OT: Help me save my data - external harddrives questions
Kerya
Posts: 10,943
Hi!
I am buying/downloading too much ... or something like that. And one of my 1TB harddrives is failing ... (the USB plug, not the harddrive itself).
I need a new 2 or 3 TB external harddrive - which would be better?
And upsides/downsides of 2,5" versus 3,5"
I am sure I want USB3.0 - but my USB3.0 slots are in the back of my PC, so plugging in and out is a bit tiresome.
A 3TB harddrive USB3.0 with a power switch would be nice.
What is yours? are you happy with it?
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Answers to your questions:
Same people make the mechanisms so it's a question of who you want to go with: Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital, they all get their parts from the same factories. Personally I like Seagate and have for years, they build a reilable product, I've replaced more Western Digitals and Hitachi Desk Stars (Death Stars) vs the Seagates.
Just remember: more data = more storage but also = more potential data loss.
2.5 can slightly more expensive but more portable, but smaller parts tend to wear quicker. Do you need to be portable
If you want an external HD solution for runtime go with USB 3.0, it's your most cost effective EXTERNAL runtime solution.
Why are you plugging it in and out?
I support a number of users and right now I have running 5 Lacie drives (500/1TB/2TB/ and 2 4TB) i had another 500 but the power supply burned out the mechanism in the external chassis so I pulled the drive out and added it internally to my Motherboard, where it runs faster because it's SATA 3 drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure (think Ferrari with tires from a Model T ford) I have 2 Wstern Digital MyBook 1TB whatevers running fairly soundly, I have greenworks drive 1TB running.
so this is where I deviate from your question and ask you what about an INTERNAL SOLUTION W/BACKUP?
my experience with external runtime is it's far slower than internal, and the ability to run your page file on an internal drive that's not your system disk is also going to speed things up (unless you have a decent amount of RAM and feel comfortable moving page to RAM and it's a hit or miss with some people how your system responds)
I would go with an internal SATA drive and one external USB drive that's lacking the bells and whistles of a USB 3.0 drive and pricetag.
this is going to offer you a very fast connection to your runtime (SATA 3GB/s is faster than USB 3.0 for a number of reasons, not just transfer rate), use the USB 2.0 drive as a backup for the runtime and periodically back your data up with richcopy or some other free and super effective drive backup.
Thank you for taking the time to write down your answer! :)
I've got my Runtimes on my second internal harddrive ...
C: Corsair ForceGT 2,5" SSD 180 GB
D: Samsung HD103SJ 1 TB (Spinpoint F3)
Saving energy :)
You could get a switchable USB hub.
As far as I heard those USB hubs are reducing the data transfer rate ... true?
(P.S. sorry for my English, it is not my native language and I do have the vocabulary to talk about DazStudio and Poser and rendering, but my computer vocabulary is more limited)
Honestly I haven't seen a noticeable difference in speed.
Saving energy :)
Just turn the external drive off when not in use, no need to unplug it, and if you do just unplug it at the drives end, not the pcs - simples.
3.5' externals almost always come with power switch.
I use a 3.5 inch for all my content librariies and I wish I got a switchable one like Dogz suggested. I also have a 2.5 inch laptop HDD for a back up of my content libraries which is powered through the USB. I do backups once a wee. When I get my new system I willl have an additional internal HDD for my content and I will be using Acronis to do all my backing up. I went for Seagate and so far it has been more reliable than the Western Digital I had that failed me big time and lost a lot of content and information.
I have never had a hard drive failure, so I don't know what the best brand is to buy, or even if it matters. I mostly used Seagate and Western Digital.
StratDragon has a great idea there, if the problem with your drive is just the USB connection and not the drive itself, just take the external drive apart (ground yourself on something metal first so you don't zap it), see if it is just a standard internal hard drive inside, and if so, unplug it and put it right into your computer as an internal drive instead.
