OT: How full should I let a hard drive get?

Spot|DSE wrote on 2/15/2004, 9:48 AM

As long as you are less than 15% full, you should be fine. If you use a 3rd party defrag tool, you can usually get away with 95% full. I've got a drive now sitting at 98% and it's pretty clutzy at getting info on and off. But I'm out of space on the RAIDs so have no choice at the moment unless I want to transfer to firewire drives.

Randy Brown wrote on 2/15/2004, 10:02 AM

That's what I wanted to hear Spot, thanks!
Randy

pb wrote on 2/15/2004, 3:26 PM

I agree with SPOT and add another 5% safety margin = 80% of rated capacity = full. Diskeeper is a must, far better than the Windows defragger and has the added benefit of being able to run in the background, activating whenever the PC is idle.

I started using those affordable Maxtor USB 2 externals* for archiving -- they are also a fast and easy way to swap files between PCs if you're a Luddite like me and don't want to bother setting up a mini Network with servers and such.

* 275 CAD for 250 gigs at Staples recently!

Peter

musicvid10 wrote on 2/15/2004, 8:27 PM

"Any opinions on there being a disadvantage to letting a hard drive get, say, more than 70% full?"

yep... time to get another drive. 50 cents/gig isn't bad .

RichMacDonald wrote on 2/16/2004, 8:40 AM

>"Any opinions on there being a disadvantage to letting a hard drive get, say, more than 70% full?"

I have yet to max out my WinXP, but I can tell you from experience that all prior Windows will never fully recover if you fill up your C drive (OS drive) 100%. Windows will recover, but it will never perform as fast as it used to. I dunno where the problem lies, but no amount of cleanup medicine works, IME.

(Ok, this sounds like FUD and it surely is -- unscientific testing, for sure -- but please, don't go there, okay! Windows screws up enough; you don't need to assist it :-)

24Peter wrote on 2/16/2004, 8:28 PM

I'm running XP Home. I'm at about 96% on a WD 120GB 8MB drive with my video files (separate drive for Vegas and my OS). No probs at all. Never defragged it either.

Caruso wrote on 2/16/2004, 11:53 PM

I fill my data drives (all external firewire) until they (or Vegas or whatever program I'm using) protest that there is no more room.

Then, I move or delete files so that I have enough room to restart/complete whatever storage task is at hand. When that drive protests again, I repeat the process.

I suppose this might "compromise" my system's performance, but it is probably no more time consuming before than after the fact. I let my computer perform most disk-intensive operations when I'm sleeping, anyhow, so whatever performance degradation my disk management causes is transparent to me.

That's my experience . . . yours may differ.

Caruso

Randy Brown wrote on 2/17/2004, 6:47 AM

Thanks everyone, I thought I had read that you should try not to let a drive get over 75% full but maybe I dreamed it.
Randy

jester700 wrote on 2/17/2004, 7:06 AM

There's a difference between a system drive and a data drive. I'd probably keep a system drive below 75% myself (in reality it's usually around 50%, because by then I usually upgrade to a biger drive - not for its size, but for its newer, faster design). But a data drive I'd let go almost "to the top" - maybe 90%-ish.