Computer re-configuration - internal drive full

[david_simonds1]

<p>Frends,<br>

I am in need of some advice to re-configure my computer. I have a Dell box that is about 5 years old and works well with 18gb RAM. I work with CS5 on files that are in the range of 100mb. But it has a 1T internal memory which is reaching its limit. I do have some archived images on two separate externals that I rarely access as they are older images. Also a 2T My Book for back up images on the internal drive - both ooc and worked.<br>

I do not like having all these boxes connected and would like to consolidate the lot. Now that my internal memory is reaching its limit it would mean yet another external, probably moving the original ooc files to another 2T external and keep the worked files in the computer and back them up on the existing 2T MyBook.<br>

Feel like I kind of flailing away here and would be obliged for suggestions how I could re-configure the whole system to be more secure and accessible.<br>

Appreciate the help.<br>

David</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>The dilemma of our day in digital phototorgraphy, especially with the growth in file size. So I have several drives with archived off images and back-up of them.<br>

For current and last year or so of images I have a thunder bay 4 Raid 5 box giving me 3TB for current photo work and any other data I need stored. I also have a 5TB back-up drive connected to that which keep a cloned copy of the Raid box. I don't keep much data on my internal drive at all. Raid 5 is pretty good, stripes across 3 drives and one is a maintenance drive. So if a drive fails, you don't lose your data and when you buy a replacement drive, the array rebuilds itself. When this drive gets too full, I'll buy four larger matching drives and place them in the box. I will also have purchase more back-up storage. This is the beast of modern day photography. You will always need more storage. At some point when it becomes fast enough, I will consider some kind of cloud storage. I think there are some systems that are hybrid, they allow storage on them but in the background also send a copy to the cloud. <br>

So its a good question you ask. There are many good solutions. Most of us start small, and all of a sudden have drives and images strewn all over the place. I too wouldn't mind hearing some of the long term solutions people have. What I described above works well for know, but it will only keep growing.</p>

[Jochen_S]

<p>3TB Seagate Barracudas* can be had for 100 Euro or less as it seems. I'd grab 3 mount 2 in an internal RAID 1 (mirrored) andf the next in an external case and toss all the data onto them.<br>

If thats not enough: ponder different RAIDs like a RAID 5 or RAID 10.<br>

IDK if you have a RAID controller or if your PSU is already close to its limits (I read they age & lose capacity). <br>

In general, I am tempted to use SSDs these days too: A great 128GB for system and programs + maybe an inexpensive one as workspace.<br>

*=About brands: I am probably not up to date but folks recommended the Barracudas to me. A Samsung 850 or 840 evo would be a good SSD, I'd buy the cheapest available as the workspace / scratch disk one. If a single 256GB Samsung is cheaper: go for that. <br>

"About 5 years old" might be the critical age for the internal disk you are currently using. So just replacing it with "way bigger" makes sense too.</p>

[bebu_lamar]

<p>Do exactly what you are doing now except...<br /> 1. Get a 2 or 3 TB hard drive for internal.<br /> 2. Reinstall Windows and software on the new drive.<br /> 3. Transfer all the files over to the new drive.<br>

That's what I would do or you could get a cloning software to clone the existing hard drive to the new one.</p>

[EricM]

NAS, not DAS. I'd get a Synology or Qnap 3 bay NAS box

and run it raid5 with 3 x 3tb drives.

[walter_degroot]

<p>may I suggest a cloning / image program called CLONEZILLA<br>

it is free to get and to use.<br>

it is available in 32 and 64 bit versions.</p>

<p>be sure your system will handle a driv of the size you purchase.<br>

there are bios related size limits on IDE Eide<br>

also referred to as PATA drives.<br>

these drive also are going up in prce.</p>

<p>If your system uses a SATA drive these should be no problem.</p>

<p>the clonezilla program runs abd boots from a cd.<br>

so you may need to reconfigure a drive to be slave rather than master.</p>

<p>you mayalso try or use a copy of HIREN s boot cd that contains sme cloning / drive copying programs.<br>

also free and downloadable.<br>

I have used Norton s ghost. and still use it on smaller drives.<br>

but I am not entirely satisfied with it.<br>

I had some norton GHO image files I made with version 5.0 that becabe corrupted and would not restore..<br>

there are later versions on some releases of the HIREN s boot cd.</p>

[walter_degroot]

