I have an old dinosaur computer (about 5 yrs. old, Dell Dimension 4550) with 120gb hard drive (when I bought it, I thought I'd NEVER fill 120gb). However, two years worth of digital images have filled it, and a new computer upgrade is not in my budget right now.
Does anyone have recommendations as to what type/size/brand of external hard drives I should get to store my images on? Any problems or pitfalls I should know about? I've only briefly glanced at the choices and seems like you can get quite a bit of memory for not a lot of money.
Thanks in advance for all the suggestions and advice.
Western Digital seems to be making some pretty reliable external drives these days. You can often find them on sale for less than $150 per terabyte a the big box stores and amazon. For example I just checked and they have one right now for $109--Larry
I have both Seagate and Western Digital external hard drives, 500 GB and 1 TB. They are great for keeping photos on but warn that they can fail and with no warning. Since having two external hard drive failures (1 Seagate and 1 Western Digital) in 4 years and losing many photos I now keep my worked photos, raw images on one external hard drive and copies of just the raw images on another external hard drive. Since I started doing that I have had no more failures but am ready in case I do. I would go with the larger size of external hard drives because you will fill them and the price difference of a 500 GB and a 1 TB is not very big.
One thing I read somewhere about external drives and failures is that many of their cases have very poor ventilation. Then folks tend to put them in places with even more reduced ventilation and dust. Anyway now that I've found this new price on Amazon I jsut ordered one--Larry
Angela,
I would highly recommend that you buy two drives (as you say they are cheap). I was in the same situation as you (almost) with a small external drive and no backup other than that.
Don't become a slave to one drive....mine almost failed (or temporarily went on the blink).... I thought I had lost three years and thousands of images.... What do they say? You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.... I was devastated.... As it turned out, I was able to save all of the contents of that drive to my internal drive when I could get the external to function..... often by blow drying it... (yes, I think a sticky liquid was spilled on it and the blow dryer was able to liquify the spill)... Bottom line... go out and get a pair of WD 1TB drives for yourself... don't experience that wrenching in your stomach.... feel the peace.... put your order in to Amazon today (about $250 for the pair).... trust me.... if you have any questions... don't hesitate to ask. I know, it's always about money. I waited and almost paid. Please allow me to save your stuff!!!!
I just went to your images at Smugmug (or whatever) .... very nice... I especially appreciate your macro impressions... it should allthemore increase your desire to backup your stuff!!
Hello Angela--- I highly recommend some sort of back up system-- I use LaCie-- so I can only recommend this brand, have no experience with others--- one 2T drive to back up everything, sever smaller ones for several different reasons--- and I have one other recommendation-- I also keep all raw date , filed by date on DVD's and all finished events or subjects ( spring Flowers 2009, sheep shearing shoot) on a DVD as well. I just lost a hard drive-- devastating, but only because of all the fussing to get everything back in order again .
As to price, you could start with one-- and add as you can, but you must do this NOW!
( my smaller ones have been relegated to projects)
ONe other point just came to mind--- I have a 300 GB drive that I turn on when I am using Photoshop--- It is one of my scratch discs giving photoshop some more room to work if needed--- works well and .
Off to look at your images!
Jennifer
Hi, Angela-- Western Digital and Seagate are supposed to be good and reliable now (hard drives have a lifespan of about 3 years, but magnetic storage is still the most reliable over time). I just bought a 500-GB Western Digital internal drive for the same reason you're about to ($59 at B&H).
Question: why an external drive? Won't your computer accommodate another internal one? (simpler, out of the way, & convenient --and then to be safe you can get an external drive just for backup!)
Caution: I just found out that my present hard drive (IDE parallel ATA) is semi-obsolete since people have been using serial ATA (SATA) drives for several years; my new one is a PATA like the old, at the advice of my computer repair-person. I didn't know till I called him for advice.
I'm running two Maxtor externals, a 500GB and a 1TB. The 1TB drive is set to automatically backup all my important files daily. They work fine and are reliable. I've had the 500GB for 2-3 years now. The 1TB is less than a year old. I like the fact that it backs up my files in the background. I don't even have to think about it.
I second the two drive suggestion. One thing to consider with your five year old DELL is the USB ports. Most external drives today hook to the PC via a USB port. Yours probably has a couple, but they may be USB 1.0 or 1.1 ports and not the faster USB 2.0 port. You can still hook a new external drive to a USB 1.x port, but it will be slower. An option is to install a USB 2.0 PCI card in your PC. They are cheap but you'll need someone PC savvy to install it for you.
The other thing to consider is backup software. Many of these external drives come with software, but it's not always the greatest. Make sure you set up to have the backup automatically run.
I have three Western digital external hard drives. One is a back-up for an internal RAID drive. On another computer, I have an external RAID as a supplement for an internal RAID that filled up. I do an automatic incremental back-up to another external hard drive. From time to time I make a back-up to DVDs. I've had no problems yet with the external drives, but it's just a matter of time. I've had internal hard drives fail. RAID has saved my bacon on three different occasions.
