GOG.com

[Guvide]

I'm a paranoid compulsive hoarder so I back-up everything I have, be it games, shows, music, books, all of it goes onto an external HDD and/or DVD.

 

[Infinitron]

Oh yeah, free Witcher 1 on GOG Galaxy: https://af.gog.com/news/the_witcher_enhanced_edition_now_free_for_all_gog_galaxy_users?as=1649904300

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

There are people who don't have it yet?

 

[Silly Germans]

What you guys using for storage and access ? I've been using mostly external hdds, and hdds with a docking station. But i am looking for a low maintenance solution that allows access via internet, which i'd also like to use for other stuff than games.

 

[Catacombs]

I'm a paranoid compulsive hoarder so I back-up everything I have, be it games, shows, music, books, all of it goes onto an external HDD and/or DVD.

What are your recommendations for good, nearly BIFL-tier externals?

 

[Guvide]

I'm a paranoid compulsive hoarder so I back-up everything I have, be it games, shows, music, books, all of it goes onto an external HDD and/or DVD.

What are your recommendations for good, nearly BIFL-tier externals?

I don't know what BIFL-tier means. If you're asking what brand the externals are, they are ADATA because that is what I bought from my local computer shop lol. So far none have died yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But at the end of the day it's a question of luck. Personally I think DVD's are more reliable if only for the fact that their low storage capacity means that you're not putting all your eggs into one basket.

 

[racofer]

M-DISC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

They claim it lasts for 1000 years.

 

[Catacombs]

I don't know what BIFL-tier means.

Buy It For Life.

 

[Bad Sector]

M-DISC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC [...] They claim it lasts for 1000 years.

According to that page, an age acceleration test did put it above most other DVD brands but not that much (in comparison some "glass DVD" fared much better but the site of its manufacturer doesn't work - i guess nobody cares about long term DVDs nowadays). Also AFAIK their tech is only for the DVDs and not their BDs (for which they just use the same name for marketing) meaning that you only get around ~4.7GB per disk. For me if i wanted to keep a backup of my external HDD on those disks i'd need ~1700 disks at a cost of ~1400 euros.

In practice, at least for regular consumers, it is cheaper (and more space efficient) to just buy larger external HDDs and copy your old stuff to the new HDD while keeping the old HDD as a backup.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

Is GOG in danger or something or you guys simply like keeping backups

Cause I'm paranoid myself with this stuff but I don't keep any GOG backups. Should I? Reading the last couple pages felt like everyone around me is preparing their bunkers and stacking up provisions while I'm an oblivious retard strolling around with my propeller cap

For new games and early access stuff, probably not. Those games are constantly being updated with DLCs and patches, making hoarding installs a pain. But for legacy downloads, absolutely. Besides, who wants to re-download a 30 gig game when you can just slap in a flash drive that has it? I've only got a few gog games installed at a time, but I've got around 9 or 10 USB drives full of more installers. It's not as much about gog going down, but rather being unavailable, lost internet, zombie apocalypse, etc. Online-only has made people lazy. Always be prepared for shit-storms.

 

[Ismaul]

I have way too many HDDs to backup. Like 10, from 3TB to 14TB, averaging around 6TB each. I've got 2 more dedicated to backups, plus like 2x 50-disc DVD towers from more than a decade ago which might be dead now. I should check but I no longer have a free SATA connector on my mobo for my DVD reader/writer lol.

I just had a full HDD die a month ago, with no backup. Non-essential stuff, but still hand-collected self-curated shit. I really need to upgrade my backup setup. If I'm going to collect shit, I better start ensuring the collection survives a HDD death.

Not sure I want to spend like 2K$ in 14TB HDDs + NAS or something similar to achieve it. I'm a poorfag still, but money is starting to flow in.

We might need a data hoarder thread.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I have way too many HDDs to backup. Like 10, from 3TB to 14TB, averaging around 6TB each. I've got 2 more dedicated to backups, plus like 2x 50-disc DVD towers from more than a decade ago which might be dead now. I should check but I no longer have a free SATA connector on my mobo for my DVD reader/writer lol.

