Can you believe this?!

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>I asked the question just above because I was not aware that the RAID 1 was available on external drive systems. The one I am looking at right now, after reading the above comments, is the Western Digital 2TB My Book Mirror Edition External Hard Drive--currently selling for $250 and free shipping from B&H.</p>

<p>It ccmes with RAID 0 and RAID 1 options. With the latter setup, you only use 1 TB and the data is backed up (mirrored) as you go on the remaining 1 TB.</p>

<p>Does anyone know of any better deals if one is going to use a mirroring system?</p>

<p>Needless to say, things have changed a lots since I last worried about upgrading my storage capabilities.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[eric_brody]

<p>I just got a 1.5TB Seagate USB external at Costco with a coupon for $109. For backups, who's in a hurry, set it up, and go to bed, or make some coffee, or take a walk. I have a bunch of WD drives, that have run, for backup only, for years and even a couple of old LaCie's that had a terrible reputation for a while that are still running. I think luck has a lot to do with it, and running the drives only when doing a back up as well.<br>

When you see a good deal, why won't you share it? It's not a crime to mention the retailer, is it?<br>

Good luck.<br>

Eric</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Eric, if you click on the brand name in the original posting, then you see the retailer.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Well, you can't now, but you could when I first posted it. It was JR.com .</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[dave_redmann]

<p>For at least 90% of people, what they ought to get is a USB drive that comes in an enclosure. Something else might be faster, but USB-2 is plenty fast enough, and the beauty of such a drive is that it is plug-and-play compatible with almost any computer made in the last five-plus (ten?) years. Storage space is so cheap, you can go around and back up several computers.</p>

<p>Sure, there are a few people who can truly make good use of speed that connections other than USB-2 offer, but realistically, they're in the minority, probably the small minority.</p>

<p>Maybe a year ago I bought a Western Digital 500 GB external USB drive from NewEgg for about $100. It's been great. It's quickly been plug-any-playing with several different computers, transferring fairly big chunks of data, without a problem.</p>

 

[petrana_batik]

<p>Umm.<br>

As of today, there are two manufacturers that build 1.5TB drives: WD and Seagate. Although some people swear by one over the other, I myself cannot really say they differ much. In practice, the WD variants run cooler, but the 1.5Tb seagates I own seem run well, as well as the 3 GP WD's I have installed (yes, I have a lot of storage).<br>

Interface wise-- people seem to forget a few things. Although eSata is preferable, it is NOT 3x faster. For most operations, and unless you employ VERY fast drives, the actual world difference is negligible. Again: for 1-on-1 (one external drive) hookups, USB2 makes sense, as it allows you to move the drive anywhere. most pc's don't yet have eSata ports as standard, and since standard is still quite finicky, it will be some time before such a feature will be shipped on every box.<br>

USB2 (and eSata) are far from optimal when they need to share a channel (USB2) or drive a chain of drives. For this, I use Firewire. While USB2 may compare well with FW400 (for normal operations), adding a second USB2 driver to the same channel will introduce a performance hit-- that is not the case with the FireWire interface.<br>

All in all, 1.5Tb for $120 (they actually had the drive at fry's this weekend for $109) is a great deal. I'm eyeing WD's 2GB drive (currently $220).</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>FWIW, since asking the original question on this thread (and reading the responses), I went ahead and ordered the Western Digital 2TB My Book Mirror Edition External Hard Drive from B&H. I will configure it with the RAID 1 option. The price was reasonable enough, the vendor was dependable, and--most of all for me--using the RAID 1 option is probably the only way that I will likely be sure to back things up on a regular basis. The internal drives on my old Dell Optiplex are both 250 GB--but that is not enough backup for me, and here is the reason:</p>

<p>Perhaps a year ago I had an IOMEGA External 250 GB fail on me on this machine (with one 80 GB internal drive). Less than a week later, the unthinkable happened: the 80GB internal drive failed--and no backup was in place yet. The data on the 250 GB external drive was unrecoverable. I reformatted it and backed up everything from the Optiplex on it just to have another copy, but I do not and will not trust it again.</p>

<p>So that is how I got so antsy about data storage--and above all about redundant backup. I do a little light processing on this machine, but I use it primarily for e-mail and work-related issues. My serious photography materials are all on the Dell Optiplex in my photography work room. That machine is not even connected to the internet, since it is a machine dedicated simply to processing and printing.</p>

<p>Maybe that is all overkill, but I feel better having redundant backup along with no internet connection on the other machine, the Dell Optiplex (and thus almost no chance of virus contamination on the Optiplex). Data from this machine does not go into the Optiplex, but some materials are ported in the opposite direction physically to this machine from time to time.</p>

<p>Is there any certain way to be safe from both machine/drive electrical failure as well as virus-related problems? No, but I have done what I can--or at least I will have after the mirror drive arrives and everything has been backed up to it.</p>

<p>Now if the house doesn't burn down or get hit by a tornado, I (and my data) just might be alright.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[terrypittman]

<p><strong>"Is there any certain way to be safe from both machine/drive electrical failure as well as virus-related problems? No, but I have done what I can--or at least I will have after the mirror drive arrives and everything has been backed up to it."</strong><br /><br />Not sure if this is the answer you are looking for, I have a Sony Vaio notebook and on my internal drives I have C: and D:. All photos and important docs are on the D: drive. The operating system is Windows XP Home on the C: therefore if anything screws up and I just reformat the C: drive and reload XP. Done it several times. Also run Mozilla which seems to be much less buggy than IE.</p>

[ndt_photo]

<p>Nothing wrong with having an external drive for images that have been finalized and won't be edited much. But the big TIFF's with 9 layers at 12MP and 16-bit, you want to edit those off an internal SATA drive.</p>

