Looking for a backup for my photo

[safehaven]

It dawned on me the other night that I have 35 GB (I'm sure that isn't a lot compared to a lot of you) of un-backed-up photos that I don't really want to lose. So, I am looking to get an external HD to back up my photos. I seems like a no brainer to go eSATA. Best Buy has the Western Digital MyBook Premium ES 500 GB on sale this week, so I want to pick one up.

What I need to know is how exactly does adding eSATA hard drive affect (or not affect for that matter) the drives that I have on a RAID array? Can I simply plug it in to my eSATA port and let windows take care of the rest, or do I need to change something in the RIAD configuration?

I looked on Western Digitals website to find installation instructions, but their weren't any (that I could quickly find anyway). Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

[In2Photos]

I bought this exact drive a few weeks ago but I don't have it hooked up to eSATA yet, just USB. The installation instructions suck as usual. Your eSATA port should not affect your RAID configuration though, it should just act like an additional drive on your machine. Out of curiousity what Mobo do you have with an eSATA port?

[safehaven]

I have a Gigabyte P35-DS3R. It has 8 SATA ports, 4 in one cluster, 4 in another cluster. My 3 internals are hooked together in one cluster in a RAID5 array. The other cluster has my cd/dvd drive and one of the ports is hooked to the eSATA port on the face of my Antec Sonata III tower.

SATA and RAID are still a little confusing to me. I am assuming that my CDROM is not part of the RAID array. So, I am also assuming that my eSATA is not part of the array as well.

Would my 3 hard drives that are in the RAID5 array work as single, autonomous drives hooked up to the SATA ports if they weren't specifically set up for RAID? Will a eSATA external HD work as a single, autonomous drive, just by plugging it into the computer?

[In2Photos]

I have a Gigabyte P35-DS3R. It has 8 SATA ports, 4 in one cluster, 4 in another cluster. My 3 internals are hooked together in one cluster in a RAID5 array. The other cluster has my cd/dvd drive and one of the ports is hooked to the eSATA port on the face of my Antec Sonata III tower.

SATA and RAID are still a little confusing to me. I am assuming that my CDROM is not part of the RAID array. So, I am also assuming that my eSATA is not part of the array as well.

Would my 3 hard drives that are in the RAID5 array work as single, autonomous drives hooked up to the SATA ports if they weren't specifically set up for RAID? Will a eSATA external HD work as a single, autonomous drive, just by plugging it into the computer?
I am not well versed on RAID but maybe some of the other PC gurus can help you out there. However my understanding is this. There is a RAID controller built in to the mobo most likely that has to be setup in order to use the RAID. This is how the Mobo knows what to do with the drives. If you do not change any of the RAID settings your new drive should act as just that, a single stand alone drive. And your CD-ROM should never be a part of a RAID configuration. It may be a SATA drive but not part of your RAID.

Now, hooking up the new eSATA drive to your machine the way you currently have it configured (hooking up the external eSATA port of your case to one the the internal SATA connections) means that you will not be able to turn off the drive without shutting down the machine. Bascially your new drive will act like an internal SATA hard drive the way you have it configured. You need a dedicated eSATA port on your mobo or an add-on PCI card to give you plug and play compatibility. This is why I have it coneected USB right now as I didn't want to spend the extra $30 for a card and $10-$15 for a cable.

[safehaven]

Now, hooking up the new eSATA drive to your machine the way you currently have it configured (hooking up the external eSATA port of your case to one the the internal SATA connections) means that you will not be able to turn off the drive without shutting down the machine. Bascially your new drive will act like an internal SATA hard drive the way you have it configured. You need a dedicated eSATA port on your mobo or an add-on PCI card to give you plug and play compatibility. This is why I have it coneected USB right now as I didn't want to spend the extra $30 for a card and $10-$15 for a cable.

I am sure you are right in that I do not have hot swap capability the way it was configured. But, I was wrong in the description of the mobo. The are 6 ports in one cluster and 2 ports in the other. The 2 ports are defined by a different color (purple) on the connector body. The SATA on the face of the tower and the CDROM are both connected to the purple cluster. I don't know why those two ports are singled out.

