NAS USB FireWire TB - DPChallenge Forums

04/08/2008 02:50:28 PM · #1

I am planning to purchase a 1TB or larger drive to store photo backups. I am looking at the LaCie Ethernet Big Disk... but am still looking. $270 for a TB is most tempting!

If any of you have 1TB drives to review... please do so here. Note that the drive doesn't need to be all that fast (of course the faster the better though). It does need to be stable and well cooled. I do NOT like frilly software requirements.

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/08/2008 03:00:08 PM · #2

last fall i purchased a 1TB terastation NAS from buffalo. it's not quite that cheap, but it comes with 4 drives in a RAID 5 configuration (can be configured RAID 1, 0, 1+0, or JBOD)

on top of the data security of RAID 5, it's got other nice features, such as web access, as well...

Quasimojo

Canon EOS-30D

04/08/2008 03:00:25 PM · #3

Personally I use Western Digital drives exclusively - have had repeatedly bad experiences with Maxtor, and WD have always been excellent (performance and reliability).

I'm about to go the NAS route too - over here in the UK there's a well reviewed WD 1TB NAS drive for Â£140, which is great value. I think I'd be tempted to buy 2x500gb drives instead though - more options with regards to backup and redundancy.

N

04/08/2008 03:57:17 PM · #4

i almost bought the WD Worldbook(?) NAS, but it didn't have RAID 5 and reviews said the processor inside couldn't keep up with gigabit transfer rates, so it tended to be rather slow...

ETA : i too tend to like WD drives in general, but i had not one, but two WD 120gig drives die on me. the second one cost me 3 months worth of photos of my son's first year... the wife still fumes about that one...

Message edited by author 2008-04-08 15:59:20.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

04/08/2008 04:09:05 PM · #5

Why would you use a RAID5 storage strategy for your backup drive(s)?

Presumably, the data already exists in two places (a) one of your system drives, and (b) one of the backup drives. If your (b) backup drive solution uses RAID5 then you are using at least three disks that can recover from a single-disk failure. But that would be wasteful... you don't NEED to recover from the failure of one of your backup drives - if it fails, replace it and backup again - the files that were backed up still exist on your system drives. As for write speed... again I would consider RAID 5 a bit wasteful for backup write speed.

I can understand if you use RAID5 for your system drives though. If a drive fails, you can hotswap and rebuild. Those drives don't even need to be backed up (theoretically).

questions/comments?

Keep in mind that at home frugality is the order of the day. All I need is two copies of every data file (created once per evening). Anything more is top-heavy.

Message edited by author 2008-04-08 16:26:27.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

04/08/2008 04:30:40 PM · #6

In reality, it's also best to have an off-site backup of some type. No matter how many copies of your files you have at home, if the house burns down, you've lost everything. Computer hardware can be replaced, your files cannot.

scalvert

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

04/08/2008 04:37:17 PM · #7

Originally posted by Bernard_Marx:

$270 for a TB is most tempting!

Then $199 shipped should be droolworthy. ;-)

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/08/2008 04:38:33 PM · #8

terastation is 4 drives for about 700gig usable space. (in RAID 5, space lost for parity drops for each additional drive...)

if i had, say, a TB drive in my desktop machine, i could reconfigure the NAS as a JBOD or RAID 0, but i've been bitten, and i'd rather just have one safe place to put everything without worry.

the best plan, as kirbic says, is to have a second off-site machine. guess i could get my brother to buy a nas, then we could set them up to replicate across the net...

how cool would that be?

Quasimojo

Canon EOS-30D

04/08/2008 07:30:04 PM · #9

The coolest and greatest for SoHo stuff is the Drobo unit imho. I'm personally waiting for USB3 to happen and then that is the solution to all my/your backup and upgrade needs (apart from offsite). If you're flush now, just go ahead and buy the Drobo....but it's still a 1.0 device and with USB3 allegedly around the corner I'm waiting until then to jump in.

N

EDIT: They now have DroboShare - Drobo NAS unit. Delicious! Get one and fill it with WD drives and I personally guarantee that you will be LOVING life :) In fact, sod USB3.0 - I'm going to get one of these...

Message edited by author 2008-04-08 19:32:06.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

04/08/2008 07:45:32 PM · #10

Originally posted by Bernard_Marx:

My system setup up is:

Working files on laptop.
File server with RAID5 (3 drives + one hot backup)
USB HDs as backup.

When I have a card, it gets copied to all 3 places. As I edit files they get copied to the file server ~daily. When I complete a project I move the entire from the laptop to the server and copy it to a USB HD. The server is always available, but the USB HDs are only on or plugged in as needed.

