Format-shifting: now I’ve done it, where do I put it?

You know, I’ve got to confess, I’ve had something of a thought, the other day.

You’ve probably realised I’ve written the odd bit about technology, haven’t you?

Over the years, that is.

And, granted, I’m not Gizmodo, but I have tried to offer what I’ve learnt to help others do things I’ve found useful.

Whether those posts ARE helpful or not is a whole other matter, of course.

At any rate, there was something that occurred to me whilst I was writing two pieces on format-shifting. I’d told people — as best as I could — about what format-shifting was, and how to do it: it’s digital video conversion, so you know, so you can play a given file on different devices.

And it ALL came to a head when I was writing up a piece about Frank Herbert’s Dune.

I’d had all of that lot floating around my head, when it occurred to me.

I’ve just told people HOW to turn one type of video into ANOTHER type of video. And what software I happened to prefer doing this with.

But HADN’T told people EXACTLY where to put all these treasures, once they’d been doing their me-inspired jiggery pokery, had I … ?

No, I hadn’t.

And while I was writing up that Dune post, got to thinking I should make an attempt to remedy that.

Let’s get moving on, then, shall we … ?

Yes … LET’S!

»»·««

You see, if you, like me, have a bad habit of backing up your DVDs left right and centre, you’re — ultimately — going to be left with something of a question.

One that we’ve ALL been known to ask as our hard drives slowly fill up.

“All those DVD’s I’ve backed-up? And my iTunes library? Where on EARTH do I put them … ?”

Well, there’s an answer to that.

It helps if you know SOMETHING about — at least, in the very BASIC details — the rough workings of a home computer*.

Whether a desktop or laptop, it’ll have a central processorº that does all the work; it’ll have memory — RAM, as it’s called — that act’s as short-term memory; and a hard-drive, that’s the long-term storage.

There’s usually also connections for a mouse and keyboard, so we can tell our computers what to do. And a connection to a monitor. So we know when to swear at our computers when it DOESN’T do what we thought we just told it to do.

And for our purposes …?

It’s useful to think of the RAM as our desktop, where we put the things we’re using, right this minute.

And the hard=drive as the attic, where we keeping the things we either don’t need right now; or the files that application we ARE using only needs every-so-oftenª.

Now …

You can just tell I’m going to mention building a metaphorical extension to your house, can’t you?

»»·««

Well …

Sort of …

I’m actually going to suggest a garden shed, if you’ll excuse me extending a metaphor, by telling you to get hold of an external hard-drive.

You see, computer peripherals like hard-drives come in a few different flavours, depending on what you want to use them for, and how confident you feel about changing them.

Now, on my first modern Mac — a G4 tower — many of the internal components† were comparatively easy to replace; if you felt fairly confident: or knew someone who’d happily walk you through it.

On the OTHER hand, with Bruce, my ageing Mac Mini, the job’s a touch trickier to do: and involves a LOT of mechanical disembowelling I’m really not comfortable about doing.

Thankfully, if you’re ever in need the kind of we all find we need, you need …

An EXTERNAL HARD-DRIVE.

»»·««

Now, you’re probably thinking “An external hard drive … ?”

And wondering what the hell it is^.

Well, an external hard-drive is pretty much like the one you’ve already got built into your computer.

But where your internal drive is one of the basic parts of your computer, an external one literally is like the garden shed.

It’s storage, mostly for things you don’t need everyday: just to give you an example, I use my external drive for storing all my movies.

Where it get’s complicated, though, is whether you’ve attached your drive to your network or directly to your computer.

Obviously, there’s what’s called the Network Attached Drive.

Now I’ll happily admit that the Network Attached Drive is something I’m not familiar with.

But the basic idea — if I’ve understood it correctly — is fairly simple.

Most of us, these days, have both internet access: AND a router that allows us to connect to it.

AND multiple machines that connect to the router: not just computers, either, these days, we’re talking about everything form games consoles to fridge-freezers to TVs.

And, although I can’t swear to how complicated a job it is, the Network Attached Drive hooks up to our routers, so it’s accessible to all machines on our network. (WHY you’d want to watch a film on your fridge-freezer is a mystery to me. But feel free to let me know if Godzilla works well with the roast beef and frozen broccoli.)

Granted, we’d PROBABLY have to do extra fiddling to make it accessible to EVERYTHING on our network: but the heart of it is that simple.