I just had a full HDD die a month ago, with no backup. Non-essential stuff, but still hand-collected self-curated shit. I really need to upgrade my backup setup. If I'm going to collect shit, I better start ensuring the collection survives a HDD death.

Not sure I want to spend like 2K$ in 14TB HDDs + NAS or something similar to achieve it. I'm a poorfag still, but money is starting to flow in.

We might need a data hoarder thread.

Whoever invents some ultramegagiga compression method stands to make a potential fortune.

 

[Silly Germans]

I have way too many HDDs to backup. Like 10, from 3TB to 14TB, averaging around 6TB each. I've got 2 more dedicated to backups, plus like 2x 50-disc DVD towers from more than a decade ago which might be dead now. I should check but I no longer have a free SATA connector on my mobo for my DVD reader/writer lol.

I just had a full HDD die a month ago, with no backup. Non-essential stuff, but still hand-collected self-curated shit. I really need to upgrade my backup setup. If I'm going to collect shit, I better start ensuring the collection survives a HDD death.

Not sure I want to spend like 2K$ in 14TB HDDs + NAS or something similar to achieve it. I'm a poorfag still, but money is starting to flow in.

We might need a data hoarder thread.

I'm in a similar situation(except being poor). Especially my movie collection is made of shit tons of dvds/cds and even tapes which i'd like to digitize at some point. The problem with simply using hdds is that its busy work to keep everything in order. I have a bunch of textfiles that list the content of most hdds that i have but its not exactly a good solution. I am also tired of digging out the one old hdd with that single movie.
I am also curious if people have experience with ssd's as storage. Is their lifetime only limited due to the number of read/write/erase cycle or do they also degrade simply with time ? I've had a bunch of hdd that simply stopped working although they weren't running. It seems that the mechanical parts degrade even if you aren't using the hdd in some cases. Does this also happen to ssd's ?

 

[El Presidente]

I have way too many HDDs to backup. Like 10, from 3TB to 14TB, averaging around 6TB each. I've got 2 more dedicated to backups, plus like 2x 50-disc DVD towers from more than a decade ago which might be dead now. I should check but I no longer have a free SATA connector on my mobo for my DVD reader/writer lol.

I just had a full HDD die a month ago, with no backup. Non-essential stuff, but still hand-collected self-curated shit. I really need to upgrade my backup setup. If I'm going to collect shit, I better start ensuring the collection survives a HDD death.

Not sure I want to spend like 2K$ in 14TB HDDs + NAS or something similar to achieve it. I'm a poorfag still, but money is starting to flow in.

We might need a data hoarder thread.

Wow, that's a fuck lot of TBs. I would guess around 6-8TB would be enough for me to store pretty much anything I want to backup. Though I am big in emulation, I like to filter the catalogs of each platform to leave only the decent stuff, remove different versions of the same game and so on, so I wouldn't backup, say, the complete PS2 catalog (which by itself would take more than 8TB, I'm pretty sure), but only the worthwhile titles.

The only problem with this is that being a curator of these libraries takes a lot of time and effort. I do it anyways, I treat it as a hobby or sorts and have been doing it for years. I have already finished many systems, it's all very organized with english translation patches attached to the roms and so on. Maybe it's pretty retarded but I'm even kinda proud of the curation work I do in these digital collections, I mean the end result is really a beauty.

By the way, back to the GOG topic, I was lucky they didn't have the bright idea of replacing some oldies with "enhanced editions" that fucked up the games, like in the case of Simon the Sorcerer 1&2. I noticed you can't purchase the original games anymore, only the enhanced ones, but if you had the original games before that in your library, they didn't replace those versions. That was out of sheer luck, had they replaced them I'd have to pirate the GOG installer of the originals when I eventually backup my library.

 

[Endemic]

Hmm, it seems they did for some games. Although there are also others that have both versions (King of Dragon Pass, Original War, and Homeworld Remastered, for example).

