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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Photo Storage
Mike Vander Veer, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Cheney | WA | USA | Posted: 12:18 AM on 02.06.07 |
| ->> I'm looking to invest in an external hard drive so I was wondering what you all are using and if you've had any problems with them. I see they're getting fairly inexpensive nowadays, but it I'm also wondering if the quality has gone down as well? Where's the best place to buy one, what brand, size? Thanks for any help. |
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Peter Gaby, Photographer
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Madison | WI | US | Posted: 12:24 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> I'm using a Lacie 250 gb unit.
have had it for almost 2 years now, and haven't had any problems.
I don't leave it run any longer then when i'm using it, so I can't say how well it would hold up to being used 24/7
i've traveled with it quite a few times, so it seems to hold up well for traveling.
I picked mine up on sale at Comp USA - but I know that you can get a lot of differant brands at Bust Buy, Comp USA, Office Depot, etc.
being a former Office Depot employee, I generally like to get my stuff there, as I know they will take care of customers when problems arise.
Pete |
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Paul Kelm, Photographer
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Milwaukee | Wisconsin | U.S.A. | Posted: 12:33 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> I bought a Venus DS 3 several years ago. I put in a Seagate 400 GB drive myself. I've been very happy with the combo. It's got a large quiet cooling fan, connects to firewire or USB 2.0, and runs quietly.
An added bonus to doing it myself is I got a five year hard drive warrantee as opposed to the one or two year warrantee of pre-built units. |
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Joshua Brown, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 12:52 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> My nerd friends tell me G-Tech drives have the best quality internal components. I have a Maxtor right now and it hasn't given me trouble, I have had three Lacies crap out on me.
Its not a matter of if a hard drive will crash but when, might be two weeks, might be 2 years. Redundancy is the key, whether that be online, discs, or some kind of RAID. |
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Andrew Wilz, Photographer
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Aspen | CO | usa | Posted: 1:22 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> do a search on here, and see what other people have to say about Maxtor.
i've gone thru 5 of them now, and they're garbage. I've got some Lacie stuff... almost 1tb's worth.. and they're bombproof. I'll second Joshua's GTech recommend. Good stuff, that. |
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Todd Spoth, Photographer, Student/Intern
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Houston | TX | USA | Posted: 2:49 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> maxtor is garbage.
right now im using the Lacie 500GB triple interface big disk extremes I have 3 and they are great. |
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Wesley Hitt, Photographer
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North Little Rock | AR | USA | Posted: 8:04 AM on 02.06.07 |
| ->> I have had two of seven external hard drives crash on me. That is not good odds for archiving my images. I now back up everything on archival DVD's as well as a hard drive. To date, my old Sam's Club DVD's always open. |
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Jason Smith, Photographer
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Charlotte | NC | USA | Posted: 8:35 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> Lacie or Seagate.....
dido the remarks to stay far, far, FAR away from Maxtor.
I also backup to DVD.
J |
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Greg Francis, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 9:58 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> I run Five 250gb Acomdata drives. Only one has failed, and Acomdata repaired it, under warranty, in under 4 weeks. Luckily everything was duplicated on a second drive, as well as DVD media.
All hard drives will fail, backup backup backup.
Look on dealnews.com, I saw a 500gb drives this week for $150. |
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Chris Preovolos, Photographer
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Stamford | CT | United States | Posted: 10:08 AM on 02.06.07 |
| ->> Has anyone had experience with the drives from Other World Computing (http://www.macsales.com)? I try to buy whatever I can from them but haven't bought one of their hard drives yet. |
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Ian L. Sitren, Photographer
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Palm Springs | CA | USA | Posted: 10:11 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> Careful, for a long time I have read about failure after failure with LaCie drives and abysmal customer service. I would urge you to search here on SportShooter and other pro boards about LaCie drives before you trust anything to them.
And for those of you who are going to jump in and tell me about how you love your LaCie drives, that's fine. I have no horse in this race. I am just telling you what I have read over and over and over again. |
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Alan Schwartz, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | U.S.A. | Posted: 10:18 AM on 02.06.07 |
| ->> Is anyone backing up to tape. Backing up to DVD's takes forever. With backing up to tape, one can simply put a tape in safety deposit box, ( or someone's home) in case of a fire. I'm looking for a tape scenario that can backup from my laptop and external hard drives. |
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Kent Miller, Photographer
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Peekskill | NY | USA | Posted: 11:36 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> Whatever you go with make sure it has a fan in it!
