Photo Storage/Backup Options?

[betatech]

Doing IT and along with several years in data recovery has provided me with some advantages in securing my data. But that does not mean that technology hasn't changed. Im curious to see the types of drives, data servers, Backup software or network drives people are using? Brands, type, and use are great

Currently Im running a data server with 4 - 500gb Sata II drives with Raid5, with a backup server with another 4 - 500g Sata II drives ( No Raid). Along with this is a 3rd backup Cloud Server Drive ( Nice of Google to Provided a 100gb free storage for android Developers). As for my 4th backup this is off site at my business location.

Also on a good note my contract is finally up for Restricted Data Recovery for government industry's so I can now go back to my public data Recovery with my own business. ( If anyone needs some help with data recovery there are alot a tricks and tips that could save you that $1500 - $7000 to recover that drive )

Brands that I have worked with and contain schematics for data recovery
Western Digital - Good Drives, Main Boards and chips are decent quality
Maxtor - Great Drives, uses a different manufacture now for Main board and Process Chip.
Seagate - Trained and provided the 8 years experience. Provided the opportunity for Class 3 Data Recovery ( Micro Room and Drive Dismantling ) NOTE: Great Drives.


INFO:

Now here is some info that photog's should know:

Using third party company's such as IOMEGA, Memorex, Buffalo Technology, and FANTOM DRIVES - can lead to problems. The issue is both the drives and controllers. All these companys purchase drives from WD, Maxtor, Seagate, and Hitachi in BULK ( Not tested and only 63% stock is guaranteed to work ). If you want proof, remove your drive from the case and go to the hard drive brands website and type in the serial ( P/N) and it will come up Bulk Shipment device and list the company. Nest issue is controllers, these company's will use OUTDATED controller software along with controllers that do not match the drive ( Example: Connecting a Sata II drive to a Sata controller - Brings down speed from 3gb/s to 1.5gb/s). Now this does not mean there all bad but does leave a high risk of failure.

So if you have any questions about data recovery feel free to PM me, be more then happy to provide my certifications and such.

[goldboughtrue]

Are you asking what drives we use?

I have one 1 TB and a 2TB Western Digital drive that backup all my data including photos. There's another 160 GB Western Digital passport drive that holds only photos, which is in a different location than my home.

I don't use any online service except to hold the JPG images I want to share (my site is in my signature).

[betatech]

Originally Posted by goldboughtrue

Are you asking what drives we use?

I have one 1 TB and a 2TB Western Digital drive that backup all my data including photos. There's another 160 GB Western Digital passport drive that holds only photos, which is in a different location than my home.

I don't use any online service except to hold the JPG images I want to share (my site is in my signature).

Yep any drives, External, Internal, Portable, Laptop or Solid State, any cloud services, Backup software, and wireless backup options. I'm curious to see how life span and quality of drives has increased or decreased. My biggest issue I came across on any brand was controller failures and it would make my gut turn to send Invoices of $3500 to recover a 500gb - 750gb drives, and all that was done was a quick resister replacement or Board replacement.

[Wilt]

You can always get docking units and put an 'old' harddrive into it, from an external harddrive which had its interface electronics fail.

I did that with a Western Digital MyBook external USB unit which failed, in spite of it being babied and only powered up to back up files occasionally. I cut into the WD case, removed the WD harddrive and put it into a docking unit...it worked just fine, and I only had the (low) cost of the docking unit to make it all work.

[mndoci]

All my pictures live on a firewire drive. ALl of the projects get archived to a drobo. The best pictures get archived to S3. In other words, multiple levels of storage with all kinds of redundancy.

[joeseph]

I have 2x WD20EARX-00PASB0 (2TB) drives in my main machine for data, running 24x7 that does a sync once a day at 02:00hrs.

A third one I keep at work and every few weeks I bring home & swap with one of the other two drives. Haven't seen any issues in about 9 months (I had 3x 750G Seagate drives doing the same routine for about 3 years prior to getting the 2TB ones - didn't have any issues with them either)

I've had different friends with different drives and no backup routines lose quite a bit of data over the years, always sad to see, but not an awful lot you can do about.

I try and put stuff in perspective for them - drives fail, sooner or later they all do. Best be prepared.

[DBNissan]

I'm running 2 WD Caviar Green 1TB drives in a D-Link NAS enclosure set to Raid1. I may switch it to Raid0 to have more space but worried about losing the redundancy. My system is set to sync the backup every night and has done well for the past 2 years. I would like to go cloud but my ISP is slow in my area.

[RichSoansPhotos]

Originally Posted by DBNissan

I'm running 2 WD Caviar Green 1TB drives in a D-Link NAS enclosure set to Raid1. I may switch it to Raid0 to have more space but worried about losing the redundancy. My system is set to sync the backup every night and has done well for the past 2 years. I would like to go cloud but my ISP is slow in my area.