[mt4x4]

<blockquote>

<p>Is there any certain way to be safe from both machine/drive electrical failure as well as virus-related problems?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Run in Raid 1 (which it looks like you will be soon) and get some decent virus software. Also, not downloading pirated software helps as this is where most people end up with viruses (although not all). Its an unfortunate fact, but if you are going to play on the internet, you are at some point going to need the use of a virus scanner. I highly recommend any scanner who uses the Trend Micro engine. However, if you cannot afford a virus package right now, AVG free is pretty decent.<br /> <br /> As far as backing up on a regular basis goes....why bother? If you are running in Raid 1 you'll have two drives that are identical mirrors of each other. If one fails you simply replace it and copy the other drive over to it.<br /> <br /> I'd also like to note, I haven't had a problem with a Western Digital drive since about 1994, and it was DOA so no data loss. I have never had a problem with a Maxtor Drive. I have had 3/4 Samsung drives I have owned fail.</p>

[waltflanagan]

<blockquote>

<p>As far as backing up on a regular basis goes....why bother? If you are running in Raid 1 you'll have two drives that are identical mirrors of each other. If one fails you simply replace it and copy the other drive over to it.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The purpose of RAID is to always have the data online even when a drive dies. RAID does not prevent accidental deletion. If you delete a file it immediately gets deleted in both copies on your RAID setup. A separate offline backup will allow you to retrieve that data. A power surge, flood, fire, etc. could destroy the entire RAID system. An offline backup at a remote location will still have your data.</p>

 

[mike_bisom]

<p>Thank you Walt! A Raid 1 is <i>NOT</i> a back up solution. The <i>ONLY</i> thing a Raid 1 protects you from is <i>ONE</i> hard drive failing. While it happens, it doesn't happen nearly as often as accidentally deleting a file, or a system error that messes up a directory or any number of other issues that you need to protect against. Since that's the case, this means you still need to back up your data on a regular basis. Now, since you have a regular back up schedule, a Raid 1 isn't a very good use of resources.</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>You're right, Mike. I just canceled the order.</p>

<p>My setup is complicated. I've got to think this through. . . .</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[waltflanagan]

<p>Regarding drive failures I have had drives from Seagate, Western Digital, IBM, Hitachi, Maxtor, Samsung, Micropolis, Connor, and more. Some of these companies don't exist anymore, some were bought by competitors. I've seen failures from all of them. </p>

<p>If you just have 1 computer with 1 hard drive and keep it for 3-4 years it's possible that you've never had a drive die. If you've worked in an IT department even in a small company you may see a drive die once a month or in a large company every day.</p>

<p>A few years ago IBM had a line of drives with glass platters that died very quickly. There was a class action lawsuit about those. Just a few months ago Seagate had buggy firmware that shipped with the drive that caused it to die. The updated firmware caused working drives to die. Finally they got working firmware out. </p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>MISTAKE: I said earlier that I had an Iomega 250 GB external drive that died. Actually, it was a Maxtor 250GB, and it died when I tried to do a defrag on it using Windows XP Professional. </p>

<p>Storage is the ultimate bummer of digital photography, in my opinion. Everything else I can deal with in a simple and organized fashion--but not storage.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[KenPapai]

<p>I give a thumbs up for the recommendation for the Seagate Freeagent (Firewire) as a data file backup drive. You should have a couple backup drives; Firewire is the best interface mode currently for externals.</p>

<p>I'll be buying another one very soon. FreeAgents have been my most reliable.</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Thanks for everyone's input. After canceling the order for the Western Digital 2TB My Book Mirror Edition External Hard Drive (USB 2 only) from B&H, I ordered the Western Digital 2TB My Book Studio Edition II Quad Interface External Hard Drive from Amazon for $259, $40 less than what B&H is asking--two day air, free shipping, to get here Wednesday.</p>

<p>It is configured for Mac and requires reformatting for Windows.</p>

<p>Time will tell if it was a good decision.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<h1><br /></h1>

[johnw63]

<p>Landrum.</p>

<p>"...Micropolis, Connor, and more."</p>

<p>Oh, Man did you just knock some rust off my memory ! I've been in IT for 20 years, and I had fogotten those names. Connor was more ofa Mac brand, from my perspective. We used to install their drives in Macs that didn't orgininally come with HDs. Whopping 20 or 40 MEGA byte drives !</p>

<p> </p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>John, those were in Walt Flanagan's post above, not mine.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[bill koenig]

<p>Get backup software to do your backups, I use Ghost 14 and a 1TB Seagate barracuda 7200.11 Lucky for me it doesn't have the firmware problem. <br /> The nice thing that this software has, is the ability to verify the backup. I also have a bootable image of my OS on yet another small drive that I keep in my desk. This came handy when my C: drive went south on 1-1-09 I was up and running in 10 minuets.<br /> My data is currently backed up to 3 different drives with one kept off site, and my OS is backed up once a week, with eSATA it would take 22 minuets reload the OS to a new drive.<br /> With storage so cheap, how much is your data worth?</p>

[garrison_k.]

<p>very good post, Bill. I do the same. eStat, Ghost v14.</p>

<p><em>I know that many have remarked on the dropping price of storage, but this excerpt from an ad I just received in the mail just about blew my socks off:</em></p>

<p>It's so cheap to be safe these days. My first blank cd in the mid 90's cost $22 to do a back up. But I've stopped buying enclosures and now go with the eSata docking stations. Docking bare drives is heaven. Small footprint and easier to store a half dozen drives in their static bag and bubble bags. They go into a rubbermaid lined with camera foam.</p>

<p>Mechanical drives will continue to drop in price as we move more towards solid state drives.</p>