How do you store your anime / manga

[Folly]

A few notes on external drives. First of all, NEVER buy used hard drives. You're just asking for trouble. Second, turn them off when your not moving files to or from them. This will greatly reduce wear and tear and may improve the life expectancy of your hard drive.

I'm a PC technician for a living so I've worked with a lot of computers in my time, and I can tell you from experience that about 1 in 10 hard drives crashes within the first month no matter what brand you buy, and the other 9 will last for many years without issue. It's just the way these things are I'm afraid.

[Alexandrite]

Well that's just peachy. I'll keep that in mind and back up the data for any new drive in the future. Many thanks!

And I don't see why anyone would find it a good idea to buy a used hard drive, even if it's cheaper. Doesn't it just seem suspicious in the first place?

[Risaa]

Thanks for your post, Folly. I hadn't ever thought about what you said before (about buying a used hd, turning it off when it's not in use)... Now that I think about it, I'm glad my external hd automatically turns off when I disconnect it; I'd be prone to accidently leaving it on.

Originally Posted by Alexandrite

Looking at a large collection of manga on a bookshelf feels kind of rewarding.

Not only that, but I love actually holding the manga in my hands and reading it instead of reading off the computer. The latter gives me frequent headaches, as well. (lol, and you can experience that "new smell" the books give off )

[Tiberium Wolf]

1st of all don't buy those 2.5 external cases... Its preferable to get a 3.5. If a problem occurs you can take the disk out and connect it inside the pc. I personally have 2 external cases and both ide. Going to buy next sata one. I know gave up storing in DVDs. It's pointless. It's way better to store in a 500 gig hardware. You get access to large data at once and it's faster hat using multiple DVDs that might also have different speed in readings. Of course if something happens to the HDD you lose big. It's just a risk. Don't sweat over it.


BTW, preferably you should have the manga in storage all packed in rar or zip or whatever(no compression need). Having tons of pic files will slow down the HDD. AND HDD ARE SPACE EFFICIENT.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Rainy

Another thing, does anyone know a DVD player capable of playing data DVDs I burned? I am a little tired of watching them all on my computer monitor. (Screen size isn't the problem, it's just my computer speakers need to be replaced)

Many current DVD players include DivX support which means they'll usually play XviD-encoded files in the AVI container. Files in the Matroska (MKV) container, or ones encoded in H.264, are a different matter. I have to re-encode those to XviD+AVI before burning them if I want to watch them on my LG DVD player.

Do a Google search for 'dvd player divx', and you'll get quite a few results; many are under US$50.

We also own a Cowon A2 "personal media player," which has a hard drive and USB connectivity. It also supports XviD in AVI and can be connected to the TV. I'll use it sometimes when I want to watch a new episode of a series and don't want to go to the bother of burning a CD just for that one show.

[Mueti]

Originally Posted by Folly

I'm a PC technician for a living so I've worked with a lot of computers in my time, and I can tell you from experience that about 1 in 10 hard drives crashes within the first month no matter what brand you buy, and the other 9 will last for many years without issue. It's just the way these things are I'm afraid.

I know it's no guarantee but reading this still reliefs me a bit, since both of my external harddrives already survived that first month.

Originally Posted by Risaa

Not only that, but I love actually holding the manga in my hands and reading it instead of reading off the computer. The latter gives me frequent headaches, as well. (lol, and you can experience that "new smell" the books give off )

I don't read scanned Manga on the monitor. I can't, it's just awful to read like this. Stiff neck, headache...I'll rather go lie in my bed or sit down in the garden. ^^
Of course I can't afford to buy everything I'd want to read...but I don't download it, I just have to go without reading it.

[Kyuusai]

Originally Posted by Folly

A few notes on external drives. First of all, NEVER buy used hard drives. You're just asking for trouble. Second, turn them off when your not moving files to or from them. This will greatly reduce wear and tear and may improve the life expectancy of your hard drive.

I'm a PC technician for a living so I've worked with a lot of computers in my time, and I can tell you from experience that about 1 in 10 hard drives crashes within the first month no matter what brand you buy, and the other 9 will last for many years without issue. It's just the way these things are I'm afraid.

I can say you're right about the 1 in 10 failing early and the other 9 lasting for years. Very true.