 

[Machocruz]

And here I was walking around with big dick energy because I back up some of my saves.

 

[Ismaul]

And here I was walking around with big dick energy because I back up some of my saves.

Now you'll forever be known as Machocrushed.

 

[DalekFlay]

By the way, back to the GOG topic, I was lucky they didn't have the bright idea of replacing some oldies with "enhanced editions" that fucked up the games, like in the case of Simon the Sorcerer 1&2. I noticed you can't purchase the original games anymore, only the enhanced ones, but if you had the original games before that in your library, they didn't replace those versions. That was out of sheer luck, had they replaced them I'd have to pirate the GOG installer of the originals when I eventually backup my library.

Usually the remaster replaces the original in the store, but you get both versions if you buy it. That's how it was for D&D games, Bioshocks and others at least. I can't speak to Simon the Sorcerer as I only have the originals.

 

[Bad Sector]

Yeah, whenever they can they also add the original games. In fact IIRC Bioshock was initially only in their Remastered versions but they added the original versions later.

I still hope at some point they'll add the original version of Chronicles of Riddick - Escape from Butcher Bay though. The version that is part of Assault on Dark Athena isn't bad, but it screws up with the lighting too much IMO that changes some stuff (also there are shadow glitches in some cases).

 

[Azdul]

Usually the remaster replaces the original in the store, but you get both versions if you buy it. That's how it was for D&D games, Bioshocks and others at least. I can't speak to Simon the Sorcerer as I only have the originals.

When you buy Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2 25th Anniversary editions, you'll get originals as well. When they do include originals, they usually specify it in "Additional content" in game description.

 

[Dreed]

I still hope at some point they'll add the original version of Chronicles of Riddick - Escape from Butcher Bay though. The version that is part of Assault on Dark Athena isn't bad, but it screws up with the lighting too much IMO that changes some stuff (also there are shadow glitches in some cases).

I doubt they'll ever do that, Assault on Dark Athena was removed from sale almost 4 years ago and never came back

https://af.gog.com/forum/chronicles...k_return_to_butcher_bay_removal?as=1649904300

Posted March 09, 2017
Hey everyone,

Just a heads up to let you know that, unfortunately, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena will be leaving the GOG.com catalog as of 3pm UTC+1 today. We’re sad to see the title go but will do our best to hopefully bring it back at some point in the future!

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah, anything licensed from a movie or show like that get it ASAP.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And here I was walking around with big dick energy because I back up some of my saves.

Now you'll forever be known as Machocrushed.

More like Muchocrushed, damn.
Never bothered with backing up saves though, never used anything more than a quicksave.

 

[Lilliput McHammersmith]

I have way too many HDDs to backup. Like 10, from 3TB to 14TB, averaging around 6TB each. I've got 2 more dedicated to backups, plus like 2x 50-disc DVD towers from more than a decade ago which might be dead now. I should check but I no longer have a free SATA connector on my mobo for my DVD reader/writer lol.

I just had a full HDD die a month ago, with no backup. Non-essential stuff, but still hand-collected self-curated shit. I really need to upgrade my backup setup. If I'm going to collect shit, I better start ensuring the collection survives a HDD death.

Not sure I want to spend like 2K$ in 14TB HDDs + NAS or something similar to achieve it. I'm a poorfag still, but money is starting to flow in.

We might need a data hoarder thread.

It would take a long time to transfer your data over, but you can buy a fully loaded Dell MD1200 for less than $800 on eBay. I got one recently and it’s 12x 3TB drives. I have it set up in a RAID 6 configuration, which limits the amount of space to 30TB, but it can survive 2 drive failures at once.

You would need some kind of HBA or a PC capable of accepting a SAS connection. I use mine with a Dell R610, personally. I store all sorts of stuff on my cluster (movies, mostly) and it works quite well. I would recommend it.

 

[Bad Sector]

I doubt they'll ever do that, Assault on Dark Athena was removed from sale almost 4 years ago and never came back

Oh, i never noticed that. Too bad.