Introduction Every once in a while, I’ll receive a message or comment from someone who’s accidentally stumbled upon this blog. They’re not digital hoarders, and sometimes not even technically minded. They’ve usually been searching for a solution to a technical problem they’re having and by some fluke, they’ve found my blog and decided I sound … Read more
Introduction If you’re in the market for a new hard drive (for data-hoarding purposes or otherwise), you’ll no doubt have noticed that hard drive models are often listed by color. Simply put, particular models of hard drives are assigned a color to indicate their capabilities and intended uses. The manufacturers assign these colors to help … Read more
For the vast majority of data-hoarders, hard drives are their preferred storage medium. As you might expect, it’s not unusual for someone dedicated to the data-hoarding hobby to have several hard drives in use at any one time. The question that we see asked over and over again is “when should I replace my hard … Read more
If you’ve ever touched a hard drive (either internal or external) after it’s been running for some time, you’ve probably noticed that it’s quite warm. Being a mechanical component, we would expect a hard drive to generate some heat during normal operation. Like most computer components, however, the hard drive is susceptible to damage should … Read more
Introduction If you’re a data-hoarder, the thought of deleting any data once your hard drive is full probably fills you with a sense of terror (rightly so!). For most people, the best way to increase their free storage space is to install an additional hard drive into their PC. The process of adding a second, … Read more
Introduction If you’ve spent any time browsing the various forums or subreddits dedicated to data-hoarding, you’ve likely seen this common question being asked: “What are the best hard drive alternatives?”. This is often asked by newbie or aspiring data-hoarders and unfortunately, the question isn’t often satisfactorily answered. In fact, some people responding to this question … Read more
Introduction I’ve been regularly buying hard disk drives for the best part of three decades. Over this time, the capacities have increased tremendously. It’s sometimes difficult to appreciate just how much hard disk capacities have increased over this time. Whilst many data-hoarders are well aware of current drive capacities, there’s still some confusion from the … Read more
As you may imagine, as a data-hoarder, I’ve owned dozens, if not hundreds of hard drives over the years. Each time one of my hard drives reaches capacity, its contents are copied to a new drive, and the old drive is removed from the computer. I’ve mentioned in the past that I don’t like to … Read more
With the initial trials of SpaceX Starlink drawing to a close with positive results, some people in the datahoarding community are considering subscribing to the service. If you live in an urban area with good Internet connectivity this post will be of limited use to you. If however, you live in a rural area and … Read more
I was reading on a forum recently about a guy that was boasting he had a private database containing pager messages dating back decades. A lot of people were asking him about his setup and why he bothered getting into this. Unfortunately, he was being quite secretive and not giving much away. I hoard lots … Read more