You can buy removable drive mobile racks (here's an example, although I don't have this particular one: http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-KF91-BK-Serial-mobile-rack/dp/B0002474VM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1383160570&sr=8-6&keywords=mobile+rack ) that allow you to convert an internal hard drive into a removable one if you have a desktop computer. It just plugs into a drive bay, and has a little drawer with a handle that the hard drive plugs into, so you can take the drawer right out anytime you want (well, shut of the computer first obviously.) . I've used these for years, and have had no problems so far. I bought two, so I can swap one drive for another, or also move drives between two computers if needed.
Of course I started with IDE drives a long time ago, so I had to replace them with two more when I moved to SATA drives. Make sure you get the right kind for your drive.
So this is not the cheapest route to go, but I'm a big fan of Drobos. The enclosures are a bit spendy, but they actually provide proper cooling, unlike most cheapo external drive enclosures. Thermal death is one of the leading causes of external drive failure. The Drobo is also easily expandable. I would not max it out with drives when you first get one; only put in enough storage for what you currently need. (E.g., a pair of 2GB or 4GB WD Red drives for now) and then by the time you fill those up, bigger drives will be available for what those cost today, and you just slap them in.
The other common mistake people have, is that they only do local backups. I have friends that lost ALL of their photos from the first few years of their son's life when their house burned down. While they were at least doing backups (which 99% of folks don't do), having the backups in the same house didn't save them when the house itself was gone. So depending on what OS you are using, get CloudBerry Online Backup (Windows) or Arq Backup (OSX) and configure it to back up your really important stuff to Amazon Glacier. (Glacier is 1cent/GB/month for storage, which is about as cheap as you can get.)
If you can only afford one, do the online backup to Amazon Glacier. Local backups are nice as they are much faster to restore from, but they aren't a complete backup solution. You really need offsite backups. And trying to remember to take drives with you to your office/parents/someone you trust just doesn't cut it; you forget or get lazy and the backups stop happening.
I don't have any externals at the moment, the last one I had was a 3.5 inch but it bombed out. The drive itself was fine, but the enclosure died.
Since then I keep all my data on 2 x 1 terabyte drives in RAID 1 (Mirrored) so I'm protected against a single drive failure.... but not against accidental deletion, I should back up to something else really, but it will be internal again, external drives just clutter up my limited desk space and they never seem to be all that reliable in my experience
Daz install manger has taken most of my worries out of losing my runtime. I do have a bunch of stuff from Rendo but I rarely touch any of it these days... so its other stuff I worry about such as my own models that are not published anywhere but 3d files tend to be quite small so I could just back them up to my drop box account I suppose.
But when backing up to any cloud or file hosting service, always read the fine print first. mediafire for example will say they technically 'own' any data that's uploaded to their servers.
I have 2 2TB internal, 1 2TB and 1 1TB external. I have things backed up 2-3 times. I lost a HD with all my work files on it. I learned my lesson.
I have a WD My Passport, 2 Terabytes, external, and am in the process of putting ALL my almost 4700 daz products on there. Transfer is fast and easy, it's only a 2.0 as my computer isn't setup for a 3.0 if I recall. I'm not a technical person. I will then make another copy in case this external ever fails. We've had our other Passport for three years and no problems.
Look on the back and see if you have any USB outlet that is blue. That is a 3.0 USB
Nope, I'm a lowly 2.0
This is a Samsung laptop (which I adore) but it's several years old. We put more memory in it (maxed out at 8GB) so I don't need to upgrade anytime soon :)
I knew it is a good idea to throw this here in this forum!
Thanks for giving me food for thought!
Maybe I will go with the USB Hub ...
Unfortunately most 3,5" do not have a power switch, which I have learned the hard way. Now I am looking for it and find that there are not many with a switch.
The unplugging at the external harddrive case end is another option - LOL - why didn't I think of that one?