As far as size goes, with image sensors getting denser and RAW files and even JPEGs getting larger and larger. (Just got my wife a new Canon Rebel today - 15MP on an entry level DSLR - and my pocketable point-n-shooter has 12MP) Think terabytes. An advantage to external drives is that if you change computers, you can simply unplug the drive from the old computer and plug it in to the new one.
Also for backup, you can store your JPEG backup files on sites like Smugmug for no additional cost, and you can also upload your RAW and TIF files to online storage for a reasonable fee.
The over 500gb 3.5 drives are notorious for falling without warning, so if your intent is to keep your images safe, getting one of those small SATA, Firewire or USB drives is like walking a tightrope on a windy day without a safety net. I understand that budget is a concern, but the cost of recovering hard drives far far exceeds the cost of proper capitalizing your storage requirements. What I would suggest is a simple NAS (network attached storage) device, which has space for at least two drives that you can mirror ,so there is redundancy in the event of a drive failure, and active ventilation so that there is a greater likelihood that your drives will not fail. I like this one:
This is fast enough to be used as working storage, especially if you use an inexpensive gigabit switch and CAT5E cables to connect everything together.
Then I would spend the $50/yr to buy a subscription to an online storage service, such as Carbonite. This is where you put stuff forever, since they have redundancy, give you unfettered access to your data, and the ability to access your data over the internet.
Lastly, I suggest the free version of a backup manager called Syncback to automate the data transfers between and among your storage destinations. This is a reliable, comprehensive and cost effective solution that will give you the best shot at not losing any of your images.
On the plus side, the Synology DS309+ has photo organization software that helps that task as well.
WD is what most are buying now. I would suggest 2 one terabyte drives. One for local back up and one for a copy of the first which you keep off site - maybe at your office? You never know when you will need the extra security.
Posted by Jesse Speer on July 27, 2009 at 11:41 AM
I'm offering a great deal on a very secure, expandable external drive right now ... if you're interested ... NPN Classifieds listing
Discussion
15 repliesDoes anyone have recommendations as to what type/size/brand of external hard drives I should get to store my images on? Any problems or pitfalls I should know about? I've only briefly glanced at the choices and seems like you can get quite a bit of memory for not a lot of money.
Thanks in advance for all the suggestions and advice.
I would highly recommend that you buy two drives (as you say they are cheap). I was in the same situation as you (almost) with a small external drive and no backup other than that.
Don't become a slave to one drive....mine almost failed (or temporarily went on the blink).... I thought I had lost three years and thousands of images.... What do they say? You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.... I was devastated.... As it turned out, I was able to save all of the contents of that drive to my internal drive when I could get the external to function..... often by blow drying it... (yes, I think a sticky liquid was spilled on it and the blow dryer was able to liquify the spill)... Bottom line... go out and get a pair of WD 1TB drives for yourself... don't experience that wrenching in your stomach.... feel the peace.... put your order in to Amazon today (about $250 for the pair).... trust me....
As to price, you could start with one-- and add as you can, but you must do this NOW!
( my smaller ones have been relegated to projects)
ONe other point just came to mind--- I have a 300 GB drive that I turn on when I am using Photoshop--- It is one of my scratch discs giving photoshop some more room to work if needed--- works well and .
Off to look at your images!
Jennifer
Question: why an external drive? Won't your computer accommodate another internal one? (simpler, out of the way, & convenient --and then to be safe you can get an external drive just for backup!)
Caution: I just found out that my present hard drive (IDE parallel ATA) is semi-obsolete since people have been using serial ATA (SATA) drives for several years; my new one is a PATA like the old, at the advice of my computer repair-person. I didn't know till I called him for advice.
The other thing to consider is backup software. Many of these external drives come with software, but it's not always the greatest. Make sure you set up to have the backup automatically run.
As far as size goes, with image sensors getting denser and RAW files and even JPEGs getting larger and larger. (Just got my wife a new Canon Rebel today - 15MP on an entry level DSLR - and my pocketable point-n-shooter has 12MP) Think terabytes. An advantage to external drives is that if you change computers, you can simply unplug the drive from the old computer and plug it in to the new one.
Also for backup, you can store your JPEG backup files on sites like Smugmug for no additional cost, and you can also upload your RAW and TIF files to online storage for a reasonable fee.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00275G0LO/ref=asc_df_B00275G0LO863289?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&linkCode=asn&tag=cnet-1085-20
This is fast enough to be used as working storage, especially if you use an inexpensive gigabit switch and CAT5E cables to connect everything together.
Then I would spend the $50/yr to buy a subscription to an online storage service, such as Carbonite. This is where you put stuff forever, since they have redundancy, give you unfettered access to your data, and the ability to access your data over the internet.
Lastly, I suggest the free version of a backup manager called Syncback to automate the data transfers between and among your storage destinations. This is a reliable, comprehensive and cost effective solution that will give you the best shot at not losing any of your images.
On the plus side, the Synology DS309+ has photo organization software that helps that task as well.
NPN Classifieds listing
Backup, redundant, expandable, simple.