Hard Drive Giveaway: I've Got 3350 GB of Storage to Give Away

[Jason Dunn]

<p>In a discussion thread that started <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f303/ram-heaven-where-my-old-ram-goes-94443.html" target="_blank">talking about my collection of old RAM</a>, I mentioned that I had a bunch of "small, old hard drives" that I didn't have any use for, and the response when I stated the capacities was quite amusing - my definition of "old" is any hard drive older than two years, and "small" is anything under 500 GB or so. A few people in that discussion thread are still using sub-100 GB hard drives, so it seemed like it was time for a giveaway!</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1250370548.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>I have seven hard drives in total to give away, ranging from a new 750 GB drive down to a 300 GB drive. All told, I have 3350 GB in storage up for grabs. The drives in this giveaway are:</p><ul><li>Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750 GB (SATA)</li><li>Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500 GB (SATA)</li><li>Western Digital Caviar 500 GB (SATA)</li><li>Western Digital Caviar 500 GB (SATA)</li><li>Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400 GB (SATA)</li><li>Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400 GB (SATA)</li><li>Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB (PATA)</li></ul><p>So here's how this going to work: every week for seven weeks I'm going to give away one of the drives. Each contest will be the same as this one: all you have to do is post a message telling me how you'd use the hard drive. Will you replace the hard drive in a current computer? What size is your current drive? Or add it to a current system as a backup drive? Or will you put the drive in an enclosure? Post one message in the discussion thread. I'll select the winner at random. Once you win one of the contests, you're out of the running for the next contests in this series. Each winner will be contacted via private forum message and they'll have 72 hours to respond to claim their prize - so be sure email notifications are turned on for your forum account. The last contest I ran someone missed out on winning a prize because they didn't reply to my message for two weeks!</p><p>The drive I'm giving away in this first contest is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400 GB drive. This contest will close on Thursday the 27th at 12 noon GMT -7. Enter now!</p><p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> The contest is completed, and the winner is <em>dirtboy</em>. Thanks to everyone for entering! Many more hard drive giveaways coming up...</p>

[uzziah0]

Wow. I could really use a bigger driver than I already have. I used to have an external LaCie 160 GB drive, but it went south last year, and I have not been able to get something to replace it.
I have inside my PC an 80 or 120 GB (I cannot remember which) and a 40 GB (from an older computer).
Having enough room on my computer again would be great.

Am I the first to post!!!

[paschott]

I'd probably get an enclosure and use this as an external drive. I have an eSATA External connector, but could probably find a case that would allow me to connect it. I could definitely use something to back up my photos on a regular basis. I already have enough internal drives, though I could consider replacing one of my older internal drives for this one.

[jeffd]

I could use an new hd, I have a good pc that I need memory and a hd for to bring back to life. My bro currently wants a computer and the only thing I have to give him is a pos laptop from 6 years ago.

[Ploobers]

I'd put it in an enclosure for backup.

[randalllewis]

My system has a 750Gb drive that is about 60 percent full. I would use a second drive for my personal media, keeping it separate from the drive with the operating system and applications.

I have become a zealot about back-up and use a stand alone drive for copies of my media. I use an automatic process to back up the C drive but also periodically manually copy the media as well. This is not the most efficient back up system ever devised, but it makes me feel more secure.

I became a back-up believer the way most people do- painfully. A second drive in my system would allow for a safer and more labor effective back-up process. I'd still use the stand alone drive but wouldn't need to do the manual copying back-up to my back-up.

Our personal media is the most important data on our computers. Music can be replaced as can commercial video. My personal video and pictures are the most important items I own. And as zealous as I have been on back-up in recent years, a few weeks ago it became even more vital to me in a way that you Jason can appreciate: the birth 58 days ago of my first grandchild. The number of pictures on my computer has grown exponentially since then.:D

[Eriq Cook]

I'd add it to home server PC as additional storage drive. Lots of movies and running out of storage!

[oguime]

I'm overseas and not sure if I qualify for this giveaway, but...

I've been thinking about installing Windows Home Server into my Dell desktop It used to have just 80GB but I've recently added another 500MB.

Anything else would be nice to increase total space or as a backup using an external enclosure...

Regards,

Gilson

[Reid Kistler]

Hmm.... my system has 410GB, spread over 2 HDs, so it would be tempting to put a larger HD in place of one of the existing ones, & then pass that one along.

OTOH, just bought new machine for youngest daughter, specifically for Photoshop CS4, and there was no room in budget for a 2nd HD - and just KNOW that she will be running out of room by the time winter semester is over.... :rolleyes:

If lucky enough that it comes to a Decision, might end up having to flip a coin!
(Or else see how Grades hold up....;))

[bsieve]

right now I backup 150 gigs of stuff but on two 100 gig hard drives with only one enclosure. So I have to back half up switch out the drive and then backup the rest. A larger drive then would allow me to do it all in one step. Easier and safer I should really do this anyways but lets hope I can win one

[dshep2020]

I would add it to my WHS and increase my pool of storage.

[JonnoB]

I am not sure if I would enclose it on its own or stick it into an existing system... I do know however that I am in need of storage. I coach several youth sports and have kids playing high school sports as well (football, wrestling, cheer). In addition, I have a 7 month old that needs pictures taken of. Photos and videos pile up quickly for my 8 children (yes 8!)