However, turning a hard drive off and on frequently can be very hard on a hard drive, too. As can turning it on when it hasn't been used in a while. As can running it constantly.

It's much like a car: Starting it frequently is stressful. Not running it for a long time is stressful. Running for a long time is stressful. SOMETHING is going to kill it eventually, so don't stress out about it.

Our hard drives that run constantly for years without any breaks are just as reliable as all our others.

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

1st of all don't buy those 2.5 external cases... Its preferable to get a 3.5. If a problem occurs you can take the disk out and connect it inside the pc. I personally have 2 external cases and both ide. Going to buy next sata one. I know gave up storing in DVDs. It's pointless. It's way better to store in a 500 gig hardware. You get access to large data at once and it's faster hat using multiple DVDs that might also have different speed in readings. Of course if something happens to the HDD you lose big. It's just a risk. Don't sweat over it.


BTW, preferably you should have the manga in storage all packed in rar or zip or whatever(no compression need). Having tons of pic files will slow down the HDD. AND HDD ARE SPACE EFFICIENT.

Three points:
1. You can just as easily plug a 2.5" drive inside a PC if something goes wrong. It just requires a very, very inexpensive adapter. The real issue to consider with 2.5" versus 3.5" is the cost versus storage comparison (less space, more money), size, and the fact that a 3.5" drive will require an external power source, but a 2.5" may not.
2. Prevent "losing big" by getting redundant storage.
3. No, having tons of files WILL NOT slow down the hard drive. A fragmented filesystem will slow down hard drive read and write times, but who's using antiquated filesystems that suffer from fragmentation? (and the few who are can defrag on occasion)

Originally Posted by Risaa

Not only that, but I love actually holding the manga in my hands and reading it instead of reading off the computer. The latter gives me frequent headaches, as well. (lol, and you can experience that "new smell" the books give off )

I suffered from headaches and eyestrain until I got an LCD panel and proper lighting. (CRTs and dim or flourescent lights are tools of the devil.)

I do prefer books, though. Ironically, while I have a comfy, well-lit place to use my computer, I presently lack a comfy, well-lit place to read boks. Of course, for the time being, reading manga is excruciatingly slow without a computerized kanji dictionary, so I'm not fretting about that too much yet.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Kyuusai

Three points:
1. You can just as easily plug a 2.5" drive inside a PC if something goes wrong. It just requires a very, very inexpensive adapter. The real issue to consider with 2.5" versus 3.5" is the cost versus storage comparison (less space, more money), size, and the fact that a 3.5" drive will require an external power source, but a 2.5" may not.
2. Prevent "losing big" by getting redundant storage.
3. No, having tons of files WILL NOT slow down the hard drive. A fragmented filesystem will slow down hard drive read and write times, but who's using antiquated filesystems that suffer from fragmentation? (and the few who are can defrag on occasion)

- Never seen any adapter before. Still don't see any local store for save.

- If you are copying like the manga so somewhere else if you have like 50 vols with 200 files each you would take more time than if you copy 1 rar or zip file. Beside it wouldn't be good to have in a drive lots of small files mixed up with big files. Your drive get fragmented easily. And defraging takes a lot of time for huge amount of data. Every filesystem gets framentation one way of another. BTW, if you wanted to have a CRC file of your manga it would be best if all were in 1 file. Having a crc of each pic is a pain in the ass to see.

[Ritzia]

Manga on my bookshelf, and my anime in a little red wagon next to my TV
n_n

[IchimaruGin]

yeh same problame here also, i have more the 200GB anime and some manga, i stored them in some DVD's but then , even if you store the e DVD's in some bags or casing, in the end it will have some scratch's from the buttom becous of taking it out and puting in agin, so then i came up with a new idee, that i bout a new hardisk 300GB and i stored all the anime inside it, it's much much better then the DVD system

[Slice of Life]

I've given up on burned DVDs. They take too much space and rot on your shelf and you won't find out before it's too late. I store all my anime on external hard disks. Twice. Original plus backup. I create md5 checksums for every file and check them regularly against corruptions. At the moment I'm even thinking about making a second backup. That might sound paranoid but on one hand 500 GB disks aren't that expensive and on the other hand losing both copies e.g. in some freak accident during the copying process would make me really, really, really, really sad.