Saving energy :)
Also a good idea in case you're hit by a lightning. It may kill your computer but your backup data are safe. You should also remove the power cable in that case - I always remove both cables whenever I don't use the drives. Learned this the hard way some years ago... :)
Same here, plus online backup (CrashPlan).
We' ve been thinking about getting a NAS that we can store and share our folders. Would make our work a lot easier
I have a USB 3.0 cable on my desk, we just ordered another 4TB Lacie that is 3.0 native and support Firewire800 which is the fastest connector on this 3 year old MacPro that needed the drive, before 2011 or so you really didn't see computers coming with USB 3.0 capabilities unless you bought an expansion card to do it.
A USB 3.0 cable fits into the USB 2.0 connector on an older computer but I will only get USB 2.0 speed. So the cable will work fine on Pre USB 3.0 computers because it's a USB 2.0 end that goes into the computer, this is the A end by-the-way. The connector that goes into the drive itself (the B end) is what's different. The 3.0 cable has and extra part on top with 5 pinhole size connectors that don't exist on a USB 2.0 cables B end, and it's called a USB 3.0 B end.
Confused? So am I.I wish I tended sheep sometimes, but I decided to go into IT when I realized I'm not good with deadlines or spelling, or the smell of wet sheep.
LOL!
For years I was a Western Digital fanboi but a recent experience with one of their wireless storage systems left me bleeding and cold. Very very hesitant about getting another WD product. However, I find Seagate to run hot. Won't touch a Hitachi with a ten foot pole. I'm running out of options. :-( I have to make a decision soon, time is catching up with me and I need to be thinking about some replacements.
Bigger drives make my mouth water but I am aware of the "all your eggs in one basket" parable. Doing archival storage right means duplicate or triplicate copies depending on your level of paranoia.
Duplicates for me, two externals ... and some things triple with additional burn to DVD ... Paranoia, that's me. LOL
I don't think there's any company that don't screw up once in a while and make a product that's not up to par, and besides there's always a percentage of all drives no matter how good they are or who is manufacturing them that will fail. So I wouldn't judge any manufacturer by a single product that fails. I've bought lots of WD drives over the years and there have been a few that failed before they were expected to, but that's been the case with drives from any manufacturer I've tried yet.
I think the best alternative to WD is Seagate (don't know anyone above the two), but they have had some bad series too so don't expect perfection. And buy enterprise drives if you want the best quality, they're more expensive but more robust and they usually have a 5 year warranty (WD's do).
Duplicates for me, two externals ... and some things triple with additional burn to DVD ... Paranoia, that's me. LOL
Same here, plus online backup. Better safe than sorry... :)
That is exactly, what I'm thinking about after my 500GB external drive went down ! - By the way, although it's outside a Trekstor, it's inside a Western Digital ! My brother just send me some links for Knoppix and other rescue softwares, which might be able to find the external drive, although my computer can't "see" it.
A 4 or 6TB NAS should be big enough to provide enough virtual space for a private cloud, to mirror both of my computers (and maybe as well my mom's) and to have as well enough space for me to download and store whatever I want.
It's only a question of money.
Duplicates for me, two externals ... and some things triple with additional burn to DVD ... Paranoia, that's me. LOL
Backup to alternate externals, manually mirror critical items to a second internal (I've had problems with raid-1 mirroring; I once watched as a system that had locked up because of a drive failure very efficiently mirrored the now-bad drive to the good one and wiped out my content) and copy all downloads to two dvds.
And periodic examinations of all the backups to make sure they are really doing something and that I can recover data from them. (I used to be backup/recovery guru and D/R hotsite prep support).
We had RAID set up on my wives computer when we customized it and once we got it she had noting but problems and errors. We removed the RAID and never had an issue again. After all the problems we had with hers when I built my system I didn't even set RAID up.
They now have enclosures with RAID 0 and 1 set up with a switch to put to dual drives. I'm going to invest in one of those as they do get pretty good reviews.