External HD HELP

[mcdesign]

I have to get another external HD and am tossing up between LaCie and WD, I have been advised to get a WD 2TB, would like more advice on this please, I currently have a LaCie 500 GB and a WD 500 GB, the WD is my backup and is now full. Margaret

[ricktas]

Some of the 2TB ones are actually two hard-drives in the one box. Check out the one you are considering, could be a good backup solution (have a copy on each drive in the box)

[mcdesign]

Thanks Rick, it is this one...WD My Book Studio II 1TB Storage Drive FW400/800 USB. I don't have my computer guru around anymore, my suppliers are excellent, I was hoping to daise chain to the ones I have but it seems that is not the way to go. I am busy cleaning stuff off at the moment...so much junk!

[ShaneB]

Gidday

The My Book Mirror Edition can be had for $449 - and it's had excellent reviews.

It's 2 x 1T drives in a RAID array. About as secure as you can get in an ordinary home.

Regards

[mcdesign]

Thanks Shane, I use a Mac so it would be a bit different I think, I was a bit worried about the 2 TB, it is an awful lot of data if it gives up! Trouble is with the images so large these days one tends to go through storage rather rapidly. I will look into this RAID, it isn't an area that I have looked at on the Mac before so don't quite understand it. Margaret

[old dog]

I`m busy cleaning off some from my C and D drives. These photos really take up space. I have a 600GB WD external and hopefully that will be a while before it fills.

[mcdesign]

Graeme, I have two 500 GB externals and a 300 GB internal, the backup drive is full to overflowing! Just did a bit of a clean up today, still lots of images to burn to DVD though, looks like a weeks work at the moment, I would like to have a dedicated drive for images.

[wideangle]

Have you considered making your own external drive? Very easy to do and buying a HDD and an external case can save some $$ from buying a ready made one, and you know the exact parts that are going in as well.

If you go down this path you can get cases for around $40 that have USB and ESATA (transfers as fast as an internal HDD without the USB limitations)

[mcdesign]

Thanks for that idea. I don't have that sort of skill though Thomas or the patience these days, I also use a Mac and haven't heard of any Mac user doing this, Margaret

[pgbphotographytas]

Have you considered making your own external drive? Very easy to do and buying a HDD and an external case can save some $$ from buying a ready made one, and you know the exact parts that are going in as well.

If you go down this path you can get cases for around $40 that have USB and ESATA (transfers as fast as an internal HDD without the USB limitations)

I have done this before, a good way to save money and get what you want.

Paul

[pgbphotographytas]

Thanks for that idea. I don't have that sort of skill though Thomas or the patience these days, I also use a Mac and haven't heard of any Mac user doing this, Margaret

Most computer shops would do it for you if you buy the bits and ask them.

[mcdesign]

Thanks Paul, but not where I live. I have to have my stuff sent up from Sydney if I want decent prices! My question is - is is safe to go with a 2 TB HD, or am I asking for trouble with putting so much data on one drive? Margaret

[pgbphotographytas]

Thanks Paul, but not where I live. I have to have my stuff sent up from Sydney if I want decent prices! My question is - is is safe to go with a 2 TB HD, or am I asking for trouble with putting so much data on one drive? Margaret

I would NEVER have anything on a single drive EVER, always have at least two copies, one off site is possible.

[wideangle]

Thanks for that idea. I don't have that sort of skill though Thomas or the patience these days, I also use a Mac and haven't heard of any Mac user doing this, Margaret

I am quite sure that you would be able to setup your own hard drive and it would be mac compatible. I plug all my USB/Hard drives into macs and pcs and work fine.

Seriously you don't need and skills to do it - its one of the easiest things to do. Buy a case, slip back the case, clip in your hard drive, do case up, format it in OS and your ready to go.

[mcdesign]

Thanks Thomas, I will give that consideration if I can find somewhere to buy the items. Margaret

[abcde10fghi]

Hi MCdesign this is my first post so this is a good place to start as I had a similar problem.

I had alot of pictures and my storage was getting hammered after each event I was doing by about 20-30 GB per shoot and I had som many hard drives lying around it became hard for me to keep track of what was what. My ideas changed on this method when one of my drive failed and I lost all the photos that were on the drive :(

Anyways I agree with pgbphotographytas I would not have allmy data on single drives anymore. I ended up getting a raid system custom made for me as my requirement are growing monthly and with this system if 1 drive fails I am still protected.

