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Ripping 700 CD's to HD using FLAC-How much space?

Hello all,

Currently, I am in the process of transferring my cd's to an external hard drive using FLAC lossless, EAC for transfer and WinAmp for a media player. I would like a HD with enough space for future downloads but am unsure as to what size to purchase? Memory seems reasonably priced these days and 1TB external HD's are plentiful. Also, I may let go of cd's that I no longer listen to after I have them on the HD which leaves me with another dilemma - how many HD's would suffice for backups? Everyone's advice is appreciated. Thanks, Chris

Currently using:
Windows XP Home
Dell XPS 400
Room for 2 internal HD's (using only (1) currently)
chris74

Showing 2 responses by ironmine

ironmine
41 posts
 
Blindjim, you wrote: "Another thought here is, FLAC allows you to select the bit rate...".

It seems to me you are mistaken. You cannot choose the bit rate, but you can choose the level of compression. Also, there is no such thing as "the usual default of 768". The resulting bit rate of a FLAC file depends on the complexity of the music (for example, jazz be compressed more than heavy metal) and the choosen compression level.
ironmine
41 posts
 
Chris74,

I have a large collection of FLAC, which I keep on DVD+RW disks. You can make use of my statistics: I have currently 1146 albums and they are stored on 93 DVD+RW disks. It means that 1 DVD disk contains on average 12,3 albums. One DVD disk can store 4482 Mb, it means that one album on average occupies 364 Mb.

If you rip your 700 CDs into FLAC, you will need, based on my experience, 249 Gb. This figure will be 10-20% bigger if your albums are hard-to-compress music genres (hard rock, black metal, etc.) Also, this figure will be 10-20% less if you listen primarily to easier-to-compress styles (soul, jazz, voice, a capella, etc.)

I hope it helps.

Regards,
Evgeny K.
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