[safehaven]

I am not well versed on RAID but maybe some of the other PC gurus can help you out there.

I don't know where to exactly suggest this or who to suggest it to. Computers are nearly as important as the cameras and lenses themselves when it comes to digital photography. Wouldn't it make a little sense to have a "Computer Talk" forum. My questions (and a lot of others on here) don't really fit the "post processing" category, but it probably fits better here than anywhere else.

I know there are computer forums out there. But, I feel much more comfortable with the answers I get here, on a forum I visit daily (more like 10 times daily), than I do on a forum I never visit.

Just a thought.

[In2Photos]

I am sure you are right in that I do not have hot swap capability the way it was configured. But, I was wrong in the description of the mobo. The are 6 ports in one cluster and 2 ports in the other. The 2 ports are defined by a different color (purple) on the connector body. The SATA on the face of the tower and the CDROM are both connected to the purple cluster. I don't know why those two ports are singled out.
It might be that one cluster (the 6 grouping) is SATA II ports rated at 3GB/s, while the other two are SATA ports rated at 1.5 GB/s. Or it may be that these ports are not part of the RAID controller.
I don't know where to exactly suggest this or who to suggest it to. Computers are nearly as important as the cameras and lenses themselves when it comes to digital photography. Wouldn't it make a little sense to have a "Computer Talk" forum. My questions (and a lot of others on here) don't really fit the "post processing" category, but it probably fits better here than anywhere else.

I know there are computer forums out there. But, I feel much more comfortable with the answers I get here, on a forum I visit daily (more like 10 times daily), than I do on a forum I never visit.

Just a thought.
You have asked the question in the right forum but the PC gurus haven't jumped in. Not sure why, it might be your thread title. It is a little misleading.

[ducko]

I'm not sure if this string is asking more about RAID arrays or an external hard drive for backup. The Mybook that you inquire about just uses a USB cable and is recognized as another hard drive on your computer and will act completely separate from the RAID. In order to add more hard drives to your RAID, you would have to recreate the RAID (meaning partitioning all the drives which destroys the data on them). I bought the 300GB Mybook recently and found it very convenient. I am computer professional so if I can help you with any questions about RAID or hard drives, feel free to ask. I am still learning about Lightroom and photoshop so I won't be of much help in that area though. :-) Good luck.

[In2Photos]

I'm not sure if this string is asking more about RAID arrays or an external hard drive for backup. The Mybook that you inquire about just uses a USB cable and is recognized as another hard drive on your computer and will act completely separate from the RAID. In order to add more hard drives to your RAID, you would have to recreate the RAID (meaning partitioning all the drives which destroys the data on them). I bought the 300GB Mybook recently and found it very convenient. I am computer professional so if I can help you with any questions about RAID or hard drives, feel free to ask. I am still learning about Lightroom and photoshop so I won't be of much help in that area though. :-) Good luck.
Actually the MyBook to which he is refering is the USB/eSATA model so it can be hooked up either way.

[ducko]

Oh ok. I just went and read about the esata version. That's pretty cool since it's light speeds faster than usb2. I suppose that if you really wanted to create an esata raid, you could include the Mybook as one of the drives, but like I said in the previous post, you would have to start a new raid to include the new drive. I think that the original question was asking if it would affect the original raid that was already in place, right? The answer simply is: no. When you plug it in, it will get another drive letter assigned to it.

Thanks for the clairification, In2Photos.

[safehaven]

Well, I bought the HD today at Best Buy for $149.99. According to the directions, it does appear that you can hook the eSATA drive up while the computer is turned on, as they specifically tell you to do it once its powered.

However, it strongly warns that the computer must be turned off before the HD can be turned off and disconected when using eSATA.

I have yet to try any of this out as I need to buy an eSATA cable. Its suprising that none of the major stores are carrying these yet.

