Hello there,
In a few years time three external HDD's broke down. I actually mean the hard drive itself is not the problem, but the enclosure is. The connection between the external harddrive and my computer fails and some other things happend. It is all so fragile. I always take good care of my equipment and I didn't plug and unplug it 5 times a day, just once a week.
I don't want to put my images in the cloud, so I am curious what systems or brands you use?
Kind regards
Reinier
I use a dedicated file server, which only gets turned on when transferring data. So most of the time it is off and hopefully not wearing out. Disks in my live system running 24/7 get pre-emptively replaced every 2 or 3 years.
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://snowporing.deviantart.com/">dA</a> Canon 7D2, 7D, 5D2, 600D, 450D, 300D IR modified, 1D, EF-S 10-18, 15-85, EF 35/2, 85/1.8, 135/2, 70-300L, 100-400L, MP-E65, Zeiss 2/50, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300/2.8, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Olympus E-P1, Panasonic 20/1.7, Sony HX9V, Fuji X100.
A big seagate 3TB in my iMac stores my libraries and pictures. For backup I use Firewire WD myBook Studio in a plastic and an aluminium version. Also an USB-Dock from Sharkoon to exchange 3.5" HD, all WD green.
I once tried a NAS but found it slooow. But I don't have a lot of pictures - not more than 2 TB. I'm a cruel deleter, so my libraries are growing slowly.
Hi Rainier, I use Fantom external drive 3TB. It is in aluminum enclosure and has On/Off switch, USB 3.0. It is On only when I transfer data to it, dissipates heat very well. I believe inside is Seagate HD. I bought it from Amazon.
I'm finding my NAS box slow only because it is limited by the gigabit ethernet connection, and I'm not sure I want to pay the premium to go to 10G yet. Since it is only for occasional storage it is rather overkill...
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://snowporing.deviantart.com/">dA</a> Canon 7D2, 7D, 5D2, 600D, 450D, 300D IR modified, 1D, EF-S 10-18, 15-85, EF 35/2, 85/1.8, 135/2, 70-300L, 100-400L, MP-E65, Zeiss 2/50, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300/2.8, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Olympus E-P1, Panasonic 20/1.7, Sony HX9V, Fuji X100.
My approach is quite drastic and I fear won't be feasible soon. I also have a very bad experience with connectors of external drives, such as popo said. So I replaced the optical reader inside my MacBook Pro with a secondary hard disk, and all my photos are there in primary copy. No need to connect an external drive. Unfortunately, this won't be possible when next year I'll have to buy a new MBP.
Then I have a backup (of everything) on an external 2TB driver. I don't trust it as a rock solid backup, but it's made automatically during the day if I'm working at the desk. My older MacBookPro lives as a perfect clone of my primary one, synced every month, or when I'm going to leave for a trip. At home I have a NAS, connected by means of ethernet, that I turn on only when I make a backup, usually every ten days. My photos are then further back up in DVDs (four copies kept in different places at home), even though I have a few years that aren't backed up like that.
Still, if my house burns when I'm in with all my stuff, I risk to lose everything. :-)
stoppingdown.net
Sony a6300, Sony a6000, Sony NEX-6, Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS, Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70mm F4 ZA OSS, Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS, Sigma 150-600mm Æ’/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary, Samyang 12mm Æ’/2, Sigma 30mm F2.8 DN | A, Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan 100mm Æ’/2.8, Samyang 8mm Æ’/3.5 fish-eye II | Zenit Helios 44-2 58mm Æ’/2
Plus some legacy Nikkor lenses.
"Rocksolid" and "DVD" are somehow paradoxons  I gave up on DVD. First, I occassionally edit "old" pictures, so I would have to burn them again. Second, burning 1 TB or more to DVDs could mean afterwards I need a new burner. Especially on Mac, there's no possibility to control the quality of burnt optical media.
An internal second drive might be a cool thing, but again, that's no full back up. If your MacBook gets stolen, crashed or whatever, both drives can be lost.
How about avoiding mechanical problems with connectors by polluting the environment with WiFi using WLAN?
Quote:Still, if my house burns when I'm in with all my stuff, I risk to lose everything. :-)
Right, but when you're in a burning house, with lots of poisonous burning DVDs around you, chances are great you'll never have to worry about anything afterwards. So, please stay away of burning DVDs. Or houses.
10-09-2015, 08:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-09-2015, 08:09 PM by Rover.)
My system is sub-optimal: one copy on the working laptop, one on attached USB hard drive (this is actually the primary copy, as the laptop is not my own but the HDD is). I am slowly but surely cleaning and sorting the remaining photos, and once they're all properly divided between folders, I'm uploading them to the cloud (I managed to get a deal on 1TB of free storage). My archive since 2002 measures 460 GB, but I hope to get it trimmed down somewhat (note: I only shoot JPGs). Ideally I would have a local storage (or better, two copies), a cloud and an off-site copy somewhere, but that is kinda wishful thinking so far. Maybe even a copy on a bunch of 128GB CF/SD cards for ultimate portability, as making 100+ backup DVDs would be a little difficult (not to mention that I'd have no space to store them). I'm also researching Blue-Ray discs but I'd like to skip optical storage if possible since even in BD flavour it's not very efficient (as in storage space per volume; flash cards seem a lot better).
I have at least 1.1/2TBs of photos stored on 3X 3TB external hard drives + three other smaller hard drives, each photo in triplicate on separate drives, RAW+ PSD.
My call is that external hard drives are now cheap at about 110 euros for a 3TB drive, so I buy one every now and then, funnily enough I've never had a hard drive go down, they have just been superseded as and when I get another computer! External hard drives don't suffer if your computer goes down. Computer remained on 24/7 but recently I turn it off at night.
I had a large collection of home burnt DVDs and many are no longer usable, so I've no faith in them.
Just keep on buying hard drives, wouldn't want to upload/download that lot!
Quote:Hello there,
In a few years time three external HDD's broke down. I actually mean the hard drive itself is not the problem, but the enclosure is. The connection between the external harddrive and my computer fails and some other things happend. It is all so fragile. I always take good care of my equipment and I didn't plug and unplug it 5 times a day, just once a week.
I don't want to put my images in the cloud, so I am curious what systems or brands you use?
Kind regards
Reinier
what brands? I found a few laCie's died - as you said, not always the hard drive, but the enclosure. in some instances the on-off button (those blue light buttons with electronics, not a normal switch)- these were the grey metal series. A few grey metal LaCie DVD-writer enclosures (from the some type/time period) also died (won't start up). Also a WD book (not the drive) - grey enclosure died - just the enclosure, not the HD. Some seagates failed as well (didn't check what component). These were mostly 300GB to 1TB drives, so a bit older. Also had two Sony stereo components fail (bought around 1997) - while much older stereo equipment is just fine.
I suspect it's price pressure, the use of cheap electronic components that will fail. Maybe related to the capacitor problems - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague - So, it seems like a general problem, not brand specific.
A few more current black plastic-case LaCie's still work (switch is just normal flip switch).
So, I just hope for good luck nowadays... (and I have an IDE USB adapter kit to transfer data from case-less drives....)
Maybe just try to read comments on amazon etc. if there are current issues with a drive you want to buy.
Just now I had to buy thunderbolt, with Apple ditching firewire. In a few years we'll know how it went...
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