| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Long haul move....how to safely bring all my data with me
Ben Shyman, Photographer
 |
New York | NY | | Posted: 2:35 PM on 06.23.11 |
->> I am permanently relocating cross country in July.
I have many TB of data stored on several LaCie Quadra drives running in RAID 1 mode. I have an offsite backup but only for finished product. What concerns me is moving all my data.
Under no circumstances would I trust putting these drives on a moving van and shipping them across the country. And I definitely cannot see bringing three of these large units on the plane. But I am considering two scenarios to safely move my data.
1. Ship the LaCie Quadra enclosures via FedEx and take the discs themselves with me in my airplane carry-on bag (six drives total). The downside seems that all my data is in one place and with air travel these days who knows what might occur.
2. Ship the LaCie Quadra enclosures with one one of the two RAID copies still in it and take the other drive with me on the plane in my carry-on bag (three drives total). Under this scenario my data is actually in two places and for a total disaster to occur, both FedEx and myself would both have to loose/damage the drives. The downside is that if FedEx looses my package who knows where a copy of my work could wind up?
Please advise or share similar experiences. Thanks so much everyone. |
|
David Seelig, Photographer
|
Hailey | ID | USA | Posted: 2:40 PM on 06.23.11 |
->> HI Ben
I am not sure if you have two copies or n do not make a second set of copies of all your data. Expensive but you have to do it. If you have two copies I would do each separate them.
David |
|
Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Washington | DC | US | Posted: 3:29 PM on 06.23.11 |
->> 1. Separate the data/drives.
2. Don't worry about FedEx. You can't control what happens once you release it to them
3. Is there the possibility to ship the drives BEFORE you leave? If you can have them arrive before you leave that should reduce the worry factor. |
|
Jordan Murph, Photographer, Assistant
|
Honolulu & San Diego | HI/CA | USA | Posted: 3:41 PM on 06.23.11 |
->> Ben,
At least one backup copy of your assets/archive is a priority, moving or not moving, so as David suggests, get that done first. I would suggest ship one copy/set of drives ahead via FedEx and hand carry the other copy with you in your carry on bag. For work I have used FedEx to ship laptops and had drives cross country many times and never had one issue with reliability or data loss. I have also hand carried my personal archive for a 2,500 mile move in my carry on safely.
Best of luck with your move.
Aloha,
Jordan |
|
Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
|
Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 5:44 PM on 06.23.11 |
->> Ben,
FWIW, if you are really paranoid, you could go with three copies. Probably overkill, but better safe than sorry and we all know how unpredictable life can be. Ship one set via FedEX, carry the second with you on the flight and the third set I'd leave with a colleague or friend I trust. If you were to lose all three data sets, you definitely know your data was not suppose to ever reach your new destination. If you were to lose the two pair in transit, then you would have the third set to copy and ship again. |
|
Israel Shirk, Photographer, Assistant
|
Boise | ID | US | Posted: 6:53 PM on 06.23.11 |
->> Third option is best. I wouldn't worry about the data disappearing; by that point it'd be dropped too many times... The Photoshelter guys probably have quite a bit of experience with handling shipped drives, try Grover or Allen and see if they have any tips. Usually Fedex, etc are less rough with things if you just have a high declared value.
The hard part is figuring out which drive is which, but you can just check by seeing if the array still works after pulling the drives. |
|
Chris Salata, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Chicago | IL | USA | Posted: 8:14 PM on 06.23.11 |
->> I just finished moving from Chicago to South Florida and faced exactly the same challenge as you. All of my data is stored on a RAID 5 array in a QNAP server. Instead of shipping the server or my drives, I simply packed the enclosure with the drives still in it into my carry-on. The TSA folks at O'Hare were a little perplexed by the big black box and the several pounds of 4x5 film I brought with me but everything made it to Florida safely.
If you can ship one copy of the data via FedEx and carry-on the other, I think that would be the best thing to do. I have never seen a Lacie enclosure but based on my experience with some of their other gear, you might be safer if you left your drives in their enclosures. This would also insure you have immediate access to your data after you land. If you don't have the room, bubble wrap would work just fine but mark the inside of the enclosures and the drives with a permanent marker so you don't mix things up.
Once you get settled, look into possibly getting a QNAP NAS server (www.qnap.com). I love the look and design of Lacie's products but a QNAP server is so much more versatile. Instead of having a bunch of external drives, I have everything on one NAS server that is accessible on my local network via ethernet or Wi-Fi or anywhere in the world via the internet. I can also back things up to another QNAP or similar server as an additional failsafe or a cloud based service like Amazon's S3. That's my plug for QNAP. If you have any questions, just let me know.
Good luck on your move and try not to stress out too much. As fragile as everything looks now, a few layers of bubble wrap makes almost anything bullet proof. |
|
Alan Look, Photographer
|
Bloomington/Normal | IL | United States | Posted: 9:29 PM on 06.23.11 |
| ->> I've shipped more laptops than I can count cross country via fedex, ups, usps, freight and every other way except a slow boat. All in bladder boxes. Never lost a single bit. |
|
Steve Violette, Photographer
|
Gulf Breeze | FL | USA | Posted: 9:39 AM on 06.24.11 |
| ->> What about "The Cloud" or similar digital storing of data |
|
Brian Ray, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Fort Worth | TX | United States | Posted: 11:15 AM on 06.24.11 |
| ->> Upload it to Photoshelter before you make the journey.....who knows, you might even make a few sales while you're truckin' cross-country. |
|
Jim Colburn, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Omaha | NE | USA | Posted: 11:45 AM on 06.24.11 |
->> I just moved from South Texas to Omaha and kept my data drives in the car with me at all times, even unloading it to the hotel room at night along the way. I wouldn't let those puppies out of my sight.
In your case, flying, your 2nd scenario sounds better, ship one copy and fly with the other. |
|
Ben Shyman, Photographer
|
New York | NY | | Posted: 1:03 PM on 06.24.11 |
->> It is in moments like these that being a member of the sportsshooter.com community pays it's biggest dividends and I am thankful to be a part of this website. Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. There are a lot of great ideas here to help me and others in the future. Moving is very stressful. Not just for data and gear but the countless other things that moving entails.
I'm going to go with the option of shipping one set of data and carrying the other. The night before I leave San Francisco, box up and ship via FedEx the lacie drives with one of the each RAID 1 drive still in the enclosure. The other drives (the mirror copies of the RAID 1) I am going to carefully label, bubble wrap and bring on the plane with other valuables.
Some people mentioned going with a NAS system once I reach my new destination and that is my next project. I will retire the LaCie drives to a friend's home in Boston for overnight backup duty.
Thanks Everyone! |
|
Jim Colburn, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Omaha | NE | USA | Posted: 5:46 PM on 06.24.11 |
| ->> Why now, as someone suggested, ship the drives before you leave so that you know they got there? Then, if there's a problem, your can make dupes of the ones you've still got. |
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|