So you procrastinated for years, here's the deal to make you go RAID!

So, repost of canonpricewatch:

http://www.canonpricew​atch.com …-359-at-adorama-via-ebay/

I personally have procrastinated 'till now. I think most of us would cry if we lose certain pictures--I know I would. We all know RAID is a must for us, but whether it's being lazy, or short on $, or whatever else, we have procrastinated.

But this Drobo 5N looks like it fits all my needs and is from the most famous low/mid-end RAID company out there... and is affordable!

Get it! Stop worrying about your pics.

(and with that... Posts: 1,000)

Gone already

Yeah, I had the 5N and now have the 5D, Ethernet is too slow an interface for my uses.

There are very good and economical software RAID options, if you have the tower space for a couple of extra HDD.

Xyclopx wrote in post #17269690
I personally have procrastinated 'till now. I think most of us would cry if we lose certain pictures--I know I would.

Keep in mind that RAID only protects you from a single point hardware failure. It allows you to almost immediately continue where you left off before the failure depending on how the RAID is setup.

In the case of fire, theft or other damage to your storage you would still be crying. A separate and off site back up is what is needed for protection.

silvrr wrote in post #17269804
Keep in mind that RAID only protects you from a single point hardware failure. It allows you to almost immediately continue where you left off before the failure depending on how the RAID is setup.

In the case of fire, theft or other damage to your storage you would still be crying. A separate and off site back up is what is needed for protection.

Yup. I swap physical drives with ones I save in my office at work.

Also, I like the fact that this 5N has a memory buffer as well, so if it receives data from your computer but failed writing it or something, it holds it until it can. So I guess that would eliminate weird problems like the file getting deleted from your memory card before it could be written to the harddrive. Anyway, just seems like they took care of all the edge cases except for what silvrr talks off--someone just stealing the whole thing or a fire or something.

Sorry the deal has ended apparently. Was $359.99 FYI for the Drobo 5N.

Dean has given some really good advice! I have been researching RAID and also backup strategies intensely for the last couple of months and I have learned a lot. I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a OWC Thunderbay 4, RAID 5, with 20 TB in drives. This will give me ultra-fast performance with very good fault tolerance. Of course, I will also be backing up the array to another onsite drive system in addition to another drive system that will be stored off-site a few miles away. Yes, having at least 3 copies of your data is very important if your work/data has any importance to you.

Bryan

bps wrote in post #17269857
Dean has given some really good advice! I have been researching RAID and also backup strategies intensely for the last couple of months and I have learned a lot. I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a OWC Thunderbay 4, RAID 5, with 20 TB in drives. This will give me ultra-fast performance with very good fault tolerance. Of course, I will also be backing up the array to another onsite drive system in addition to another drive system that will be stored off-site a few miles away. Yes, having at least 3 copies of your data is very important if your work/data has any importance to you.

Bryan

Dang sounds like a sweet system!

May I ask how you're doing the offsite? Are you physically moving drives or you have some upload mechanism?

bps wrote in post #17269857
Dean has given some really good advice! I have been researching RAID and also backup strategies intensely for the last couple of months and I have learned a lot. I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a OWC Thunderbay 4, RAID 5, with 20 TB in drives. This will give me ultra-fast performance with very good fault tolerance. Of course, I will also be backing up the array to another onsite drive system in addition to another drive system that will be stored off-site a few miles away. Yes, having at least 3 copies of your data is very important if your work/data has any importance to you.

Bryan

Very important, agreed. Andddd expensive. I've upgraded my drive system 3x's in the past year. From 2x1TB raid setup + 750gb HD > 2x 3TB raid + 1T DB > 2x3TB + 2TB external + cloud storage + 750mb. Things are getting a bit crazy since it's still not enough.

One tip, get much more storage than you THINK you need. If you're like me and don't delete ANYTHING... you'll eventually need it.

Xyclopx wrote in post #17269865
Dang sounds like a sweet system!

May I ask how you're doing the offsite? Are you physically moving drives or you have some upload mechanism?

Thanks!

I've decided for now to physically move the off-site drives back and forth every 30 days. (Or more often if a critical project drives an early off-site backup.) I looked very closely at pushing the data to my off-site location through the internet, but I decided that bandwidth limitations are too slow, in spite of me having 12 Mbps up/70 Mbps down. Also, I have concerns about data caps/potential throttling by my ISP provider, which is Comcast. I really wanted to push the data over the internet to enable a smoother workflow, but I'm also disciplined enough to physically move the drives back and forth. I use calendar reminders and get things done when they pop up. For a lot of people though, this physical approach may not work as well, especially for those having to juggle a lot of competing priorities.

I'm hopeful that in a couple of years, online backups will be more feasible for those of us with a lot of data...but for now, I don't feel like we're quite there yet.

Bryan

bps wrote in post #17270092
Thanks!

I've decided for now to physically move the off-site drives back and forth every 30 days. (Or more often if a critical project drives an early off-site backup.) I looked very closely at pushing the data to my off-site location through the internet, but I decided that bandwidth limitations are too slow, in spite of me having 12 Mbps up/70 Mbps down. Also, I have concerns about data caps/potential throttling by my ISP provider, which is Comcast. I really wanted to push the data over the internet to enable a smoother workflow, but I'm also disciplined enough to physically move the drives back and forth. I use calendar reminders and get things done when they pop up. For a lot of people though, this physical approach may not work as well, especially for those having to juggle a lot of competing priorities.

I'm hopeful that in a couple of years, online backups will be more feasible for those of us with a lot of data...but for now, I don't feel like we're quite there yet.

Bryan

Yeah okay... That's sorta the conclusion I got too. In my drobo I plan to have 2 logical drives that are mirrored and just swap the 2 extra physical drives with ones I save at work. Same reason.

If I had full control of the offsite and if it was plugged in I suppose I could use ftp to manually sync files, but alas I don't have that kind of connection.

Yeah hopefully the Internet evolves enough someday to make mega backups feasible in speed and cost.

It was the Synology DS412+ that fit the bill for me. Fantastic machines. I run gigabit ethernet in my house, and that is plenty fast for me. Love the ACCESSS it gave me to my data. I can get to it from anywhere. Love it..

Nethawked wrote in post #17269796
There are very good and economical software RAID options, if you have the tower space for a couple of extra HDD.

Yes indeed. Also Windows 8.1 with its ReFS file system does a nice job with availability and also repairs files on the fly.

I'm waiting for Synology deal to pop up although I hear that's rare. From what I've researched, the software/set=up is very user friendly.

My HTPC + Photo backup box. ~18TB RAID-6 + 5TB USB.

Depending on your technical skills, building your own raidbox allows much more flexibility and can save a few bucks.