<p>oh yes you may get a deal on a drive from an offce store.<br>

thye best prices are from NEW EGG.<br>

get on their list for the weekly specials.</p>

<p>Although an external drive is handy to store photos abd data, avcaios buying by drive brand name.<br>

wester digital seems to be the best close second is seagate.<br>

wd makes drive in varioud quality levels.<br>

some are warranteed for 5 years.<br>

the wd black.<br>

again if your system has an ide drive under or at 120g-- it may not accept larger drives.<br>

we had a beautiful gateway that we gave away with a new 120gb drive<br>

th larger drive we used in a newer pc.</p>

<p>You should NOT need the cd key to activbate the operating systm.<br>

but just in case be sure to have it written down somewhere.</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>Drives are cheap, but transferring an operating system and all the programs without needing to reinstall everything takes some thought. In the past I've used programs like Norton "Ghost" for the job, but there are other programs that make this job easier, some which don't require the system drive to be disconnected. Someone has stepped up with a software solution, and I'm sure there are others. "Ghost" seems to have been dumbed down, and is no longer the best choice for the job.</p>

<p>In the past, I've found it best to do a clean install of the operating system on the new drive, then clone the system and program files from the old drive to the new with software designed for that purpose.</p>

[PaulCoen]

<p>I recently replaced the hard drive in my old Thinkpad x201 subnote with a Crucial SSD - it came with a (limited) copy of Acronis True Image, and I was pretty impressed. I bought a USB to SATA cable that worked with the drive and it went smoothly. Cloned to the SSD, swapped it out with the system drive, and it started right up. Even handled the (slight) space increase on the SSD.<br /><br />The retail version of Acronis should work with any combination of drives from any vendor. </p>

[nail33]

<p>+1 for Clonezilla:<br>

http://clonezilla.org/</p>

 

[david_simonds1]

<p>Friends, I am grateful for all your thoughtful replies and suggestions, some of which I can fathom, and others, not so much. I am left with the conviction that I must tend to this project by bringing my box to some savvy tech person who can help preserve my work and my sanity.<br>

David</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>I understand, David, but I wonder whether your expert will consider that consolidating everything in one box will increase or reduce security. I run a Dell too, maybe a year younger than yours. My generalised strategy is to have all my working copies of everything- photos, software , general stuff, on internal drives (which are somewhat faster) , and all backups on external drives (that I can switch off).</p>

<p>So I have three internal drives totalling 5TB</p>

<ul>

<li>one for software, programmes,documents, scanned images and photo applications such as website, books, stock agency photos , print files etc. Its 1TB and half empty</li>

<li>one for raw digital images made 2008-2014, organised by trip and including Tiffs and jpegs made from those raws Its 90% full and I don't intend to put much else on it.</li>

<li>one for digital raws and derived tiffs & jpegs from 2015 onwards. There's 3TB of that so there's no reason to believe that it won't hold everything I make during my remaining active photographic life.</li>

</ul>

<p>I have three external drives, all of which are switched off /disconnected unless I'm actively backing up. </p>

<ul>

<li>One mirrors the first of the internal drives above.</li>

<li>The second contains all digital photography- raw and derived tiffs & jpegs. The import process via Lightroom creates the raw backups for me if I tick the right boxes.</li>

<li>The third has both of the above and lives at a daughter's home a half mile away. It comes here only to get updated. </li>

</ul>

<p>Now this isn't the slickest system in the world but its worked so far and as a person who doesn't know more than the minimum about computers, I can handle everything myself outside of adding/upsizing hard drives which my son in law does for me. All I really need to understand is the back-up procedure for each item type and to remember to get that done. </p>

 

<ul>

<li> </li>

</ul>

[steven_clark]

<p>I'd be cautious about recent versions of Acronis. The UI has gotten simpler, less well-labeled and is now missing features it once had. Much of what you used to be able to do in Windows is now only available when booting from a disk or thumbdrive. Both the two vendors of this type of software (the other being Symantec's Norton Ghost) want you to use this software for backups when consumers don't have access to any backup media with better capacity than the drives being backed-up. Especially strange when Windows already has better-integrated backup systems (yes plural).</p>