I buy ADS enclosures and then buy a drive to put in it. I like Western Digital but you can use whatever. It takes about 10 min. to build and your good to go!
I have had good luck with this set up. I always burn a dvd backup as well.
Drives will fail. Its just a matter of time. |
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Todd Corzett, Photographer
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Livermore | CA | USA | Posted: 11:42 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> I will say it again... Hard drives crash, and it's not a matter of IF it will happen, but WHEN. All drives will fail... plain and simple. If you don't treat them that way, that they could die at any second, then you are just asking to be caught unprotected. Yes, it sucks when a drive dies... but that's what back-ups are for.
As for Maxtor... I have 16 Maxtor drives whirling away next to me. Four 120GB ones which have been in use nearly 24/7 for 5 years now, four 250GB drives in use nearly 24/7 for 3 years, and eight 300GB drives that have been 24/7 for almost a year. Zero drive failures yet (and I put that in not to put doubt in Maxtor, but just to remind everyone that ALL DRIVES WILL FAIL).
Personally, I wouldn't buy a Maxtor external (the one-touch guys) with no fans... then again, I wouldn't buy any hard drive case that didn't have fans for cooling more than just the power supply no matter who's name is on it. Heat kills drives... and all these little external 'quiet' fan less models are just begging for problems (whichever brand they are).
Buy whatever drive you want... just make sure to have the proper backups!
A RAID is good for a more redundant working environment (single drive failures shouldn't keep you from working), but isn't the end-all for a back-up. If you have a virus, a RAID controller error, a 'user error' (ie. someone who deletes something accidently), etc. will not be protected against it. Also, if someone walks away with your RAID (or flood, fire, etc.) say bye-bye to all your data. You really need multiple back-ups in more than one location.
Tape backups are nice, but (from the last numbers I looked at about a year ago) doesn't become more cost effective than DVD until you are over ~4TB worth of data (mostly due to the costs of a good drive). I just picked-up a 16x DVD-R and it only takes 5 minutes to burn a DVD. I just watch TV and pop-in a new DVD at each commercial break... or have it running in the background when I'm surfing/editing. It's much less of a problem when you don't let them pile-up on you. Yes, taking 20 minutes to burn some DVDs after a long shoot is the last thing I want to do... but it's what needs to be done (if I don't want to risk loosing everything).
-Todd... |
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Ramsay de Give, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Ventura | CA | USA | Posted: 11:53 AM on 02.06.07 |
->> Other World Computing -- highly recommended by my two prized video instructor's, past and present -- are the best.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
These have been flawless drives for me, to date. LaCie's will bomb on you. It'll happen, sooner or later. |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 12:27 PM on 02.06.07 |
->> I'll agree with Todd Corzett's statemen all HD will fail and so will CD and DVDs at some point. The oldest drive is a Maxtor 100GB drive that is used for the operating system and programs only and it going on its 5th birthday in March.
FWIW, when they first came out the were full of problems, but I've been using NetGear's SC101 (looks like a white toaster http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/NetworkStorage/SC101.aspx). This is a network drive box that you fill with up to two HDs and can run as a solo mirrored drive or a pair of drives. All files are also back to DVD in pairs (a practice that has saved me from losing files recorded on CD material in more than one instance).
The latest firmware seems quite stable for the toaster(even before the update mine has worked flawlessly) as their biggest problem was the cooling system. The newest firmware puts the drive/box in sleep mode if the drives are not being accessed after certain period of time. To date for the past six months it has worked great. I've bought a second since they were on sale for $80 (should have bought two more at that price, but figure the price will drop when they come out with a box that holds four drives) to fill with 300gb drives over the next few weeks when they go on sale. |
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Phillip Davies, Photographer
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Garden City | NY | US | Posted: 1:02 PM on 02.06.07 |
| ->> If you are shopping for an external hard drive enclosure that does not have a fan, I would suggest getting one that is aluminum. It will dissipate heat better than the plastic enclosures. They cost a bit more, but it's worth it. I've been using an adaptec hard drive enclosure with a seagate 160 gig drive for several years and it has been working great. I back it up on a regular basis to an internal drive as well as DVD's for the photos. When the drive does eventually go, I'll swap out the old drive and pop in a new one. Two screws and a small cable and the job is done. |
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Mike Vander Veer, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Cheney | WA | USA | Posted: 1:35 PM on 02.06.07 |
->> Thanks for all the info. A couple more things...
