hi all as well as ending up with layered files that wouldn't fit on to a CD(!), I got tired of CD-burning that was less than straightforward (failed burns, buffer underruns, problems with long filenames, CDs that would not read in newer CD drives..., etc) and also with having to file the CDs and the subsequent less-than-instant retrieval of images, so I looked into having external (USB) drives for backup, 'archive' storage, and off-site storage.....
a couple of months back, someone (on this list I believe) mentioned a gizmo (an IDE to USB2 adapter to give it its proper name) that allows a standard (internal) IDE drive (or CD-writer, etc) to be plugged into a USB2 port - the gizmo costs just 25 quid (from http://www.overclockers.co.uk), so I tried one it seems to work! (I'm PC, Win2000) - just plug in a drive (which can actually be formatted/partitioned directly) and it appears as extra drive/partitions - copying 40GB of data took about an hour but can be left to work in background (or during dinner....) - no problems with filenames, no copy problems so far..... backup drives would not be used very often, saving on wear and tear, and it's economic to have several for double-backups, as hard drive prices are getting lower and lower - a 120GB can be had for 60 quid or so (less than half the price of an external one) - also, being USB, the drives are 'hot-swoppable', so a large number of images can be pretty nearly instantly accessible this seems to me to be a 'better' and more convenient method of backup and storage, more like 'super-Cds'....... of course, unlike mirrored RAID, one still has to remember to do the backing-up though(..!)...... er, I guess I'd better do that now..... HTH cheers Geoff Dor� SAA, Stone and others Geoff Dor� Photography Nature - Landscape - Travel http://www.geoffdore.com gdp(at)geoffdore.com =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