[Spark]

I tend to purchase most of my anime that I seriously want to keep in my collection. All of that sits in a little table thing next to my tv on the left side of my room, but recently I've been having to stack some of my newer additions in front of it because I ran out of space >.<. My very meager manga collection is at the bottom of a small bookshelf on the right side of my room.

If I do end up keeping any of the anime I've gotten from torrents, I usually burn the files to dvd's. Not the best system, but hey, it works.

[krysinello]

I buy most of my anime but for anime that hasn't had a full Aussie release(Like The Second Raid), I usually download and burn to DVD and wait for the box set to come, damn them taking so long to bring each disk. I keep my anime on the shelf together, I put burnt ones in DVD cases.

[fuzzybunny]

DVDs are my main storage and I have two 1TB RAID5 arrays - one a mirror back up of the other, as download buffers.

I'm having a hard time catching up with my burning lately though and yes DVDs take up too much space. I'm starting to need dedicated furniture to store everything.

Seriously considering tapes.

[Tasdern]

I've decided that it may be best no to archive or save any downloads that are copyrighted. Yes, even anime shows are copyrighted.

I'll watch them and hold them for awhile until I run out of space. Then I decide what I may want to watch again or not.

It woudl suck to be hit with thousands of dollars in fines if someone every stumbled onto your collection.

[tatewaki]

The way i store my anime is on my server, witch is about 1 TB and i have to buy a new HDD soon. I don't like to burn my anime and manga to DVDs not because i am scared of loosing it that way i just think it's cool to have so much hDD space stored with anime and manga also i can brag to my friends about how much space i got hehe

[Robotnik]

For real DVDs and manga, I like bookcase-style "media shelves" like these; though my anime DVD collection isn't huge (right now my non-anime VHS and DVD collection is larger), I like to display my favorites, with the artboxes by themselves on top. These shelves work for manga too, since the typical DVD and manga volume are about the same width; the downside is that they don't hold much for the amount of space they take up. So my non-favorites get double and triple stacked in another regular bookcase or they go in boxes.

For scanlations and fansubs, when my hard drive fills up I just burn stuff to CD or DVD, or I just delete the junk.

[Wervy]

A 250gig RAID-1 array for all the stuff I want kept safe in my main computer. I burn stuff when a series is finished in dual audio, which end up in a huge ass 500 dvd binder I have. And anything I wana keep around to watch ends up on my filesever for easy access to my projector when I wana see it.

[CoyoteNL]

I store everything on external drives as well. Twice, so I have an exact copy should one fail. I also have a lot of stuff burned on DVD's.

Yes, I'm paranoid

Can't wait for SSD's (Solid State Disks) to become affordable.

[Pentium100]

Hi everyone! This is my first post - I hope that I did not break any rules (I read them though)...

I used to store anime on DVDRs. I tried to fill the disk as musch as possible without writing more than two titles to a disk and I tried to write full series to a disk. I then would write series' names on the back of the case (I use only DVD cases) and put it in the middle of a stack (to maintain alphabetical order) Eventually I had two stacks ~ 200 disks (not only anime), then I realized that for some reason it is very hard to get a disk from the bottom of the stack I bought special shelfs, hanged them on the wall and put all disks in them. Then I realized that DVDs take a lot of physical space, so after some research I bought a used LTO-1 tape drive and now store anime on tapes - 100GB per tape. Tapes cost twice as much as DVDs (for the same capacity), but they are small compared to DVDs (that is, 1 tape is small, compared to 23DVDs).
For cataloging I use a program called CD Bank Cataloguer (but I think the creator, Qunom, no longer exists). Now I want to go to another program called Advanced File Organizer, but I have to recatalog all 210 DVDs, which I have not yet done).
After I started to write to tapes I ran into a bit of a problem. DVDs were small - usually one or two series per disk - so that's easy - just write and it's ok. However, a tape holds 100GB, that means I can write more than two series per tape; that means that I have to somehow figure out how to do it without creating a mess. I now try to write all seasons of some series to the same tape, but that means I have to hold the already downloaded and watched seasons just to get that new one. And If I write one season to one tape, other season to other tape, then, when my friend asks me to get him that series, I will be changing tapes like DVDs...
My hard drive storage is about 800GB (not only anime).

As for anime, I have 289GB on DVDs, 199GB on tapes (two tapes) and about 140GB in hard drives about 637GB total...