How to Manage the Increasing Backup Requirements of a Growing Library??

[Marc_Schoenholz]

As my image library continues to grow, I ‘m running out of storage and backup space on my external hard drives and I am assessing alternative storage strategies.

Here are my questions:

• How do you store/backup your images?
• How do you store a “filled” external hard drive?
  • Will extended storage/non-use damage an external drive?
  • Do you need to “run” an external hard drive every x weeks or months?
• Are you using a RAID system?
  • Which one?
  • Are you satisfied with this system?
  • What are your recommendations?
• Other thoughts/ideas on alternate backup systems?

My current back-up system is as follows:

I use 4 external hard drives attached via USB 2 ports to my windows XP based computer. Two of the hard drives hold about 250GB each, and they are full; – and the other two hard drives hold 500GB each and they have about 450GB of available space.

I use mirroring software for the 500GB drives and Retrospect Express for the 250GB drives. As a first step I plan to change the system to use mirroring software for all of the drives


Marc Schoenholz

[michaelnotar]

i burn raw files to DVD before editing, also burn folder of final images and raw images to a lacie 2TB 4-500GB array set up in 0+1 Raid (mirror). weekly i burn that same folder of raw +final images again to another cd. at the beginning of 2009, i will delete 2006. i will only keep weddings/sr ports/ etc. i will probably edit them down to the final/retouched images and make them jpgs. it depends on the job. i shoot lots of homes, all of which will be deleted. permanently.

thats the plan now, i'll see how it goes.

also i run a 250GB HD in my computer for OS and scratch. another 500GB drive to my personal images. i use this for my back up, also burning raw, and a final folder of raw+final images to dvd.

[Ed Gerson]

CD/DVD and hard drives. If you overwrite an important folder accidentally, you don't really need to store it on more than one hard drive. I don't use mirroring software or RAID at this time. - Ed

[DougAxford]

I have a friend who bought this and is very happy. D-Link - DNS-323 - 2-Bay Network Attached Storage (NAS) Enclosure with 2x Seagate 500GB SATA-300 Hard Drives at TigerDirect.com

Mirrored drives already set-up on a giga network. Very fast. It's fast enough to use as you main drive too if needed. I'm waiting for the price to come down a bit on the 750 gig or bigger drives, or opt for a 4 bay NAS. Get rid of your USB and go giga, so much faster and easier.

I'm considering keeping everything on HD for 5 years, then erase. Our collection of DVDs is getting to be a pain. We had an automated DVD storage system which worked great until the drive with the dbase croaked. Oops, we forgot to back-up the dbase which specified the location of the DVD on the device.

[Marc_Schoenholz]

I’m also looking into Online Storage from ElephantDrive.com – 1TB of service for $350/year. They have some affiliation with Amazon S3. PCWorld gave this product/company a favorable mention in their January issue on page 48 as part of article titled Choose the Right Backup for your Business.

Does anyone have experience with ElephantDrive??


Also how are you saving external hard drives that are full of data? I have been unsuccessful in trying to understand the risks associated with storing a filled external hard drive and specifically what steps I could take to protect my images long term when the external hard drive is not connected to my computer.

Marc Schoenholz

[Eric_K]

I'm trying to figure out the economics of the ElephantDrive option when you can buy an Iomega 1TB StorCenter NAS (Gigabit ethernet) for about $340. It seems like ElephantDrive is relatively expensive, especially when you factor in your time waiting for uploading because you won't get the transfer rate for an online storage source that you will get with a gigabit ethernet connection to a NAS.

Why not go that route and when you fill it up, buy another one, or use some combination of a NAS with USB removable drives for backup. As you fill removable backups, take them somewhere else for storage and lock them up. That way you have one copy on your network and one back-up copy off site.

Just my $0.02. Please help me understand how the ElephantDrive at that price makes sense.

Eric Kasowski

[Marc_Schoenholz]

Eric,


Here is what I have learned on my search to understand external HD and off-site backup systems:

1. Don’t store a filled HD, these can go bad; recycle or use some other way
2. On-line backup service
a. Slow to upload
b. Use as a tertiary off-site back-up
3. As my image collection continues to increase, consider two RAIDsystems to replace the external hard drive system
4. Consider storing only your “top” images off site.

Take a look at the discussion and feed back on this topic at :


http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=120064

The issue/solution is not as straight forward as I initially thought. I learned that an off-site back-up system like Elephantdrive is in a whole different league of “protection” when compared to potential issues that can occur with external HD and RAID systems.


Marc Schoenholz