nishsuxx 193 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 Hi All, I am an obsessive compulsive download-er. There is something or the other always downloading on my machine. Couple of days ago my Western Digital HDD started developing bad sectors and eventually died like a pig while taking backup. This one lasted around three years. Earlier as well hard drives have died on me in similar manner. I don't blame the manufacturers, i think its just my excessive hard drive use. Anyways I was discussing same with a friend and the suggested that I should plug in a pen drive / SD card with an adapter and use that as the downloading partition... The idea initially sounded brilliant to me but then a doubt crossed my mind that may be the download buffer will initially be saved on the hard drive and the moved to the pen drive. Can someone confirm this ? Will hard drive be taken out of picture if say for example torrent is saving to the pen drive... Any other option which can help reducing / removing the I/O from the HDD ? Dont want to use [or invest] network drives / SSDs or reduce the downloading for that matter TIA. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 Just boot linux from pen drive or dvd and use torrents / ftp / http downloads , 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nishsuxx 193 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 ^^^^ Hmm, Interesting! but cannot put Linux on the machine otherwise half of my day will end up on call/chat with wife about "What to do next" 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 Dont put on system, use live disk / usb or even you can install on pen drive, just boot from usb when u want to downloading you can even dual boot your pc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nishsuxx 193 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 I got the idea sir. My office laptop is dual boot Ubuntu / Win 7, my office machine is dual boot Debian / windows XP...But! wife is at home watching Sparcatus / Community / Movies .. chatting on skype / gtalk .. wasting money on Myntra / Jabong etc from 10 AM - 8 PM... So the system cannot run Linux for almost half of the day ... OR the big OR ... I`ll have to teach my wife to use Linux ...Me -> <- Wife OR will have to reboot into windows in the morning .. resume the download {99% torrents} and do the same thing in evening ... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 one more way http://torrentfreak.com/using-bittorrent-without-a-pc/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nishsuxx 193 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 ^^^ Actually this is the product that i meant when i wrote "Network Drive" {I know, not correct technically} I have configured same for a friend few moons back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 This will be the best solution for you as you dont want to use pc hdd. download direct to usb or hdd without pc, it will be having embedded OS (99% Linux) Even you can get few media players which do download and play video Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ni0987 179 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 I have configured my router for downloading the torrents. My router is Huawei HG556a with three USB ports. It runs on openwrt and transmission is configured in it. Attach a 16GB pen drive to it, upload the torrent file (to the router) and leave it. But I hardly use it. configured it just for fun 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Parth 10 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 I`ve the Asus RT-N56u with a 250GB HDD plugged in and it works well. Asus has a droid app as well which helps you monitor downloads over your phone (when on the network). Since you are more on the technical side, you could give the Raspberry Pi with a connected external HD a shot as well. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::: VA ::: 531 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 Just out of curiosity what measures do you take for your periodic hard drive maintenance through software. If using a pc, what about physical maintenance. You don't suppose they can remain efficient without extensive care for your kind of robust usage. Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 ^^^ from 10am to 8 pm his wife uses further no one should need explanations Sorry Nishant bhai, dotnt take it personally !! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nishsuxx 193 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 @Hitest bhai @Baba Ji : No sir not much love for the computer lately, havnt de-fragmented or used any other software. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rajanmehta 4,056 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 https://put.io/ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hiteshkkk1 327 Report post Posted November 28, 2013 I feel go with asus n13u router n install dd wrt custom firmware n then options are limitless.. You get a full fledged Linux environment n you can connect external hdd too.. Got torrents, you can install transmission. I've just installed dd wrt n it was quite simple... Getting up with transmission should be equally easy... You'll get this router for max 2000 Just check on various sites... I got it for 1900 on flipkart but it's no more there at same price. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nishsuxx 193 Report post Posted November 29, 2013 Means no other option than to spend some Bucks I`ll try to allocate budget in next calendar / financial year Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hiteshkkk1 327 Report post Posted November 29, 2013 Dear this is the cheapest form of nas you can get... You are anyway going to spend on external hard drive. Do note, opt for the one which have extra usb port for power as router's power would not be sufficient to power hard drive. You can plug the power part of hard drive s usb to aby 5v usb charger. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
funky_ace 16 Report post Posted November 29, 2013 (edited) You are missing one point here. Pen Drives\Mermory Cards\SSDs have limited number of read\write cycles. After that they just die, don't even develop bad sectors. Normally, I think, you can read\write a million times approximately. It may sound a lot but when you are consistently downloading stuff, which requires simultaneous read-write, then your device won't last long Edited November 29, 2013 by funky_ace Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::: VA ::: 531 Report post Posted November 30, 2013 @Hitest bhai @Baba Ji : No sir not much love for the computer lately, havnt de-fragmented or used any other software. As a baba , i wouldnt know so had to ask. Anways @nishsuxx i would strongly advise you use O & O Defrag for all your hard disks. its free, fast and been top notch hard disk defrag software on most reviews. Since our drives are spindle based , its best to keep them scan for hardware issues every now and then to avoid "died like a pig" as you quoted. My brother is an avid download freak too and his internal & external disks by god's grace been well and fine. One or two have continued for over a decade now. Just two simple maintenance tasks to be done. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nishsuxx 193 Report post Posted January 28, 2014 Update: The hard disc was more than 3 years old and out of warranty as per local dealer. I checked the serial number on western digital portal and it was showing under warranty till 03/2015. So i created a login and registered my drive and created a RMA [Return Merchandise Authorization] for same. I did this on 6th Jan, but the hard drive was finally picked by BlueDart on 21st Jan [after complaining on WD customer care] But today I got a new 500 GB hard drive to kill again.... So those of you who have WD drives, register them on their site and enjoy their slow but reliable service if required. Link: http://support.wd.com/warranty/index_end.asp?lang=en You can use the above link to check the remaining warranty on your drive. Screenshot attached. Total expenditure: rs 5 for print out and cello tape 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tanveer 59 Report post Posted January 28, 2014 You did not get a new drive, you got a replacement drive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nishsuxx 193 Report post Posted January 29, 2014 (edited) Well i am not sure about that ... It does not have Certified Replacement / Rectified engraved on it like some of my office drives Screen shot attached for the office drive i was using meanwhile: Edited January 29, 2014 by nishsuxx Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