[safehaven]

Just an update... I got my eSATA cable and tried the My Book out. At first, I was less than impressed to say the least. I followed the instructions to install:

Power up system
Power up HD
Connect the eSATA cable

It recognizes the drive and I think that I am good to go. I try to copy some files and the copy crashes and then the system crashes.

I restart. My system is running like a turd. Try to copy again... crash.

Restart. Uninstall the HD via hardware configure.

Restart. Start up finds the drive. Try to copy. Crash.

Go to Western Digitals site. Read this: Important: When using the eSATA connector, this device does not support hot swapping (connecting and disconnecting while the computer system is running). Please Shut down the computer system before plugging in the WD My Book Premium ES Edition hard drive.

So, shut down and restart. Still running like a turd. Crash on copy.

Then, I got to thinking "I wonder if it is because the front panel eSATA port is connected the purple bank of SATA ports on the mobo. So I crack her open, unhook from the purple and reconnect to one of the 6 beige. Restart. I immediately notice that the drive is showing on the boot up screen along with my other HD's. Windows boots up. Everything appears to be running at full speed again. Reformat the drive to get away from FAT32. Begin a copy and it is running flawlessly as I write.

Well, that was my experience. I hope anyone else attempting this will have an easier time at it. Luckily for me, I love a challenge.

[Time Thief]

One thought you might want to think about. What happens after you back up your files and your house/apt burns down? The thinking going on now is to back them up but keep the back ups at another location to avoid this problem. Just some thoughts. I have been backing my stuff up to dvd's with two copies. One by the computer and the other set in my fire proof gun safe.

Now that I got my studio up and running I think I will put the set by the computer down there and keep the ones in the safe here at the house. The other thing I do is when I make one of the copies of dvd's I burn it the slowest speed possible. My computer buddy mentioned that if there was going to be a problem it would be when it burned and most of the time its when you do it fast. Just some thoughts to get you thinking.

[In2Photos]

Just an update... I got my eSATA cable and tried the My Book out. At first, I was less than impressed to say the least. I followed the instructions to install:

Power up system
Power up HD
Connect the eSATA cable

It recognizes the drive and I think that I am good to go. I try to copy some files and the copy crashes and then the system crashes.

I restart. My system is running like a turd. Try to copy again... crash.

Restart. Uninstall the HD via hardware configure.

Restart. Start up finds the drive. Try to copy. Crash.

Go to Western Digitals site. Read this: Important: When using the eSATA connector, this device does not support hot swapping (connecting and disconnecting while the computer system is running). Please Shut down the computer system before plugging in the WD My Book Premium ES Edition hard drive.

So, shut down and restart. Still running like a turd. Crash on copy.

Then, I got to thinking "I wonder if it is because the front panel eSATA port is connected the purple bank of SATA ports on the mobo. So I crack her open, unhook from the purple and reconnect to one of the 6 beige. Restart. I immediately notice that the drive is showing on the boot up screen along with my other HD's. Windows boots up. Everything appears to be running at full speed again. Reformat the drive to get away from FAT32. Begin a copy and it is running flawlessly as I write.

Well, that was my experience. I hope anyone else attempting this will have an easier time at it. Luckily for me, I love a challenge.
Didn't I say something about hot swapping ? ;) Glad you got it up and going.
I am not well versed on RAID but maybe some of the other PC gurus can help you out there. However my understanding is this. There is a RAID controller built in to the mobo most likely that has to be setup in order to use the RAID. This is how the Mobo knows what to do with the drives. If you do not change any of the RAID settings your new drive should act as just that, a single stand alone drive. And your CD-ROM should never be a part of a RAID configuration. It may be a SATA drive but not part of your RAID.

Now, hooking up the new eSATA drive to your machine the way you currently have it configured (hooking up the external eSATA port of your case to one the the internal SATA connections) means that you will not be able to turn off the drive without shutting down the machine. Bascially your new drive will act like an internal SATA hard drive the way you have it configured. You need a dedicated eSATA port on your mobo or an add-on PCI card to give you plug and play compatibility. This is why I have it coneected USB right now as I didn't want to spend the extra $30 for a card and $10-$15 for a cable.