Hard drive setup question?

Very wise advice - too often we overlook this form of "recycling."

SkipD wrote in post #2432941
Keep your old computer. Get rid of everything but the operating system on it, and use it (networked to your main one) as a storage bin for the photo files. Turn it off when you are not transferring files to it. That way, if a virus or a power spike hits your main machine and takes it out, it won't affect the (turned off) file storage computer.

SkipD wrote in post #2432941
Keep your old computer. Get rid of everything but the operating system on it, and use it (networked to your main one) as a storage bin for the photo files. Turn it off when you are not transferring files to it. That way, if a virus or a power spike hits your main machine and takes it out, it won't affect the (turned off) file storage computer.

Good idea. I built my own server. Essentially it was a PC with a few more hard drives. I loaded SME Linux on it and it runs brilliantly. Not a problem since I set the system up 4 years ago. Not a single crash. No lost data. Perfect operation.

For extra security run your computer systems through a UPS.

If you use a fast server yuo can network it to several slow PCs and run the software from the server using the slow PCs as dumb terminals. That works quite well.

Col,

Re: the two matching SpinPoints drives;
I would do the RAID 1 now, and add a third external hard drive when you can. (preferably larger, but at least the same size, and do it soon)

Alternatively, you could start with One internal and one external, and then add a third as the Mirror in a RAID1 later, but I think you'll find the best way to get a matched pair for RAID1 is to get them together.

In short, I prefer and use BOTH options you list, combined. It offers the best of both worlds and the additional cost of one more hard drive is not that high in todays day and age of affordable storage.

SkipD wrote in post #2432941
Keep your old computer.

That's the problem, i'm moving abroad, my current tower is far to big to realistically take with me so i'm going to get a Shuttle that I can carry with me in a shoulder bag if needs be, also in a small flat a big tower would get in the way

The Shuttle SD37P2 that i'm looking to get should be able to hold all 3 drives (at the expense of a floppy drive) but packing it out like that will affect cooling and as we all know heat isn't the friend of HDDs, that's mainly why I was looking to external storage for the backup drive.

CDS, I agree with everything you said but having an "OS" drive + 2 drives in RAID 1, but like I mentioned above I'm worried that with a full case I could well shorten the life of my drives due to heat. I'm not trying to be stubborn honest

Another networked computer isn't really where i want to go either, it would be fine for a permanant solution but it's just not practical for my needs, which is why i'm thinking of a small portable and discrete NAS enclosure that I can plug into a home network

Thanks for ALL the great input so far though

Another SIMPLE idea: get a USB hard drive for the purpose of storing photo files. 160GB should do - at least for the "keepers". Don't leave it plugged in. Just connect it when you want to do the backups to it from the main computer.

We use one of these in 80GB size to back up Cindy's files, and it isn't any larger than a PDA. It's a Firelite brand. Here it is on the web: Firelite Portable Drives. I believe I paid $135 for the 80GB version. I have one for work as well, and it hides away in my notebook computer case very nicely.

SkipD wrote in post #2435486
Another SIMPLE idea: get a USB hard drive for the purpose of storing photo files. 160GB should do - at least for the "keepers". Don't leave it plugged in. Just connect it when you want to do the backups to it from the main computer.

We use one of these in 80GB size to back up Cindy's files, and it isn't any larger than a PDA. It's a Firelite brand. Here it is on the web: Firelite Portable Drives. I believe I paid $135 for the 80GB version. I have one for work as well, and it hides away in my notebook computer case very nicely.

aye that's along the lines of what i was thinking, having some kind of external backup cheers Skip

There's a place called www.dealsonic.com that sells all kinds of external drive enclosures. I purchased a couple of USB and firewire enclosures, reasonably inexpensive, and then bought internal, fast hard drives on sale, and made my own do-it-yourself external storage drives. The gear is pretty flexible and you can easily change out the drives anytime you decide to buy something bigger. - Stu