[studio460]

<p>I just upgraded my late-2011 17" Core i7 16GB MacBook Pro with a 1TB internal SSD, and now it runs blazing fast. In fact, this holiday season, I've been upgrading and replacing every system in the house in an effort to eliminate all internal magnetic HDDs, and converting or replacing each with internal SSDs. Since SSDs have come down in price in recent years, I would recommend a new internal 1TB SSD for your desktop (you would also need a 2.5"-to-3.5" drive bracket). I would suggest the following:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1086227-REG/samsung_mz_75e1t0b_am_853_evo_1tb_2_5.html">Samsung 1TB 850 EVO 2.5" SATA III SSD: $347.99</a><br /> <a href="http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/ADPTADRV/">NewerTech 2.5" to 3.5" drive bracket: $14.50</a></p>

<p>Our household is all-OS X, but in general, to swap your old HDD with the new SSD, I think it's easier and better to simply buy an inexpensive, extra external drive enclosure to assist in performing the swap: First, install your new SSD into the external enclosure. Connect it to your computer, then format and install a fresh, bootable copy of your OS onto the SSD. Now, swap the SSD and HDD, and install your applications onto the new OS. While you can then install your old internal HDD into your enclosure for extra storage, you should also think about moving your data (i.e., pictures) to a fast external device with newer drives.</p>

<p>There's two kinds of external storage you may consider: 1.) Direct-attached storage, 2.) Network-attached storage. Direct-attached storage is where you want to store your working files, since bandwidth is fast as you can get in an external drive (Thunderbolt 2, eSATA, USB 3.0, from fastest to less-fast). Network-attached storage (NAS) is for less-frequently used files, or strictly for back-ups, since its transfer speed is limited to Gigabit Ethernet speeds (though some NAS systems also have eSATA I/O ports in addition to Gigabit Ethernet).</p>

<p>For those with computers which have Thunderbolt 2 ports, I would recommend this <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132581-REG/owc_other_world_computing_owctb4mjb0gb_thunderbay_4_mini_4_bay.html">OWC Thunderbay 4 mini four-bay enclosure</a> for $334, which accommodates up to four 2.5" SSDs or HDDs (I'm installing two Samsung 1TB SSDs into this for my attached storage). If using SSDs in an external enclosure, it's smart to buy a capable UPS since SSDs can "disappear" if they suddenly lose power. I purchased this one to back-up both a new Core i7 27" iMac 5K and its four-bay SSD enclosure: <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/887781-REG/APC_smc1500_Smart_UPS_C_1500VA_with.html">APC Smart UPS C 1440VA</a>. It uses SLA batteries which are user-replaceable.</p>

<p>For NAS (network-attached storage) I would recommend Synology or Drobo. If I were to install a NAS, I would go with the largest enclosure, with the most bays to avoid upgrading the enclosure later. You can get an 8-bay Synology for $999 for up to 48TB of storage! Populate with RED Western Digital NAS HDDs. Both Synology and Drobo offer a number of smaller NAS systems as well, some with RED HDDs already installed. Some are even system-level formatted for either OS X or Windows systems.</p>

[studio460]

<p>Now, to NAS, or not to NAS?</p>

<p>I've been pondering my NAS options for over a year and have since at least determined that both Synology and Drobo have very high customer satisfaction ratings, plus positive reviews on their software. But since I decided to eliminate all spindle-drive HDDs in the house, and only store locally on SSDs, this has changed my thinking on my back-up strategy. The primary reason for installing all-SSD storage in-house was to eliminate the possibility of mechanical drive failure. A NAS re-introduces that possibility, unless populated with all-SSDs.</p>

<p>As for my new iMac, all of my applications will reside on its 512GB internal SSD. All of my attached, local storage will be maintained in the four-bay SSD Thunderbolt 2 enclosure for maximum transfer speed. For my MacBook Pro, again, all applications now reside on its internal 1TB SSD. My Aperture photo libraries will be placed on bus-powered external SSD drives on something like this 512GB Thunderbolt SSD from <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1091259-REG/transcend_ts512gsjm500_512gb_storejet_500_portable.html">Transcend</a>. For now, my working Aperture library resides on the old internal 750GB HDD, which is now in the "temporary" external drive enclosure--it's temporary because it's just a Firewire 800 device, and the drive is over five years old (I just backed up all of its contents to my iDrive online back-up account).</p>

