----- Original Message ----- From: "David J Brooks" Subject: Two external HD's or stay with CD's
> My current back up includes transfering files to one external HD, > Maxtor, and to either a CD or DVD depending on the files sizes. > > I'm thinking the CD's and DVD's may go, and add another external and > back up on both. > > I rarely travel to farms or homes that want to see photos, but with > the small size of the HD's these days, carrying one or two should not > be a problem. > > Any one see any potential problems other than all three HD's going for a > S%^*T. Dave, I went with a Drobo for external storage. So far, no complaints. It is a fully self contained unit that seems ideal for users who don't want to deal with redundant backup, but still need to deal with it. It is compliant with any OS, so you can plug it into a Mac and have it work for you too. Mine runs off of USB, so it is a bit slow to transfer lots of files to. They just release a Firewire800 version, which I presume is a faster transfer rate. Another possibility is to install a RAID card (I went with a Highpoint RocketRaid). The card plugs into a PCI slot and will allow up to 4 SATA drives to plug into it. I have a couple of eSATA boxes that I plugged I plugged into it via SATA pass throughs. The drives can then be configured as a RAID 1 (I set mine up as RAID 0 for PS swap use). Again, this gives redundant backup to the hard drives. This would look after your redundant back up requirements, and if you need a portable, then an inexpensive USB external drive could be hooked up as well, with the intent of dropping files onto it for the travelling dog and pony show. Be aware that external drives seem to be only somewhat self contained. The boxes I use (Ultra) plug into their own power supply, but the drives themselves still seem to be powered off the computer, and it is possible to run out of available power if you start launching a bunch of hard drives all at once. I have a stupid number of hard drives running on my system ( six internals always running, up to ten depending on what I am working on), and ended up having to put a very large power supply into the machine to keep it happy. This caveat doesn't extend to the Drobo. William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
