New external hardrives.

oakfieldphotography.comoakfieldphotography.com Registered Users Posts: 376 Major grins
edited November 22, 2011 in Accessories
Hi all.
Yes its that time of the year againg and i am shopping for external hardrives. Need 2 by the way to back each other up you see. I have filled my 2 old 1TB Iomega hardrives and started looking for replacements this week. Kinda freaked me out to see how the replacements are starting to look on ebay. Some are very small, just like a notebook. I am afraid i dont know if i could trust 3 years worth of work to these but mabey youall here could tell me differently.
Kind regards
patrick.:D

Ps
Just in case anyone here is going to ask, all i want to store is RAW,JPEG and HDvideo from my 5DmkII.

Comments

  • ThatCanonGuyThatCanonGuy Registered Users Posts: 1,778 Major grins
    edited November 19, 2011
    You picked a bad time to need a HD :)... the prices are up because of the Thailand flooding. Most of the big name hard drives are made there.

    You want Western Digital or Seagate, basically. The lesser-known brands are less reliable. I have a 1TB Western Digital My Book. It's fine if you don't need super-fast transfer speeds, or portability. You might like a WD Elements drive... they're not expensive, and the "SE Portable" ones don't require an outlet (just USB).
  • OverfocusedOverfocused Registered Users Posts: 1,068 Major grins
    edited November 19, 2011
    Size has nothing to do with their reliability, brand and model do
  • oakfieldphotography.comoakfieldphotography.com Registered Users Posts: 376 Major grins
    edited November 19, 2011
    I dont like the idea of putting 3 years of work on to a hardrive the size of a notebook due to the fact that they can be dropped and banged veryeasily. I probably wrong here but i would rather the more meaty hardrives that weigh a bit and are a bit bulky. I had western digital before but it went down on me. My fault for letting it fall when i was not looking at what i was doing. Here in Europe i can see 1 TB hardrives for around €100 each. Not to worry but all would like to really know is does anyone on here know of any makes to stay away from when it comes to uploading to them. Dont need a network model just plain and simple does the job.
    Kind regards
    Patrick:D
  • ThatCanonGuyThatCanonGuy Registered Users Posts: 1,778 Major grins
    edited November 19, 2011
    Stay with Western Digital and Seagate. As I said, the lesser known brands are less reliable. But any hard drive can fail - that's why you buy a backup thumb.gif

    My WD drive never leaves my desk. I'm afraid to even pick it up :D
  • jonh68jonh68 Registered Users Posts: 2,711 Major grins
    edited November 19, 2011
    I dont like the idea of putting 3 years of work on to a hardrive the size of a notebook due to the fact that they can be dropped and banged veryeasily. I probably wrong here but i would rather the more meaty hardrives that weigh a bit and are a bit bulky. I had western digital before but it went down on me. My fault for letting it fall when i was not looking at what i was doing. Here in Europe i can see 1 TB hardrives for around €100 each. Not to worry but all would like to really know is does anyone on here know of any makes to stay away from when it comes to uploading to them. Dont need a network model just plain and simple does the job.
    Kind regards
    Patrick:D

    What are you doing that a HD would get banged and dropped? More weight and more bulk means more pressure too when they get dropped. The idea of external HD is to make backups and then put in safe places.
  • DsrtVWDsrtVW Registered Users Posts: 1,991 Major grins
    edited November 20, 2011
    I have used Western Digital and Seagate external Drives. I use there My Book Raid drives filled up 1TB just bought a new 6TB, 3TB in RAID 0 config. It is backing up my new HP desktop which I added a additional 1TB HD just for picture storage while editing.
    Agree with other that you should stick with Seagate or WD I deal with them all the time at work and they do well most getting 3 to 5 years at constant running in DVRs. Tempature seems to be the biggest factor in drive life. Drives in a hot ATM room do not last as long as ones in a nice IT climate controlled one
    Chris K. NANPA Member
    http://kadvantage.smugmug.com/
  • Art ScottArt Scott Registered Users Posts: 8,959 Major grins
    edited November 20, 2011
    I have used Seagte mainly for years now...I also have 3 very nice Hitachi 1TB drives...very quiet and reliable....but i do not use externals anymore....too bulky unless I get a good buy on Seagate notebook externals as they take up a lot less room in storage at my house and the 2 offsite storage places....the seagate notebook externals have given a friends of mine some of his gunsafe back :~) ...I prefer using internal drives and a ThermalTake Docking station ... this way my SATA internals are hot swappable ...I use the very colorful removable 1x3 inch file labels to lable each one with the start date and end date..... when I need to get a new drive I look for the sales on Seagate and if there is a good sale on notebook drives I go that way if not I buy desktop internals....I am also a little behind the times as I use single docking stations instead of the newest duals.....the open internals also duns a lot cooler than an external drive and therefopre should last much longer...if my drives have a 5 yr warranty I replace at around 3.5 - 4 yrs and that helps keep the amount of drives down as I can combine them I have several 500gb drives about ready to move onto new 2 TB condos.....

