Digital Storage

I've been getting more and more nervous lately that I'm going to lose the photos I have saved on my hard drive.

I back them up periodically onto a DVD-R but I've been pondering purchasing an external hard drive or getting another internal hard drive and setting one up as a mirror with RAID. I've read some talk about how people organize their pictures on their computers but I was wondering what people do for storage and backing up data. I have a desktop computer, which is where I do most of my work, and a laptop computer that I use mostly for just surfing the internet.

I'm hoping you could fill me in on what you all do for storage and maybe I can steal some ideas!


Thanks, EBAR

http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ad.php?t=14448

http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ead.php?t=1631

This one is useful as well, I think.

http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ad.php?t=12740

Judging by those links I'm on the search for a good external hard drive.

Thanks for the links. It looks as though this has been a well hashed over topic here. I also think I'm going to start my own domain and have my own web page, allowing me to not only store pictures but to also display them in any format I want. Thanks for the links!


EBAR

I just leave mine all on the hard drive until my darling husband decides we need to upgrade, then I go on a massive burning spree. Haven't lost anything yet (knock on wood)

Kidding...kinda

Software RAID? Or Hardware RAID? Hardware Raid is more reliable, I believe, but you need to buy either SATA or SCSI hard drives for that and you need to have a motherboard or expansion card that supports that feature. Software RAID can be cheaper to set up, but it might take up more system resources, and you need two identical hard drives to set it up.

What you might want to consider is tracking down a cheap, older computer and build yourself a file server. Hard drives are very cheap, and you won't have to worry about spyware and other baddies because you won't be browsing the net on it. And if you ever decided to move up to a RAID configuration, you would have room to expand.

Masdog-

Yeah I thought about the file server option too since I'm in the process of building a DVR computer using linux. I figured I could just as easily set up a file server. The only thing is that I want my DVR for recording cable to be a stand-alone unit, while I would also want my Photo Fileserver to be a stand-alone unit and I just don't have the space. I live in a townhome with 3 other guys and when my girlfriend visits she complains about all my geeky computer equipment taking up too much room as it is.

I recently built this computer and I have it ready to go for a hardware RAID configuration, I just haven't purchased the second SATA hard drive.

Plus there's always the issue with money. Not only do I want to purchase more computer stuff but I also need to get my photography fix by buying new lenses and filters. Not to mention guns...

Oh well, we all have to make sacrifices. I just can't decide where to make mine. Thanks for the response.




EBAR

RAID will work with any type of drive, as long as you have the right RAID adapter. And the only drawback to software RAID is performance, there are no reliability issues as long as it's set up correctly.

I have been using three IDE RAID setups for the past few years, one striped and two mirrored. One of the mirrored arrays had a drive die twice, both were replaced and rebuilt without a hitch, and without losing any data. But like I always say, it does not prevent accidental deletion or virus/spyware destruction. In those instances the data is lost from both drives, still necessitating a backup plan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EBAR

Judging by those links I'm on the search for a good external hard drive.

Thanks for the links. It looks as though this has been a well hashed over topic here. I also think I'm going to start my own domain and have my own web page, allowing me to not only store pictures but to also display them in any format I want. Thanks for the links!


EBAR

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Your own domain and your own web page? You're going to do that on a dedicated PC in a DMZ, I hope?

Personally I would never expose my main working system with all my archives on Internet. The main risk is not hardware failure but rather than someone hacks into your system and trashes all your files for fun. And having a RAID system is not going to be any help in this case, when the files are gone they're gone.

Charles

EBAR,

Since you're building a DVR machine, the file server could doubly come in handy. You'd be able to dump all of your images and the TV shows you record to a central machine. Then you'd be able to view them from anywhere on your network.

So many interesting replies. Thanks for all the help. Good to see that other people ahve mulled this issue over too.



EBAR