»»·««

The easier way of building that shed is to get what’s called a Directly Attached Drive.

Which, for those of us who aren’t so technical, are a LOT easier to deal with!

Basically, most Directly Attached Drives are literally that.

They’re a form of external hard-drive much like a sort of giant flash-drive, and plug straight into our machines: show up much like those same flash-drive.

And as easy to use, I should stress.

Most of the time, one simply uses drag and drop take files from one folder — the file you want to copy — and drag it to where you want to put it.

It’s that simple.

What’s a pain … ?

Are all the different types of connections‡.

But, if you’re looking for simplicity, you normally can’t go far wrong with just a good old fashioned USB connection.

From my own experience USB’s very good at connecting a computer peripheral to a computer: mouse, keyboard, external drive, what have you. Where it loses, though, is if you daisy-chained USB devices, or plug them all through through a USB hub.

Personally, though, I tend to prefer using a FireWire connection, where possible: when it comes down to copying files, I’ve noticed that FireWire˜ tends to be a touch faster than the equivalent USB.

FireWire connected devices also seem happier about being daisy-chained. I know that — as I write — I’ve got Bruce hooked up to an exterior hard-drive through the onboard FireWire 400port, and the exterior hard drive to an external DVD burner drive: I’ve got to admit burning anything stored on the external hard-drive to the optical drive is pretty zippy.

»»·««

Now, there’s one more thing: storage isn’t the only use for an external hard-drive.

If you’re feeling adventurous, something you can do is partition your shiny new external drive.

Now, I’ve got to admit, I’ve got thing’s relatively easy on that front.

Ever since I’ve had a Mac, Mac OS X has come with a handy little app called Disk Utility: which, amongst other things, can partition a drive.

But those of us on Windows will have to do a bit of asking around on that front, to find the equivalent Windows software.

At any rate, once we’ve got that extra partition, is where we can get adventurous.

Like many of our Linux using brethren, we can — again, if we’re feeling adventurous — turn one of the partitions on our external drives into what’s called a bootable drive: and install an extra operating system onto it.

Something I know I’ve thought about trying, but haven’t had the resources to, for a while

If, on the other hand, we’re feeling cautious?

We can do something else.

We can make use of a back-up application: I personally favour the Mac’s on-board back-up utility, Time Machine.

And I’m assured — by a friend or two in the serious know — that Crash Plan is the version they’d recommended to Windows and Linux users: it’s very user friendly, the basic version is free, and that basic version allows you to back-up your computer …

To the very same partitioned external drive we’ve been talking about.

»»·««

Now, I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but there’s an old phrase I’ve come across.

‘You can never have too much shelf space’.

It’s true, isn’t it?

We ALWAY’S seem to be running out, aren’t we?

Well, in today’s digital age, internal and external hard drives are the digital equivalent of exactly that.

Shelf space.

And I’m thinking the old phrase is true.

Whatever form it takes. You can NEVER have too much: whether it’s on the wall …

Or in the shed!

* I’ve personally always preferred the term home computer to PC, or personal computer. You’ve probably worked out I’m a Mac fan, haven’t you … ? To me, the terms PC and personal computer very specifically refer to a PC: a home computer, in other words, that’s made in a particular way, and (usually) running a version of Microsoft Windows. The nearest I can compare it too? Is calling an Xbox 360 a Nintendo Wii. They’re both video games consoles: but very distinct ones, with — at least historically — very different features.

º There’s also a logic-board/motherboard, that the RAM, processor and hard-drive — along with all the other components — are connected to.

ª Metaphor … ? Metaphor what … ?

† Things like RAM, hard-drives and and upgraded graphics cards.

^ Much like the rest of the technical posts, here, I’m trying to explain fairly subjects that have some fairly technical aspects, from what’s a VERY limited layman’s understanding of the subject. I’m hoping one of my more technically gifted readers will be able to make a better job of clearing up my mess!

‡ SCSI, ATA, s-ATA, e-ATA, p-ATA, SAS, USB, FC-AL, KGB, RAC, AA, MiniPax, MiniTru, MiniLuv, MiniPlenty, EtAl …

˜ Generally speaking, USB1 and 1.1 are a lot slower than USB2, which in turn, is slower than USB3: likewise, FireWire 200 is slower than FireWire 400, which is slower than FireWire 800.