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  1. #1
    Sports photo junkie jorgemonkey's Avatar
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    Jul 2003
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    Backup, backup, backup your stuff!

    I'm getting my computer ready to completely wipe the hard drive clean and re-install windows. So I took all my downloaded videos, all my photos from 2003-2005, and some other files and moved them to my external hard drive (Guess where this is heading.....).

    We had a power outage, and after the power came back on my computer wasn't seeing the external drive anymore. So I unplugged the drive, plugged it back in, and now its making a nice clicking noise constantly. So I unplugged the drive, did a quick search on the internet, and found its going to take about $1200 or so to get it fixed since they have to replace some internal parts.

    So after a quick fit of rage and knowing there is no way I can afford to get it fixed, I remembered about the stacks of DVDs I have in the closet. I pull them out, and lo & behold, I have 3-4 backups off all the photos that were on the drive

    Now I wish I had backups of the video that was on that drive

    So, which external hard drives do ya'll have, and how much do you like them? I'm planning on buying 2 within the next few weeks.
    Nikon Samurai #21



    Cameras:
    D700
    D300
    D200
    D2H

    Lenses:
    Nikon 35mm F1.8, 35 F2, 50mm F1.8, 70-200 F2.8 VR
    Sigma 150mm F2.8 Macro
    Tokina 12-24 F4
    SB900 & SB800 flashes

  2. #2
    has-been... another view's Avatar
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    Jan 2003
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    Re: Backup, backup, backup your stuff!

    I guess my experience is different than most people, in that I have a Maxtor external and it's still running just fine. I crashed a SeaGate internal and some how when it went it took a bunch of info off the external which I was accessing a lot right around that time. Fortunately I had CD's too... SeaGate is supposed to be one of the best and it is what I bought to replace that internal drive. Two years later, it's fine.

    What do I like now? Mac. Shipping today, hopefully!

  3. #3
    Check out our D300 Pro Review! deckcadet's Avatar
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    Oct 2004
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    Gainesville, Florida, USA
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    Re: Backup, backup, backup your stuff!

    I have a Macbook Pro and with Mac OS X Leopard, Time Machine can automatically back up files from one or more hard drives to an external in a very space efficient way every hour. I currently have two weeks of backups and possible restores of all files and folders on my computer at every hour in that time, and it only takes up a few GB more than the contents of my hard drive now. Of course Leopard won't be generally released for a few months, but I use Time Machine only for my most recent photos and my system drive.

    For externals I have:

    1) 250GB Western Digital MyBook- This drive I use for Time Machine and file storage. It has FireWire 400 and 800 and USB 2.0 so I get both high speeds and convenience.

    2) 300GB Maxtor One Touch II- This drive has FireWire 400 and USB 2.0, and is a few years old. I don't use it for anything vital, just when I need a large capacity disk to take around and for duplicate backups.

    3) 160GB Western Digital Scorpio notebook drive in bus powered USB/eSATA enclosure. I use this for a bootable clone of my internal hard drive, or in this case for different developer seeds and file storage.

    4) 40GB Maxtor- I've had this external for a very very long time. For a few years I used it for additional storage and application space for my original laptop which had a whopping 6GB hard drive . Now I use it for backup storage and the like.

    5-8) I have an additional set of drives in a FirmTek 2EN/2 enclosure. This enclosure is a dual-bay, hot swappable array with locking disk trays supporting 3.5" SATA 1.5Gbps and 3.0Gbps hard drives with dual eSATA I/O. 5 and 6 are Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 7200RPM drives in a RAID array, 7 and 8 are Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200RPM Perpendicular Recording drives in standalone configuration. Because it is a dual bay enclosure, it means that at all times at least one of my backups, usually two, are completely isolated (trays removed, stored with disks in anti-static bag), while unless I'm actively using it for storage or scratch I keep the array itself offline and unplugged from power and cables to avoid damage from power surges. This became my practice after I lost a few days of pictures due to a lightning strike on my old windows laptop.
    Now that i'm headed off to college, I'm going to buy a third set of disks and trays for this enclosure, and keep a current set at home in Miami at all times.
    To interface with this array, I have a FirmTek 2SM2-E ExpressCard/34 eSATA card which is both windows and mac compatible. The speeds are fantastic! eSATA is one of the fastest interfaces out there and with a disk set in RAID 0 file transfers are incredibly fast.
    Harrison
    Nikon Forum / Digital SLR Forum Moderator | moderator bio
    Check out our new Nikon D300 Pro Review D3 review coming soon...
    Nikon Samurai #9 | NPS Member
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  4. #4
    Sleep is optional Sebastian's Avatar
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    Jan 2004
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    Chicago Suburbs
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    Re: Backup, backup, backup your stuff!

    2 terabytes, 80% full.

    I backup everything. EVERYTHING.
    -Seb

    My website

    (Please don't edit and repost my images without my permission. Thank you)

    How to tell the most experienced shooter in a group? They have the least amount of toys on them.

  5. #5
    Sports photo junkie jorgemonkey's Avatar
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    Jul 2003
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    San Jose, CA
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    Re: Backup, backup, backup your stuff!

    Mine was a Lacie 250gig drive, which after opening the case I discovered it was a Western Digital 250gig drive in a fancy case.

    I'm actually looking at the Maxtor OneTouch drives to replace mine.
    Nikon Samurai #21



    Cameras:
    D700
    D300
    D200
    D2H

    Lenses:
    Nikon 35mm F1.8, 35 F2, 50mm F1.8, 70-200 F2.8 VR
    Sigma 150mm F2.8 Macro
    Tokina 12-24 F4
    SB900 & SB800 flashes

  6. #6
    has-been... another view's Avatar
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    Jan 2003
    Location
    Rockford, IL
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    Re: Backup, backup, backup your stuff!

    Quote Originally Posted by jorgemonkey
    Mine was a Lacie 250gig drive, which after opening the case I discovered it was a Western Digital 250gig drive in a fancy case.

    I'm actually looking at the Maxtor OneTouch drives to replace mine.
    Had no idea... I've always heard great things about Lacie stuff too. I have a Maxtor One Touch 250gb - the one I mentioned above - still going strong.

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