<p>My primary back-up plan now includes a new iDrive account, so that lessens my need for local back-up. Why iDrive? They offer unlimited devices (including external drives) for $59/year. I may in the future decide to get a Synology array and fill it full of magnetic drives, but that also entails developing a fail-safe schedule of routinely swapping out old HDDs for new ones. Perhaps in one or two years, SSDs will continue to become affordable enough to consider using in a large NAS array.</p>

<p>Using all-SSDs in a NAS array, however, brings up different problems. According to a study I found online, surprisingly, magnetic HDDs are far more resilient when it comes to power failures, whereas SSDs are decidedly not. This means that an all-SSD array, practically speaking, would not be best to keep powered 24/7 unless you had a UPS with enormous back-up capacity.</p>

<p>So for now, I'll maintain all-SSD local storage using fast Thunderbolt 2 enclosures, and rely on iDrive for online back-up. As a secondary back-up solution, I'm starting to use Amazon Prime's included unlimited photo storage plan.</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

The choice between SSD and spinners is one about speed (and cost).<br>If you do not need the speed, regular HDDs offer more capacity for less money, and have a good life span.<br><br>The choice between NAS or not is one about access.<br>Using SSDs in a NAS is a possibility, but there is no advantage. Speed is limited by your network.<br>A NAS as a (back-up) store for all data on your local drives (and a good back-up regime) will help prevent data loss due to disk failure. But not due to houses buring down or such.<br><br>The choice between in-house duplicates and distributed copies is one about data security.<br>You do not need a cloud solution. Copying to external disks which are stored in a different building (could even be your garden shed) will already keep data as safe as any cloud. Both cloud and a disk back up require a good back up regime.<br>A cloud solution also offers access from anywhere on the internet. A home NAS can do the same.

[studio460]

<p>The purpose of using SSDs in a NAS would be only to eliminate the possibility of mechanical failure, and to avoid having to periodically replace/cycle drives, and not for speed, since an Ethernet-only NAS is limited to a maximum transfer rate of 1Gbps. Though, I wouldn't necessarily recommend putting SSDs in a NAS due to both cost and their sensitivity to power failures.</p>

[EricM]

<blockquote>

<p>But it has a 1T internal memory which is reaching its limit. I do have some archived images on two separate externals that I rarely access as they are older images. Also a 2T My Book for back up images on the internal drive - both ooc and worked.<br />I do not like having all these boxes connected and would like to consolidate the lot. Now that my internal memory is reaching its limit it would mean yet another external, probably moving the original ooc files to another 2T external and keep the worked files in the computer and back them up on the existing 2T MyBook.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br /> I'd yank out all the drives in the box and buy a SamsunG Evo ssd 500Gb and a Western Digital hdd 6Tb. Rebuild your system with Windows 10 on the Samsung Evo and put all your files from all your drives onto that 6Tb. Consolidated. Now you just have to back up and you probably have enough space to use those spare drives to mirror that 6Tb. That's one backup. For another backup, Amazon and Crashplan have the best "unlimited all file types" cloud storage and for $60/yr, I'd throw a copy of your works up to the cloud</p>

[studio460]

<p>I think iDrive and Crashplan are close competitors. The main differences are: 1TB vs. unlimited storage, and unlimited computers/devices vs. one computer, respectively. I chose iDrive's $59/year plan ($14.99 introductory price for the first year) based on their "unlimited devices" coverage, since I have two iMacs, a laptop, an iPad, iPhone, and lots of external drives. Crashplan is also $59/year for one computer, but I'm not quite sure how they define "one computer." Does that include all attached external drives? Does it include a NAS? (Note that Carbonite does <em>not</em> include external drives or NAS arrays in their "one computer" plan.) Crashplan's family plan covers up to 10 computers, but costs $150/year. For reference I used this <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp">PC Magazine article</a>.</p>