defrag because the files shouldn't fragment themselves. I do boot off of one of my 80GB drives so that is the reason why.

Hard Drive Capacity

hibner

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telexen

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darksparkz

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K15

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Yuriman

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attack

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Mr.Guvernment

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hibner

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Mr.Guvernment

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tom10167

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Quailane

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