    The thing with harddrives is not IF they will fail but WHEN...they all fail but as mentioned above the better brands will outlast the others normally..... ... ... I stopped using the cheaper brands after talking with an engineer I used to work with at a computer MFG'er and he was in charge of the testing of all the harddrives (since the time that they weighed 300-1k lbs to present day form factor) and Seagte and Hitachi were alsways the top runners with the fewest failures.......
    "Genuine Fractals was, is and will always be the best solution for enlarging digital photos." ....Vincent Versace ... ... COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK ONLINE ... ... My Website

  • cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited November 20, 2011
    I don't depend on any one hard drive for any of my photos. Thats asking for trouble. Equally, you also do not want to depend on any one location: two separate hard drives that burn up with your house is more than unfortunate. I use WD external drives paired with Crashplan+.

    I use the WD drives because I can get them for a steal on the WD Outlet site. You need to check frequently, but the prices can be excellent. I have 1 1TB MyBook Live (awesome NAS), 2 WD MyBook Studios, 2 WD Passport Studios, and an Iomega drive. The WDs are very well behaved with my Mac, going to sleep when the Mac does etc. They are silent. The Iomega will only sleep if connected via USB (all drives have both USB and Firewire), and is noisy like a room fan. It has been 'promoted' to a secondary backup device now.

    WD Outlet here. For even better prices, check out the 'recertified' drives as well.
  • ThatCanonGuyThatCanonGuy Registered Users Posts: 1,778 Major grins
    edited November 20, 2011
    Art Scott wrote:
    The thing with harddrives is not IF they will fail but WHEN...they all fail but as mentioned above the better brands will outlast the others normally

    Exactly.
    cmason wrote:
    WD Outlet here. For even better prices, check out the 'recertified' drives as well.

    Hey, thanks! Those are good prices.
  • Matthew SavilleMatthew Saville Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,352 Major grins
    edited November 20, 2011
    Exactly.



    Hey, thanks! Those are good prices.

    The best prices I've seen are almost ALWAYS at Costco. I believe my studio just recently purchased two 3 TB drives for just $106 or something like that. $126? Either way, you just can't beat the price. Personally, I prefer G-Technology for quality, but still I've worked with plenty of WD mybooks and smaller portable drives, without any failures. WD mybooks used to have a VERY high DOA rate, though, and in general you should NEVER trust any one brand. No brand has a perfect history; it mostly comes down to the model, and even the lot number from the factory. There's just bad batches here and there, no matter what. Sometimes you can trust the more expensive, high-end products to have better quality control, but sometimes not. The best thing you can do is to go on a site like NewEgg or Amazon, where you can read at least a hundred reviews on a specific make and model before buying. For example, I forget which but recently there was a bad batch of 750 GB drives going around, and yet the same exact type of drive but in a 1 TB size was proven to be far more reliable.

    As far as size is concerned, I might agree that you're more likely to drop and break a small portable drive than a larger, stationary drive. But if you leave them both alone, there's probably not much difference. Personally, I use two regular (3.5") externals for on-site backup, and then a couple smaller portable drives go out with my computer when I'm on-location.

    What I do for backup is, 1.) I keep my data on at least 3 hard drives at all times, with one drive going off-site every night. 2.) I get JPG's uploaded to the internet ASAP. (Thank you, Smugmug!)

    =Matt=
    My first thought is always of light.” – Galen Rowell
    My SmugMug PortfolioMy Astro-Landscape Photo BlogDgrin Weddings Forum
  • joeinmiamijoeinmiami Registered Users Posts: 82 Big grins
    edited November 22, 2011
    May I recommend another solution that may be pricier but very reliable?

    Have you consider a NAS (Network Access System) this device is connected to your network and it is accessible by every computer on it. There are several types, you will want one with a RAID set up, you can have a RAID 1 which is 2 drives in mirror, that is the data is in both of them. The other system is more expensive but more reliable and it is a RAID 5, this is 3 drives, if one goes back the other 2 will maintain the data until you replace the broken one; once this is done the raid system will rebuild the new drive.

    There some installation issues, were you are going to put the unit, and the network setup. That is what I have and I am happy with it

    Hope it helps.

    Joe
    www.jlm-photos.com
  • roakeyroakey Registered Users Posts: 81 Big grins
    edited November 22, 2011
    joeinmiami wrote: »
    Have you consider a NAS (Network Access System)
    I was about bring this up though it stands for Network Attached Storage. I have a Windows centric solution that I feel works very well in my environment.

    I have a Windows Home Server 2011 system that backs up all my Windows PCs transparently to a RAID 1 configuration on the WHS. This allows me to recover any PC via a recovery disk and very little time. The WHS is backed up itself, allowing for a single point of backup for all of my systems.

    The RAID 1 functionality has already proved itself through the failure of one of my drives in the WHS.

    In addition, the WHS allows access via the web from anywhere, allowing me to access my photographs wherever I am.

    I built the WHS system myself, based on an Intel motherboard that supported Intel's Rapid Storage Technology and a relatively low powered i3 processor. Windows Home Server 2011 natively supports RST.

    As Joe mentions this solution is pricier, but my time is money as well, and the ease of backing up all my PCs via a single point is well worth the initial cost.

    Roak
    [email]roakeyatunderctekdotcom[/email]
    <== Mighty Murphy, the wonder Bouv!
  • joeinmiamijoeinmiami Registered Users Posts: 82 Big grins
    edited November 22, 2011
    My mistake, it is Network Attached Storage. Your solution is fancier than my, I use a dedicate NAS, I do not have a actual server controlling it. Your solution is better than my, however it more complex for a non-technical person to set up and a bit more expensive than a dedicated NAS

    Joe
    www.jlm-photos.com
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