Storage

[Ruhayat]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Ever since a hard disk in my Powerbook died without warning, losing me 2 years' worth of work, I've been paranoid about data safety. These days I use a 3-level system to try and minimise disk failure and corruption.

 

Level 1 is the D-Link DNS-323 Raid 1 networked box which I have connected with Gigabit Ethernet to the other 3 computers. All files are off-loaded from my camera to this disk and is immediately available to all the computers I have. The redundancy gives a secondary safety aspect.

 

Level 2 is the internal secondary drive (all my computers have a minimum of 2 internal drives) which I use as a scratchdisk, separate from my OS and apps, where I drag files to work on to. I never edit and save files right on the NAS itself, and edited files are saved in a new folder before back up back to the NAS.

 

Level 3 is an external USB pocket drive I back up photos from the NAS to -- it is external and small so that I can take it with me whenever I leave the house for more than a few days. I could, if I were a professional photographer, rent a safety despoit box and leave this disk there on a daily basis. 3 external disks would be the ideal for such a set-up, I should think.

 

The home RAID box is convenient and easy to set up. But the problem with RAID 1, which I discovered fairly quickly after I got the NAS, is that any error on Disk 1 is automatically and immediately backed up to Disk 2. After the setup was compromised by a virus the first time, I have learned to also keep images burnt onto DVDs on a weekly basis. This is such a pain, and the chances of total corruption is still pretty low, but safe is better than sorry. Maybe I should just separate the two disks, and then manually backup data from one to the other on a daily basis.

[JHAG]

Maybe I should just separate the two disks, and then manually backup data from one to the other on a daily basis.

 

That's my favourite option.

[wparsonsgisnet]

I would also add an off-site solution as the 3rd copy.

[LichMD]

Has anyone here considered the DROBO system?

I have friends that have used this and are very happy with it.

I'm thinking about doing this myself, I currently have all my files on 3 redundant 1Tb disks, but I'd rather have a NAS running and be able to access files from anywhere in the house.

[Ruhayat]

Has anyone here considered the DROBO system?

I have friends that have used this and are very happy with it.

I'm thinking about doing this myself, I currently have all my files on 3 redundant 1Tb disks, but I'd rather have a NAS running and be able to access files from anywhere in the house.

 

Lich: I considered it, but like the Buffalo Stations, they aren't cheap. You can get 3 D-Link NAS dual-disk boxes (or similar from Linksys etc) for about the same price as a single Drobo. Have to say, though, theirs is a more elegant and robust concept -- you can seemingly just pluck out and plug in disks at random. You get what you pay for, I guess -- the D-Link NAS I have sometimes, erm, "disappears" for no reason only to reappear later.

[Ruhayat]

That's my favourite option.

 

Can I just ask, do you scan the disk for viruses etc before backing up to the mirror disk, or do you just let the backup software do its thing without checking the drive first?

 

The thing is, if I do decouple the RAID, but then simply copy from one disk to the other, I would be doing basically the same thing as what the RAID 1 setup was doing, no? But then having to scan for virii before each backup -- in addition to burning to DVD! Are we becoming an overly paranoid society?

 

PS: in case anyone is interested, I use LaCie Silverkeeper - it's free and good. I also have Carbon Copy Cloner, which does a more thorough job (it can copy over invisible files and folders). But for day to day I simply click Silverkeeper and it does its thing in less than 15 minutes because it only copies over new or changed files.

[wparsonsgisnet]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I only put data on my external disks. My software is on the C-Drive.

 

I also use Zone Alarm security suite as a firewall.

 

This way, if my computer dies (or gets a virus, or ...) I get a new computer, install all the software from the disks in the drawer, and attach the external drives. I went to this a few years ago when the computer of a friend died. He had his and his wife's business on it and it took 2 weeks to get everything running again. I bot my first external drive the next day.

[John Thawley]

I only put data on my external disks. My software is on the C-Drive.

 

I've been following that practice for years now. First off, it makes migrating to a new machine extremely efficient with minimal down time. Second, I run 6TB of external drives... tough to squeeze that into a MacBook Pro. LOL

 

More to the point of this thread, I've recently made the decision to go with off site (read: online) storage. While there is no way I could keep everything off site, it occurred to me that I probably need to create a more selective archive. Considering I shoot 100,000+ images per year... I'm sure they're not all of archive quality. So, my goal is to pull approximately 100 top picks from each event I cover. That's going to be an annual archive of 2000 images. Looking ahead, I feel if there is ever a buyer for my archives "more" will not ="more." The value will based on the quality of the collection.

 

The other advantage I have of keeping these images online is I can make them available to potential buyers as prints, or electronically with managed rights. It's also a system I can manage while traveling and post event images in near-real time. So, it's a win-win.

 

JT