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Confessions of a storage junkie

Steve Conaway Labs Manager / Senior Technical Project Manager
I am the Labs Manager for CNET's Home Division based in Louisville, KY. My interest in technology began in the early '90s, and soon after I began my double major in computer science and computer engineering. I've worked in many areas, including computer hardware, software, technology, networking, graphic design, instruction, construction, music and even ballroom dancing! 65% Ron Swanson, 25% Ben Wyatt, 10% Andy Dwyer.
Expertise I've been an outdoor enthusiast my entire life. I also renovate, flip and build houses in my 'spare' time. Paired with our test lab facilities, I write about lots of outdoor related things - portable power stations, tools, etc.
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Steve Conaway
2 min read

I have a confession to make...I'm a digital pack rat. I have files back from 1995 that I know I will probably never need, but I don't want to get rid of them. My irrational fear is that, if I delete those files, I'll realize the next day I need them. So I just save them on my external drives, eating up valuable gigabytes of space. At least those files are not in the way like my stack of Windows 98 shareware CDs (Hey, I might need those some day!).

Now that I have a new digital camera that records MPEG4 videos and 5 megapixel pictures, I'm running out of space at an astounding rate. Yes, I could address the problem by getting rid of some of the junk. It's just easier living in denial. I've chosen to ignore my burgeoning file storage problem. I figure if I do a really good job ignoring the problem, it might fix itself. Out of sight and out of mind, right?

Unfortunately, my storage problems won't automatically resolve themselves. I've been feeding my storage addition with more gigabytes. More space! I need more space!

Jon L. Jacobi reviewed the Maxtor Shared Storage Plus drive. I need one of those! It's shiny and it ships is sizes from 200 to 500 GB. Plus, it's flat, so when I fill it up, I can just stack another one right on top.

Maxtor has been fighting with Seagate and Western Digital for quite some time by trying to have the biggest, best, fastest, smallest, least expensive drives around. Maxtor looks like they may be winning the battle with the Shared Storage Plus drive. The drives are half a terabyte! That might be almost enough space...for a little while.

The speed of the external drives are 7,200 rpm, which is OK. It would be nice to see drives in the 15K range. Once I decide I'm going to use those old files, I want to be sure I can get to them fast.

The Maxtor drive is designed to be put on your network as attached storage (NAS). The drive also have the ability to host an additional two attached USB drives or one drive and one printer.