Arty, you send D-Link your photo of that, they will like it

[watt100]

Originally Posted by betatech

Doing IT and along with several years in data recovery has provided me with some advantages in securing my data. But that does not mean that technology hasn't changed. Im curious to see the types of drives, data servers, Backup software or network drives people are using? Brands, type, and use are great
data .

I use a Passport portable drive but I'm looking into getting a cheap tablet to backup files while traveling

[betatech]

Originally Posted by DBNissan

I'm running 2 WD Caviar Green 1TB drives in a D-Link NAS enclosure set to Raid1. I may switch it to Raid0 to have more space but worried about losing the redundancy. My system is set to sync the backup every night and has done well for the past 2 years. I would like to go cloud but my ISP is slow in my area.

Digging the look of that D-link AND it has the blue glow!
I was looking at the D-Link Model last week, when I was building the server.
hows the User Interface?
Does the unit have a command console?
Do the drives need to be Fat 32 for network access or will it except NTFS?

Raid 0 is great if your using it on the computer that is editing, and processing photos, -- It will provide quick access to the data for all components. Now as for data protection there is where you come to the 50/50 mark. Raid O may provide quick access but data is slightly at risk.

Thanks everyone for the information - Great Insight! Keep it comin.

[DBNissan]

Originally Posted by betatech

Digging the look of that D-link AND it has the blue glow!
I was looking at the D-Link Model last week, when I was building the server.
hows the User Interface?
Does the unit have a command console?
Do the drives need to be Fat 32 for network access or will it except NTFS?

Raid 0 is great if your using it on the computer that is editing, and processing photos, -- It will provide quick access to the data for all components. Now as for data protection there is where you come to the 50/50 mark. Raid O may provide quick access but data is slightly at risk.

Thanks everyone for the information - Great Insight! Keep it comin.

The interface/command console is browser based and is simple to use. I don't recall if it can accept NTFS though.

I have no complaints with the DNS-321. I mainly use it for back-up and some media streaming. So, I may just leave it as it is in RAiD1 and update to dual 2TB drives. I have it on a Linksys e2000 router with gigabit ports so transfers are really fast with my laptop which has an N300 wifi card.

[tonylong]

Originally Posted by betatech

Raid 0 is great if your using it on the computer that is editing, and processing photos, -- It will provide quick access to the data for all components. Now as for data protection there is where you come to the 50/50 mark. Raid O may provide quick access but data is slightly at risk.

Thanks everyone for the information - Great Insight! Keep it comin.

I use Raid 0 on two internal drives, making one big "data drive", but then I back up to external drives!

[betatech]

Originally Posted by tonylong

I use Raid 0 on two internal drives, making one big "data drive", but then I back up to external drives!

^^^ Used the same process for 3 years without failure, if it works why change it.

Originally Posted by DBNissan

The interface/command console is browser based and is simple to use. I don't recall if it can accept NTFS though.

I have no complaints with the DNS-321. I mainly use it for back-up and some media streaming. So, I may just leave it as it is in RAiD1 and update to dual 2TB drives. I have it on a Linksys e2000 router with gigabit ports so transfers are really fast with my laptop which has an N300 wifi card.

The D-Link sounds better and better and thank you for the information. Sad thing is im still running off of a 10/100 network so transfer speeds suck to say the least. I need to just update to gigabit -- already have the router and its only two desktops that need the Card or Wireless Card.

Also..

What backup software is everyone using? I use the OLD SCHOOL C&P ( Copy and Paste ) but that is just my preference and I enjoy browsing the files. Now I have used retrospect, CA Arc Serve ( Great Program - but a PAIN to configure ), Seagate Backup, and a few 3rd Party. The issues I have had with the all these software types is backup verification or location of external Media if the Backup location is not working. Retrospect does really good for recovering backups but that has only been if the Backup will pass verification. Anyone experiencing the same issues or does someone have that Golden backup software I have been looking for?!

[joeseph]

Originally Posted by betatech

What backup software is everyone using?

I just use "Karens Replicator" to duplicate nightly between my internal drive & the one in the internal caddy.

(laughing hilariously at Arcserve! I haven't seen anything from CA that remotely resembles intuitive...)

[usul256]

I use a software raid called FlexRAID (flexraid.com) to write parity to one spare drive on a nightly basis, and backup to an external usb drive around once a month... but what I was always looking for was a way to backup pictures while on vacation without lugging around my big laptop. What I did for backing up while travelling is pick myself up a small netbook that has a 250gb drive, nice screen (for reviewing pictures), and an SD slot.