colorflow Posted January 22, 2007 Share #1 Posted January 22, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) My hard disc is getting full now that I've had my M8 for a couple of months. What would you suggest to use for storing these files? An external hard drive? What about backups? I hate to lose all the files if the drive crashes. Thanks, Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 Hi colorflow, Take a look here What storage device to use for digital files?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
okram Posted January 22, 2007 Share #2 Posted January 22, 2007 Im thinking about WD Mybook (or something called). An Firewire external disc, It has a terabyte space on two 500MB discs, but in mirror RAID, (you see 500GB but everything is copied..) so it should be safe enough for couple of years, untill you will probably buy a 50TB disc... And after backuping, pull the plug out. M Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dugby Posted January 22, 2007 Share #3 Posted January 22, 2007 I use two Vosonics, a Vosonic VP6210 for daily 'outside use"..... Vosonic But am about to buy a D-link DNS-323 network attached storage (aka NAS) which will be ethernet attached to my home network. 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure - DNS-323 by D-Link It has RAID1, ie mirroring and so I will put two 400 or 500GB SATA2 drives into it. I have 3 copies of images all the time, 2 on separate hard disks (on separate devices) and a 3rd on DVD. PS I am an advocate of not trusting DVDs/CDroms. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted January 22, 2007 Share #4 Posted January 22, 2007 Alan, you are right to be concerned about backup. Bottom line is that hard drives will fail at some point, it's not "if", it's "when" and you need two separate copies of your information if you want to be certain (as much as you can ever be) of not losing your data. Don't fall into the trap of segmenting a single physical drive into multiple logical drives - if the physical drive fails, you'll lose all the logical drives. Best solution is to use an external storage box (commonly called Network Attached Storage - NAS) with RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) which has build in redundancy so that if one hard drive in it fails, you can recover the information from the remaining hard drives. I use boxes from Infrant called ReadyNAS (www.readynas.com) which cost less than 1/2 an M8 for 1.5Tb of protected storage. We've discussed this previously, do a search on RAID to locate the threads. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
whodywei Posted January 22, 2007 Share #5 Posted January 22, 2007 Try double layer DVDs, or Blu-ray DVD for both backup, and file storing. I don't know what kind of computer you have, so I don't know if it's possible to add more HDs in your computer, because generally speaking internal HD is always more reliable than the external HD. PS. if you have more than 400G of pictures, you may want to get a NAS box. Intel SS4000ENA Entry Storage System, and Infrant ReadyNAS RNV1-S2 are very good for home use. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted January 22, 2007 Share #6 Posted January 22, 2007 You should prefer established technology. The new stuff is often the first to go wrong. Blu-Ray may have more capacity, but the writers are both incredibly expensive (do you have one?), and the technology is too new. Let it settle down first (if ever). I would use regular CDs and DVDs, depending on how many pictures you have in what format. Mike Johnston has several older articles on which to use: The Online Photographer Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
whodywei Posted January 22, 2007 Share #7 Posted January 22, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Actually I got a LITE-ON Blu-ray burner not too long ago for about $580, the disc is about $10-12 per one. I agree that Blu-ray is a new technology, but so far it works really well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted January 22, 2007 Share #8 Posted January 22, 2007 I agree with Carsten, established techology is best when safeguarding your data. Blu-Ray may be fine now, but what if Sony don't win the format battle and you end up with a bunch of discs with nothing to play them on? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
whodywei Posted January 22, 2007 Share #9 Posted January 22, 2007 I agree with Carsten, established techology is best when safeguarding your data. Blu-Ray may be fine now, but what if Sony don't win the format battle and you end up with a bunch of discs with nothing to play them on? don't forget PS 3. :D Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielt Posted January 22, 2007 Share #10 Posted January 22, 2007 My pictures are stored in two differents places: a) External Hard disk USB (I have 3 units) DVD Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
graeme_clarke Posted January 22, 2007 Share #11 Posted January 22, 2007 I have a second 250gb installed in a Dell dessktop PC and an external 500gb Lacie connected by firewire. There are some good deals on external hard drives at the moment. The computer is getting on, and its original 80gb hard drive failed about 2 years ago - just managed to copy its information onto a replacement before it packed in completely. I had one die in a laptop, and the data couldn't be recovered. As others have said, they can go anytime, suddenly. Backing up has to be a way of life - and I'm lazy about it at times. Hope this helps, Graeme Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colorflow Posted January 22, 2007 Author Share #12 Posted January 22, 2007 Thanks everyone. This is really helpful. I think I am going to go with Dugby's suggestion of the DNS323 and a couple of Seagate drives. This is really a great forum. Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomasl.se Posted January 22, 2007 Share #13 Posted January 22, 2007 I use both DVDs and external HDs. DVD: Verbatim with AZO layer has good reputation for reliabilitly. There's a significatnly more expensive Japanese brand also often recommended; I've forgotten the name, but recall seing them sold in single packs. - Peridically clean your burner's laser (ordinary $5 CD/DVD cleaner disk + fluid). Especially important if it's in close proximity to the kitchen. - Burn at 2X, not faster. - Do not write with a marker on either surface of the DVD; it may seep through the layers. - Don't store a DVD in a CD jewel case. The hole grip of those can cause damage to the important DVD metadata, which is stored closest to the hole of the DVD. Store in acid free paper or soft pocket CD/DVD wallets. Large wallets can be found very cheaply if you look around. - Don't fingerprint the disc. - Store DVDs in a dark and dry place, room temp or cooler. HD: Not plastic casing LaCie's. Their reputation is that of overheating and failing withing months. I use USB2 primarily for the reason that I have found firewire too easily disconnected by mistake. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted January 22, 2007 Share #14 Posted January 22, 2007 I have two plastic case Lacie Porsche drives, both of which have been perfect so far. I have also never had any disconnects with Firewire. One of the two is Firewire, the other USB. The Firewire one is significantly faster. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomasl.se Posted January 22, 2007 Share #15 Posted January 22, 2007 Do you have any supplementary backup? How long have the LaCies been spinning? Mine was perfect for about half a year or so. Same story with my buddie's, and essentially coinciding reports I've heard elsewhere such as from retailers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Metroman Posted January 22, 2007 Share #16 Posted January 22, 2007 I currently run two 2 Buffalo Terastation Pro 1Tb NAS Storage, RAID 05. One gives me a 1 tetrabyte of storage the other is plugged into it backing it up automatically via software. I also make a third copy of my images onto Delkin e-film archival gold dvd's. It is always worth testing that your backups have worked and to try doing a restore at regular intervals to prove it and give yourself peace of mind. Never trust that your software/hardware has done a backup just because it says it has backed up xxx number of files. Do a test restore to prove it. Most IT pros will tell you of horror stories of when a system failed and they loaded the backup only to find it was corrupted or worse not there at all. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted January 22, 2007 Share #17 Posted January 22, 2007 Alan, DVDs and CDs are cheap -- but not reliable. One scratch and you're out of business! I find them handy for transportation of large files. I use multiple, external hd's from LaCie. I recommend you buy their biggest, refurbished disk. Keep them powered down when not in use, as they don't have cooling fans. I have been using LaCie's since about 2002 and like them a lot. They are fast, and pretty (what's wrong with that). The problem is that their warranty is only 1 year and they won't even look at them after that. After having a couple of them go south over a 1.5 year period, I found replacement cases with the necessary interface boards at MicroCenter for $40. The drives themselves were fine and have been working like drafthorses since. So, I like them but now only buy them refurbished from LaCie. I figure they should pay for the replacement interfaces. I have communicated with them in this regard. I understand that stuff keeps changing, but I suggested they offer a repair policy with a price schedule More to the point, multiple, external drives. I have 3 copies of my digi negs, one offsite. I use the inexpensive Second Copy for backup. It knows which files need to be moved and ignores the ones already backed up. NOTE: even with the failure (and resuscitation) of 3 drives, I have not lost a single file (read: image) I now have just over 2 terabytes of storage (I also do video, and that makes digi pix look like picky eaters). Let's see: One M8 = 20 300-GB LaCie harddisks. Storage is cheap. I do review images for deletion, however. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted January 22, 2007 Share #18 Posted January 22, 2007 My first Lacie has been running for perhaps two years, the other one about a year and a half. They are always on. I have the internal drives which they back up, and then I sometimes copy stuff to CD or DVD. I still need to settle on a rigorous physical backup schedule, but at the moment I have at least two, often three backups of everything important. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted January 22, 2007 Share #19 Posted January 22, 2007 ... I still need to settle on a rigorous physical backup schedule .... As I keep the drives powered down, I need to schedule backup manually. Necessity is the mother of invention: I copy my SD's to the in-computer disk af each session. Then I set the SD card aside. When I start to run out of SD's (orthink I might if I got caught somewhere that I needed to take 500 pictures!), I do the backups to the various external devices and reformat the SD card. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody Campbell Posted January 22, 2007 Share #20 Posted January 22, 2007 Running a Mac I've bought a pair of Lacie 500 G (firewire 800) drives every year for the past five years. I use one for the current year's work (500 G just about does it). I duplicate every file onto the second drive as a backup. In other words I copy the files from the camera's card twice, and at the end of a working session copy finished files (typically not intermediate TIFFs which are large and which can be reproduced from the raw files). At the end of the year I retire the backup (I've got a drawer full of them) and repeat the process. When I next upgrade upgrade my Mac I'll probably move all of my files to a raid configuration using the Apple hardware. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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