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
Get two of these 1TB drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136313

These are enterprise class drives and are supposed to be a little more reliable than the consumer grade drives known as Caviar Black.

You should make your main file storage drive the drive that does not contain your operating system and keep the backup files on your main system disk. Why? Well for one thing the main system disk gets used more and therefore is more likely to fail. Also, proper computer maintenance requires a reformat of the hard drive and clean reinstall of the operating system once or twice a year to wipe out viruses, corruption, ect. So you don't want long term file storage on that disk.

Either AIFF or Flac are fine. Do not use Apple Lossless, the sound quality is vastly inferior, I don't care what anyone says. Flac and AIFF sound the same to my ears, but Apple Lossless has a sound. Wav is not an option because of the lack of tags. My next MP3 player will be FLAC compatible for sure.
Thanks everyone for your posts. I wound up with a 1TB HD (plenty of space left on the drive) and everything has been converted to FLAC. Many albums on the new HD in FLAC format need to be transferred to CD-R. What would be the best and easiest way to do this?
Hey, if anyone does go through with this, I would like to buy a copy of their external hard drive, that would save me a lot of time, just name your price.
Has anyone ever had a solid state drive fail? I've had about 10 over the past 7-8 years and never had a failure.
Has anyone ever had a solid state drive fail? I've had about 10 over the past 7-8 years and never had a failure.
I have 8 of them, ranging in age from a few months to about 5 or 6 years, and in size from 128 gB to 500 gB.  All have always worked perfectly.

For that matter, my experience has been that mechanical drives seem to be more reliable than they were say a dozen or so years ago.  Not to mention much bigger and faster.

Regards,
-- Al