To be implemented is Offsite storage. Being in Hurricane-land I'd have to look at an online pay service since keeping a HD copy offsite wouldn't work well.

dwterry

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

04/08/2008 08:33:13 PM · #11

I've been looking at the Drobo as well.

I bought a 1TB Buffalo NAS a few months back (750Gb real storage due to Raid-5 configuration) and have nearly filled the darn thing up already. So I was thinking of getting the Drobo with a set of 640Gb drives I saw this morning ($129 each). The Drobo makes upgrading to newer/larger drives a piece of cake (something the Buffalo, or any basic Raid-5 system, doesn't offer). Anyway, it would keep me from having to replace the storage system for awhile ... whereas the Buffalo seems like a dead-end now that it's full (I'm moving inactive projects to offline storage, but it's hard to keep up).

04/08/2008 08:54:18 PM · #12

Originally posted by dwterry:

I've been looking at the Drobo as well.

looks nice, but expensive... and once you've added the ethernet connectivity piece and a few drives, it's reeeealy expensive...

but it do look nice.

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/08/2008 09:01:14 PM · #13

Originally posted by dwterry:

Ah. You must have gotten the HOME version which I've always railed against since I read the ExtremeTech article on what a PITA it is to swap drives. The Pro versions have better access.

The Drobo looks cool. Especially the upgrade on the fly.

Although $500 for the Drobo, $200 for the GigE, plus drives ($99 for 500GB)... That's $1100 for 1TB.

Quasimojo

Canon EOS-30D

04/08/2008 09:09:19 PM · #14

Originally posted by dwterry:

The Drobo makes upgrading to newer/larger drives a piece of cake

That's it for me - it's so easy to just pull out a drive, put in a larger one, carry one almost seamlessly - means it seems almost infinitely upgradeable for all but the most extreme of SoHo users. For you David it would be amazing...your constantly expanding work drives would be instantly (a) much more robust and (b) instantly upgradeable - and it's much much easier for you to rationalise getting one - and don't forget us poor students when you've got the business plastic out ;)

N

04/08/2008 10:12:25 PM · #15

Originally posted by Quasimojo:

EDIT: They now have DroboShare - Drobo NAS unit. Delicious! Get one and fill it with WD drives and I personally guarantee that you will be LOVING life :) In fact, sod USB3.0 - I'm going to get one of these...

Actually DroboShare "shares 1 or 2 Drobos." Meaning that it has 2 USB 2.0 ports to connect to 2 Drobos and a GigE port to connect to your network.

04/09/2008 11:04:40 AM · #16

I decided to go with the WD My Book Home Edition 1 TB. It is a single drive (not multiple drives configured to act as a single drive). It requires NO software support, drivers, or frillware (my new word). It offers Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 connections. Cheapest price from a reputable dealer was $240.

I also looked into various Drobo, Buffalo, and LaCie systems. I read MANY horror stories.

For (home) backup solutions, I think simple is best. I went with simple.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

04/09/2008 01:45:30 PM · #17

Originally posted by Bernard_Marx:

Out of curiosity, you asked about NAS which is PRIMARY storage, but you now say that this is for backups. I'm a bit confused.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

04/09/2008 01:47:23 PM · #18

Originally posted by _eug:

Out of curiosity, you asked about NAS which is PRIMARY storage, but you now say that this is for backups. I'm a bit confused.

NAS just means Network Attached Storage; can be used for either primary or backup.

04/09/2008 01:53:42 PM · #19

Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by _eug:

Out of curiosity, you asked about NAS which is PRIMARY storage, but you now say that this is for backups. I'm a bit confused.

NAS just means Network Attached Storage; can be used for either primary or backup.

Yup. That's clear, but NAS is always on. The drives are constantly spinning causing wear making the lifespan shorter for backup.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

04/09/2008 02:03:54 PM · #20

The drives are constantly spinning causing wear making the lifespan shorter for backup.

Frequent power cycles are far more damaging.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

04/09/2008 02:52:54 PM · #21

Originally posted by _eug:

...The drives are constantly spinning causing wear making the lifespan shorter for backup.

From the perspective of expected lifetime, "always on" is not usually the worst case for electronics. "On & off often" is often the worst case. Hard drives are quite happy to spin constantly, year after year. I have some that are running, failure free, for nearly 10 years, operating 24-7. MTBF (mean time between failures) for hard drives has also improved significantly over the years, to the point where even some non-server drives are warranted for 5 years (e.g. Seagate).

dwterry

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

04/09/2008 03:45:57 PM · #22

On the opposite side of that coin .... my backup drives are external drives which, after backed up to, are turned off and disconnected from the system. I like it that way. That keeps power fluctuations, viruses, normal wear and tear, at bay. I only rarely bring a backup drive back online and usually just long enough to fill a customer's request and then back off and into storage again.