File Backup/Storage

[F8&Bthere]

I have a Dell computer with 2 x 640GB drives in mirror raid array but I am noticing my Lightroom catalog is making short work of that drive space. I am continuously culling away old photos that I come across and deleting old catalog backups but given that I don't like to run a PC with too much more than half it's internal drive capacity filled, I need another, preferrably external, drive option.

I have a 500GB USB LaCie that I have been using for backup, which I plan to continue to use on my other/work PC. It's a bit slow and 500GB will fill up too quickly.

For my photography workstation I'd rather keep all my archives and older work on an external drive that takes advantage of my Dell's eSata capabilities for really fast transfer speeds, and only keep my current work on my local drive.

So I looked at external drives and for anything 1 TB+ with eSata port there really wasn't much to choose from and some pretty high prices.

So I geeked out and ordered a hot swappable USB 2.0/eSata HD enclosure from NCIX and a 2TB Hitachi SATA drive from Newegg for a total of about $200 delivered and IF it all works right I should be set for a long time coming and thousands of more photos and even huge video files.

Anyone tried a similar solution? Warnings? Advice? Feedback?

[Iguanasan]

I don't have a proper set up myself and I am in the market, however, I need to come up with some extra coin to set it up. If I had my choice and money wasn't a concern I'd by a Drobo.

And then I'd buy 2 so I could fill one then switch it offsite to a friends house.

[tirediron]

That drobo does look sexy, but I primarily use DVDs for back-up. I keep a few months worth of images on my HDD, and then burn two sets of DVDs

[hodaka]

I've got a Drobo with 4 x 1TB internal drives. I am currently running my Time Machine backup to it (from my iMac and my MacBook Air), as well as storing all of my video work on it, connected to my iMac via Firewire 800. It has already paid for itself. Last Wed. (Nov. 11), my internal drive had a huge failure right near the end of the day. I simply replaced the internal drive, and restored from my backup overnight. The next morning, I had some minor things to tidy up, and I was fully operational.

[Greg_Nuspel]

That drobo does look sexy, but I primarily use DVDs for back-up. I keep a few months worth of images on my HDD, and then burn two sets of DVDs

If you are burning to DVDs you may want to check out their life limits.

[russ]

I've also moved to the external 1GB drive and back up my photo's regularly. Hopefully this will be enough, but I know I've lost photo's in the past with bad disk sectors etc.

If I understand what I've read correctly, the best way to extend the life of burnt CD's & DVD's is to store them in a place that excludes as much light as possible.

I find it interesting that the article Greg mentions states that the weak link in hard drives is the quality of the bearing. Then recommended buying a 7200 rpm drive, I thought that a kind of odd piece of advice given that a cheap bearing will fail sooner in the 7200 RPM environment vs. the 5400 RPM environment - assuming that the bearing would have an increased work load in the faster drive.

Just my thoughts.