Phillip... are you saying that I can just take out the memory cards/mother boards/whatever you want to call them out of the drive once it fails and place it in a new one?
Also, what's "RAID?" Kent, what's an ADS enclosure? |
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Mike Vander Veer, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Cheney | WA | USA | Posted: 2:19 PM on 02.07.07 |
| ->> Anybody? |
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Scott Morgan, Photographer
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Burlington | IA | United States | Posted: 3:11 PM on 02.07.07 |
->> A Raid is a "Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks" which means the disks are connected together either via hardware (inside big drives like the lacie big disks) or through software.
Setting up a raid may be a good idea for some people, but it has pitfalls. There are several different types of raid setups, each with their own options. The most common are:
Level 0: Despite the raid title, this type is not actually redundant. It basically joins two hard drives together so they show up on your computer as one drive. The advantage is transfer speed to and from the disk, since it can write to both at the same time. The disadvantage is that you will need to always connect them together. If you hook up only one, it won't work, and could corrupt the drive. And, if either one fails, all your data is lost.
Unless you're shooting video or have a lot of people accessing information on the drives at one time, you should avoid a Level 0 raid.
Level 1: Also called a "mirrored" raid. This is what a lot of people do to back up their drives without much hassle, and is probably what people are recommending to you. Two drives of equal size are connected and all information is duplicated on the other drive. So you have two identical drives. If one of them fails, you just need to replace the failed drive and it will rebuild the raid. The only real pitfall here is that if you accidentally delete something from one drive, it will delete it from the other one at the same time.
If you still want more info, read here http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html |
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Phillip Davies, Photographer
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Garden City | NY | US | Posted: 3:23 PM on 02.07.07 |
->> Mike,
What I was describing was an external USB drive. You buy the enclosure, then buy a hard drive and put it into the enclosure. The enclosure has a USB cable that you then plug into your computer. Unless your using an older computer with an old OS, your computer should automatically recognize the external drive and your in business.
When the drive in the enclosure goes, you can just take it out of the enclosure and drop in a new one. It's really easy to do and you can upgrade to larger drives as needed as well. |
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Ramsay de Give, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Ventura | CA | USA | Posted: 3:54 PM on 02.07.07 |
| ->> Or, if you never want the drive to "go", purchase an OWC drive (see link above). You won't have any problems. It's that simple, unless you're prepared for the headache and panic attack that comes along with a drive catastrophe. Maybe I’m missing something here… |
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Matthew OHaren, Photographer
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Harrisburg | PA | USA | Posted: 4:05 PM on 02.07.07 |
| ->> I currently am using a Maxtor Personal Storage 3200 300GB USB 2.0 External Hard that I purchased about 6 months ago because I wanted to be safe and have a back-up. I even went one step further and bought a DVD-RW External burner, but it ran so slow, so I returned it. My goal here in the next week or so is to update my RAM from 256MB in the Dell desktop to 1GB and then get another external DVD burner so I can then archive my work one step further...onto DVD's. |
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Chuck Randant, Student/Intern, Assistant
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Bowling Green | KY | United States of America | Posted: 4:15 PM on 02.07.07 |
->> I use a G-Tech quad-interface 250GB 7200RPM external drive and I couldn't be happier. It's Fast! It's nice to have the option to connect from USB 2.0, FW400, FW800, and eSATA.
http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVEQ.cfm
I'm running on a Mac. |
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James Madelin, Photographer
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AKL | Auckland | New Zealand | Posted: 6:58 PM on 02.07.07 |
->> whichever drive you go for, don't forget that the only certainty is that no matter the make, it WILL fail.
a hard drive is not the answer to photo storage, it is a component in your system of photo storage.
make sure you always have all data backed up at least twice in two different geographical locations.
cheers, jm |
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