[Joel Crane]

My backup and media server has a 40gb HDD, and it is packed. I'd probably pop this drive into an enclosure, and finally have seemingly unlimited space!

[asims]

I would make it an external HD and use it to back up the five computers we have in our household.

[andrew_lee]

I'd probably also put it in an enclosure and use it as an external HD for backup, since I don't have a real backup system now.

[PeeVee]

I would put it in an enclosure and load all my movies on it to play back through my Xbox 360.

[cjhpe]

Well I was thinking I needed to upgrade one of my older computers and add a 2nd drive to my Windows Home Server (either in an enclosure or in the case if there is room). So I am going to use if for one of these. Save me some cash.

[darinu]

I would use it for backup. I have a external SATA hard drive docking station that lets me easily connect the drive.

[Bob Christensen]

I would put it in my daughter's Dell E510. It has a 160gb drive that's getting a little crowded. But primarily, she needs another drive for backup.

[dtanderson]

I would add the drive to my media server which the drive in it now is almost full and really needs an upgrade.

[cmchavez]

Currently I have a 200 gig system drive that I back up only the personal documents and settings folders to a separate, external 160 gig drive; basically my CYA drive to prevent my wife from killing me over digital photos that haven't yet been burned to backup disks.

I'd probably swap out the main system drive for a larger drive, then use the 200 gig drive as a secondary storage drive with a recurring Robocopy task to provide a secondary backup copy of all the essential files.

[dirtboy]

I will replace the HD in my synology box. When the power goes out and it reboots, sometimes the 500 GB drive inside it won't spin up. I have a feeling it is on its way out, but I have't the cash to replace it right now.

[moonwalker_v2]

Hi,
I use my external USB 80 GB hard disk along with my built in 160 GB hard disk of my HP laptop. I would like to use one of these contest prize hard disks as storage for my HD movies.

[DustyLBottoms]

I'm going to use the drive as a replacement for a media computer that I let my kids watch DVDs on. Ours crashed last week! Our current (crashed) drive is an 80GB unit.

[genezou]

I am going adding more harddrive into the pool of harddrives in my Windows Home Server.

[tregnier]

My computer is 5 years old and has an eide drive. I would like to replace my old drive before it fails, with something bigger and faster.

[tabi13]

I currently have a 500gb drive in my system which is quickly filling up due to my main 2 interests

1. Photography (shooting with a Canon 40d)
2. PC games

I could REALLY use this drive as a dedicated disk to hold all my pictures.

[etalos]

First of all, It's awesome that you're giving your old hardware away, helping out others that could actually make good use of it.

If I would be one of the lucky people to win, here's what I'd likely do...

Buy an external drive enclosure, probably a vantec (nexstar) product as they've been pretty decent for me.

This would be an external/portable drive for a few different uses. I would partition it into multiple parts so that at least the first partition could be an OS, and at least another for data. But for the most part here's a few uses:

1. Load an alternate boot system mainly for recovery of my netbook (hp mini 110) so that I don't need to use a usb key; plus I'd have the disk backup data right there to restore from.

2. Data drive to store big files or lesser used files that don't need to clutter the local disk drive (photos,docs,games). This would keep performance up on the local OS drive.

3. Use the external drive as a repository for CD Images. Basically using a virtual cd/dvd drive and loading images off disk is a great way to let netbooks install software I have only on CD/DVD discs. It's pretty simple really, getting VirtualCloneDrive, and mounting images created with ImageBurn can almost make up for the absence of a physical drive in netbooks.

Thanks for all the great reviews!

[dbng]

I'd drop it in an enclosure and use it for much needed backup.

[Cold Flame]

I would likely use it as my excuse to finally format, and put Windows 7 on. I'd use my current hard drive (which is ~6 years old), and likely use it as a temporary storage spot for things I need to burn and haven't had the time to yet. I have a feeling it's on its way out, and I don't like having it as my primary drive right now!

[macattack]

I would definitely put it in an enclosure and use it to back-up my unibody MBP.

[jlafount]

I'd use it on my backup system to store some video files

[BabyJ2590]

I am student and have run out of storage space on my Dell XPS and external hard drive and I want to buy a NAS for my roommate and I to use. However, as a student buying both the NAS device and storage to go with it is steep. So, a free drive would push to me to make the purchase and enjoy the added freedom with a NAS. Thanks.

[gstenger]

Well, since the current boot drive on my 4 year old Dell is starting to become questionable, I would use this as a replacement for the boot drive since I already moved my important files to a newer backup drive. I would also take it as a perfect opportunity to install the retail version of Windows 7 when it gets shipped in October which I pre-purchased last month.

Thanks!
Greg

[gschlau]

I've cobbled together a few VERY old drives to make a Ubuntu file server, if you will. One of those drives is making those stomach-churning screeching noises. I need one of your drives before this one fails!

[Jason Dunn]

The contest is now over! And the winner is...

dirtboy

Thanks to everyone for enterting!

[Larchi]

I would replace an aging 200 GB SATA drive with the 400 GB. This would make an excellent new home for my video editing drive.

[dirtboy]

WooHoo!

This will let me have a good working drive in my Syno box (I love that thing) and use the old drive to experiment with Amahi home server until it dies.

Thanks Jason!