Nervous! How do I store photos?

[Colin Southern]

Has anybody tried Solid State Drives(SSD)?

This should be more reliable than the HDD since there's no moving parts. SSD are still high priced compared to the HDD though.

Not necessarily. I believe that up to 70% of issues with drives are firmware issues; I have to say that losing significant amount of data due to mechanical failure / head crash etc these days is fairly rare (but obviously something that still can and does happen).

[whited3]

Backups are only important when you need to find that file you deleted or your HDD crashes, someone steals your PC, etc I run a 1TB HDD as my main drive and a second 500GB drive on which I backup (copy) my photos and other personal files to using Synctoy a few times a week or after processing.

I have a 320GB USB HDD which I keep at work and bring home once a week to make a backup, again with Synctoy.

So I have an every-other-day backup on a local HDD and an off-site, weekly backup in case things really go bad.

[Sunray]

Hello everyone,

there are some things to consider about storage and backup.

1) Storage
Try to store youre data redundant. Modern computers nearly all have the ability to create a logical drive from multiple physical (internal) hard drives. This is called RAID (Redundant Array of Independant Disks). There are a lot of different RAID configurations available (=RAID level). Onboard RAID controllers in normal PCs usually support RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID5, RAID 1+0.
Here is a short explanation (I try to keep it simple):

RAID-0:
Data striping across all disks without any redundancy
NEVER use it if you plan to store data on these disks

RAID-1:
All data is mirrored to multiple disks. For example if you have got two 500GB disks in your PC all data is stored on both disks simultaniously. So you have only 500GB for storage available instead of 1000GB. If one disk breaks down all your data is still accessable.

RAID-5:
All data is striped across multiple disks and a checksum is generated. The checksum is always stored on a different disk than the data blocks. You need at least three disk to do this. If you have three 500GB disks for example you have got 1000GB available while the capacity of one disk is needed for checksum informations. If you loose one disk you can still access your data, but access is much slower because the missing data is being calculated from the data fragments and the checksum in realtime.

RAID-10:
All data is striped and mirrored across multiple disks. An even number of disks is neccessary for that. If you use for 500GB disks for example your data is striped across two disks and mirrored onto the other two disks. So you have always 50% of your total storage capacity available. In this example that is 1000GB.

Remember:
RAID systems protect you from disk failure, allow larger storage capacity and improve access time. Details depend on the RAID level.
A RAID System NEVER PROTECTS from data loos due to viruses, human errors, sabotage, etc. Thats because the operation system always sees one logical diskdrive and all data alteration is done simultanious to all physical disks.

If you want to know more about RAID try this wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

2) Backup
Do backups regulary! Use a disk that is not always connected to your PC like an external USB or Firewire disk. As an alternative use a network storage array (NAS, Network Attached Storage). Never ever use these devices to work on, use only for backup. If they are connected to your PC all the time you have got the risk that data is lost or damaged in case of an incident. Use a synchronisation or backup software to do these backups so that it is just a "click and forget" action. If copies have to be created fully manual they often get shifted to later point in time.

3) ZIP and Rev drives
Iomega, the manufacturer of zip and rev drives does not produce them anymore. So I would not put any money in such a technology. If you loose your drive or it gets broken you cannot access your disks anymore unless you get a spare drive. If you want to take data to a friend you have to bring disk and drive unit with you.

4) External disks
There are two types of external disks: 3,5" and 2,5" (notebook disk size) disks.
Both have advantages and disadvantages:
3,5" disk
+ Large capacity
+ Cheaper
+ Price per GB is less compared to 2,5" disk drives
- Heavier
- Need an additional (external) power supply

2,5" disks
+ Much lighter than an 3,5" disk
+ Need no extra power supply. It gets enough power over the USB connector
- More expensive than an 3,5" drive
- Price per GB higher compared to 3,5" drives

5) SSD (Solid State Drives)
I would use solid state drive only for the operation system and applications and store pictures on normal SATA drives. So you can combine the much higher I/O rate of the SSD with the capacity of a normal SATA drive. Just install your operation system and applications on the SSD. Also put pagefile, cache, temp folder, etc on the SSD.

Personally I have four 500GB internal 3,5" SATA drives combind as a RAID-10 and I use two 500GB USB 3,5" disks for backup. I also have a 250GB 2,5" USB disk drive that I use for carrying data arround.

I hope this helps.
bye
Robert

[MiniChris]

I am and will be a fan of Carbonite. It's easy to set up, cheap ($54.00 US a year) and it backs up your entire system..every single file on it. Something goes boo-boo, you can instantly reload your computer - Well, instantly is a bit of a catch as it can take quite some time to put all those files back in a computer, especially if you are storing multitudes of RAW files... but the point is, it's all there. My computer does an autosave every night at midnight, but if I have something I am really worried about, I can upload it to Carbonite immediately. I still back up all my files with my portable HD and even to DVD's and CD's just to have them immediately available. You can try it for free for 15 days, no credit card required for the free trial.