If you are looking at storage for a business then I would recommend the Custom solution I went for.

If you are interested PM me and I will give you his information as i am not sure what the rules are here.

abcde10fghi

[ricktas]

Hi MCdesign this is my first post so this is a good place to start as I had a similar problem.

I had alot of pictures and my storage was getting hammered after each event I was doing by about 20-30 GB per shoot and I had som many hard drives lying around it became hard for me to keep track of what was what. My ideas changed on this method when one of my drive failed and I lost all the photos that were on the drive :(

Anyways I agree with pgbphotographytas I would not have allmy data on single drives anymore. I ended up getting a raid system custom made for me as my requirement are growing monthly and with this system if 1 drive fails I am still protected.

If you are looking at storage for a business then I would recommend the Custom solution I went for.

If you are interested PM me and I will give you his information as i am not sure what the rules are here.

abcde10fghi


You can post about equipment here, but if you are selling on the site and it is a commercial enterprise, you need a contract and pay for advertising. Members with under 30 days membership and 50 posts cannot sell at all on the site. This includes selling via the PM system.

[Brett101]

Hi Margaret

I have a 'Welland' Sata drive dock.
The docking station can connect either by USB or Sata.

I use the Dock as a Backup device only, but you could use it as your primary collection if you wish.
I have two 1TB sata drives, labeled ODD and EVEN.
I have a Backup program running in the background that incrementally adds to the drive.
Each month I simply change drives, Odd and even months. The undocked drive gets placed in a small firesafe from Bunnings.

The advantages
- Its easy to use
- Simple to upgrade, just buy a newer bigger Sata HD.
- Use two HD and have the spare stored offsite or in a safe.
- Spare drive is immune to virus/fire/death star attacks
- Its 'best value' for money, docking station is less then $40
- You choose the Size of the HD, now and in the future

Thanks
Brett101

[Kodi]

Officeworks have Western digital 1tb externals for $176 a real bargain.
No I don't work there, just picked one up for myself.

[mcdesign]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have gone ahead and ordered a 1TB external. Brett I have looked up the SATA on the Mac site and I don't think it can be run on the iMac, the bigger machines (towers) you can add to with SATA but I can't find any software on the iMac that relates to it, I use Disk Utility to access all the drives, it has RAID but not SATA, I am going to look into the RAID system, it is a bit beyond me technically so I would need help and my computer expert is in Sydney, but, the new HD will surffice for the moment, I feel a bit naked at the moment with no back up. Thanks again.

[abcde10fghi]

You can post about equipment here, but if you are selling on the site and it is a commercial enterprise, you need a contract and pay for advertising. Members with under 30 days membership and 50 posts cannot sell at all on the site. This includes selling via the PM system.

No its not me selling but was just going to give a recommendation. Anyways looks like MCdesign has found her solution. I would say however MCdesign you need to look at either a Tape backup system that from my research was a very expensive option or look at the putting data on DVD which was time consuming or look at a Network attached storage system like has already been mentioned.

Since I can talk about what I got I will without mentioning names. The system I got was custom made it comes with 8 hotswap drive bays and runs raid 5 and the other raids. I chose raid 5 as I read it gives speed increases and a certain level of backup. When I can afford it I will get the guy to put a backup battery on the card so I have protection if there is a power failure. The unit he built has a port on the back that will allow me to connect another drive unit to it without the expensive PC,RAID cards and I have been told that I can run as many as 128 drives in it, who on earth would run that many I dont know but atleast I know this thing will grow with my requirements. Hey I can start putting my media center movies on it. I might tell him to register on here and do what he needs to do to advertise as I was looking for a while for a solution and looked at the drobos and lacies and the other units but this way I have something that will allow me to grow. Think I will eventually move my website inhouse and save some money on my web and email hosting stuff.

Anyways good luck MCDesign hope what happend to me with broken drive doesnt happen to you.

abcde10fghi

[mcdesign]

Thanks abc... I have used tapes in the past, they are painfull and a problem getting things off them I use an iMac so have the built in back up system, Time Machine, it is set and forget until the HD fills up. I have now bought the 2TB external, (1TB is now out of production) it has to be external because of the build of the iMac, it is totally integrated. I will be using the raid system to partition it...when I learn how!. Power wise I run everything through two UPS boards, so that isn't a problem.

Anyway, thankyou for your kind help.