Storage Advice

[garris3404]

My PC is running out of room. I need some additional storage for my photos. I am looking at 2 solutions from Western Digital. Both are 1 TB storage (with 2 500 GB disks). Both can be set to RAID 1 mirroring, giving 500 GB of storage. What I can't decide is whether to get the network version or the local PC external version. What are the advantages / disadvantages? Are there other similiar products I should consider. Thanks!

 

[garris3404]

Anybody have any thoughts?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

A local connected device will work faster, but it won't be as easy to access from other machines on your network.

I would strongly consider a RAID 5 NAS. The devices that you are looking at will either have no redundancy (if a drive failes, you lose everything on it) or they will only have have half the storage storage space (mirrored). With most RAID 5 NAS boxes, you use 4 drives and get 3/4 the storage capacity. So a box with 4 500gig drives would have 1.5 terrabytes. If any one drive fails, you don't lose anything.

My favorite NAS brand is Infrant (recently bought by Net Gear). Buffalo also makes a popular NAS called the Terrastation. Some people build their own NAS with old computer parts.

If you go with a non-redundant storage option, make sure that you maintain good backups on CD/DVD of everything. You really should do that with a RAID box as well.

My usual solution is to keep a copy on the NAS and my local machine until I have a chance to burn it. Then I remove my local copy. I now have two NAS boxes so I mirror my photos between the two of them.

 

[AZ JazzyJ]

In a home environment you probably don't need extreme speed to remote computers as most people have a primary computer from where they access their photos. If that describes you, I would choose the local version. You can always use peer-to-peer networking or file sharing to expose the device on your network just make sure you maintain proper security privileges so that someone doesn't hack into your drive (same goes if you buy the network version of the external drive).

RAID 5 is great if you can afford it since it does give you redundancy and if implemented correctly will also increase retrieval speed. That being said it can get relatively expensive to purchase the drives necessary to build the array. Right now I have a series of external hard disks that I store my stuff on. I have 2 copies of my photo library as back up in case the primary becomes corrupted. It is not the most elegant solution nor is it really cost effective but I had some drives laying around that made it a low cost option for me.

Jeff

 

[Master Mason]

I also highly recommend a good off site solution, such as saving your files at smugmug or something like that. If something terrible should happen, you won't lose your precious memories, as they are stored remotely and backed up regularly.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

The problem with Smugmug as a backup site is that they only store the JPG files, not your RAW files or any of the edited files like PSDs that you might have. There is also the small risk of Smugmug going bankrupt right when you need them.

For offsite backup purposes, I recommend writing to a DVD or CD and storing it offsite. When I burn to disc, I burn two copies. I keep one at the house and one at the office.

 

[photo_chick]

For offsite backup purposes, I recommend writing to a DVD or CD and storing it offsite. When I burn to disc, I burn two copies. I keep one at the house and one at the office.

YOu could also store your disc in a vaccum sealed bag (I use my kitchen sealer) in a fire box.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

YOu could also store your disc in a vaccum sealed bag (I use my kitchen sealer) in a fire box.

I'm pretty ignorant about fire boxes. What value does the vaccum sealed bag add? Flood protection? Smoke protection?

 

[boBQuincy]

I'm pretty ignorant about fire boxes. What value does the vaccum sealed bag add? Flood protection? Smoke protection?

Fire boxes and safes provide for a certain maximum inside temperature rise for a certain time with a certain outside temperature. Generally they are designed to prevent paper from reaching combustion temperature (below 350F). Some seal fairly well but in the likelihood of a flood I would still want more protection.
(See SentrySafe website for more info).

The next question is what would happen to a hard drive or optical storage even at a temperature that is safe for paper?

 

[photo_chick]

I'm pretty ignorant about fire boxes. What value does the vaccum sealed bag add? Flood protection? Smoke protection?

Yes. The vaccum sealed bag prevents smoke damage and water damage. My sister has had 3 housefires. After the first she got a fire box. After the second found that contents inside survived but had smoke damage and water damage (many are not airtight). After third found that things sealed had no damage at all.

 

[photo_chick]

Fire boxes and safes provide for a certain maximum inside temperature rise for a certain time with a certain outside temperature. Generally they are designed to prevent paper from reaching combustion temperature (below 350F). Some seal fairly well but in the likelihood of a flood I would still want more protection.
(See SentrySafe website for more info).

The next question is what would happen to a hard drive or optical storage even at a temperature that is safe for paper?

Well, while I can't speak for all types house fires.... My sister had some salvageable drives after their last fire. But the last one was mostly smoke and water damage.

They were able to just clean their cd's that were just sitting around at the time(they had no dvd's at the time) and the majority of them still worked. They had a few floppys that still worked, as well a s some video tapes. They had no Jaz, Dat, Zip, or anything else so I can't say how they would have faired.

Also from her experiences I have also learned that things stored in oak and cedar chests have a pretty decent chance at survival. Her first fire ws in a mobile home and it was so hot it cooked the food in the freezer. But things in an oak trunk and her cedar chest survived. This is why a lot of my equipment is stored in a large, heavy oak armoire. Might not save it, but it can't hurt.

 

[scejas]

Depends how much you value your data is what it comes down to and what your budget is.

I guess you need to identify your needs and forecast what your expectations will be for the next 2 - 3 yrs?

If 500 gigs is good enough for you -- go with the local solution.

I also recommend the off site storage -- maybe if you have a safety deposit box ? or self storage you can just visit it bi-weekly and dump off a copy...

Just food for thought.

 

[garris3404]

Thanks all for the advice! I can always count on this board!

 

[GrumpyOne]

The next question is what would happen to a hard drive or optical storage even at a temperature that is safe for paper?

Also from her experiences I have also learned that things stored in oak and cedar chests have a pretty decent chance at survival. Her first fire ws in a mobile home and it was so hot it cooked the food in the freezer. But things in an oak trunk and her cedar chest survived. This is why a lot of my equipment is stored in a large, heavy oak armoire. Might not save it, but it can't hurt.

Right after I got to my current location, I noticed that the off-site storage location my employer used for tapes had very secure safes but not the type that insulated well (no oak or cedar chests nearby, although Nara would have worked...). I bought a few insulated media fire safes for the off site locations, and we rotated our data tapes through them. The media safes keep the temps below 125 for a certain amount of time.

A few months later, we had a fire in one of the buildings. My tapes were fine, all of the papers were fine, none of the CDs or tapes that weren't in insulated boxes in that area survived.

Sentry has some inexpensive but effective models.