Drowning in Data

[marknorton]

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Apologies if this is preaching to the converted and has been covered before but may be new to some...

 

That old saying - that there are two types of computer user, those who have lost data and those who will - came to mind when I saw a statistic that 95% of computer users do not back up their data. I back everything up - server, laptops - every night but a recent trip with just a D3x (the M8s being in for upgrade) which churns out more than 100Mb per image by the time you have processed them is putting strain on my storage.

 

I know there are some here who overflow their images onto a succession of USB drives, allowing unlimited storage, but with only a single copy of the data, there's always a risk that the drive will break the next time you plug it in to retrieve some archived images. Besides, do you really want all those drives hanging around?

 

The requirements are easy to state: lots of capacity, high speed, secure from data loss.

 

The best solution is a Network Attached Storage box (NAS) which sits on your network (or attaches directly to the ethernet port of your PC if you don't have one) and provides data redundancy to protect against failure. A RAID array splits your data across N disks so that if any one of them fails, the data can be recovered from the remaining N-1. You just pull out the failed drive and hot-plug a new one.

 

For some time, I've been using a ReadyNAS NV (formerly Infrant Technologies, now part of NetGear) which provides 1.3Tb of protected storage but that is now full.

 

I've therefore added to my storage by buying their new-ish product, the ReadyNAS PRO which can be fitted with 6 disks; I bought 8 Seagate 1.5Tb Barracudas, 6 to put in the box, 2 to keep as spares; clearly, if you have had one failure, you want to replace it quickly because your data is unprotected until you do. The result is that I have nearly 7 Tb of protected storage ready to swallow tens of thousands of images and all for about the same cost as a Leica Super-Wide Elmar.

 

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This box works with Windows, MAC OS, Linux and of course there are other similar products which do much the same job. My message though is that if you are not backing up your data or are still archiving to USB drives or, worse, to CD or DVD, you should consider using one of these boxes instead; much more convenient, much more secure.

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[Sandokan]

hi Mark,

 

Good solution and good advice. HAve you considered "Off-Site Storage" too? The frequency of course depends upon how much data you are willing to lose - your Recovery Point Objective. For me this is once every 6 months and I drop off a USB drive at the in-laws (who are not in the same disaster or earthquake zone as I am). You should also consider an occasional test of the backed up data.

 

Ravi

[Nicoleica]

Thank you for bringing this point up Mark. Very few people I know ever back-up their data, despite my constant nagging to do so. I back-up my entire system hourly to an external drive on my network (Using Time Machine.). Once a week, a further full backup is made to a different external drive. Photographs are also archived to DVD on a regular basis, and additionally, I store JPG copies of all photographs remotely on my iDisk. This also means that I can refer to any photograph from anywhere in the world that I can access the internet. It's better to be safe than sorry.

[jaapv]

I have an extra 1TB internal drive for backup only, when I switch off "second copy" will automatically make a backup of any changes. I backup that drive to a 1Tb USB drive once a week and keep that in another location.

[dhsimmonds]

I use a dRobo which enables up to 6Tb of protected storage. DRobo Pro provides for up to 16Gb of storage using the same principals. Should (or more likely when) one of the disc's go down it warns you by a traffic light system of warnings so you have chance to replace it with a new disc and your images and data just inhabits the new disc like magic! As disc technology improves you just replace the discs one by one. So when 2 Gb discs are available and approved by dRobo then it is easy to upgrade or alternatively daisy chain with another sRobo box. Like mark, I use a 24.6 mpx full frame (mine is the Sony A900) camera on Raw and it's converted 139Mb 16bit tiff's soon gobble up storage....allow for back ups and a lot of storage is needed!

 

Data Robotics, Inc.

[ASpes]

Apologies if this is preaching to the converted and has been covered before but may be new to some...

 

That old saying - that there are two types of computer user, those who have lost data and those who will - came to mind when I saw a statistic that 95% of computer users do not back up their data.

... ...

The best solution is a Network Attached Storage box (NAS) which sits on your network (or attaches directly to the ethernet port of your PC if you don't have one) and provides data redundancy to protect against failure.

... ...

My message though is that if you are not backing up your data or are still archiving to USB drives or, worse, to CD or DVD, you should consider using one of these boxes instead; much more convenient, much more secure.

 

Thank you Mark for reminding us of the backup issue, we need that every now&then. I know quite a few people who really seem not to worry about their data protection, but when it strikes they forget their carelessness and get mad at hardware.

 

What I can add to your good advice might sound nitpicking, but it's a suggestion I follow both for my personal use and in my work. When buying a number of drives that are to work together, if possible try to get them from different batches, (this often means different providers or buying times but might be not enough, so must check), in the assumption that the drives from the same batch are expected to fail in about the same time period. Second, I suggest to change half of the drives in use (or at least a couple ones depending on your setup) every two years of continuous use. ... told you this sounded nitpicking. :-)

 

On a less nitpicking side, and on a more general data loss prevention talk, what I'd strongly suggest to everybody is to add an UPS (uninterruptible power supply) to all of your computers and backup systems. Battery operated laptops are of course out of this.

 

Even the cheapest UPS will give us a protection that is significant to avoid disasters, both from hardware, as it usually protects all of it from surges and spikes, but also simply from soft damage, as in my experience most hd recoveries are prompted not by a mechanical failure but by a power loss getting havoc on them as a result.

In the case of a NAS I recommend to use a separate one on it, and, last but not least, the 2-3 year rule applies also to UPS batteries.

 

I understand that not everybody is willing to set apart some significant lump of money for a sound backup like a NAS (the question being: how much do we value what we do?), but anyway a UPS can be really cheap these days, a handful of cards will cost more, so their cost is about negligible when compared to our photo equipment.

As computers are a mandatory part of our photography nowadays, UPS are our first firewall against the loss of our data.

 

Please, do get one instead of keeping some wood around or typing with your fingers crossed ...

[marknorton]

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Lots of good advice here - UPS, off-site storage, mixed disk batches (I got 8 consecutive serial numbers!) amd there are a number of different solutions.

[integrale]

I fully support the above and I would like to add one comment about archive.

 

In order not to overflow with data (I also do digital video...) in addition to the NAS configuration below, I have an on- and off-site archive system based on USB portable disks. These disks will hold older material, like original, non-edited video footage and photos.

 

At home I run a 2 TB NAS (Buffalo TerraStation) in a RAID 5 configuration that also doubles as media servier + 2*1TB Mini NAS (Buffalo LinkStation Pro) as rotating off-site backup.