External storage question.
Aug 14, 2020 20:51:56 #
I'm in the market for external SSD drives, to save and backup my photos.
I believe I already know the answer to my own question, but would like the opinions of others.
Should I get a larger SSD, say a 2 or 3 terabyte, or go with a few smaller ones, say 500 gigs. My reasoning for the smaller ones is that if something should go wrong with the drive, I'd only loose some of my work, apposed to loosing most or all of it, if it was put into a larger drive.
I know these drives are reliable and don't usually crash, but things happen.
What the consensus here?
I believe I already know the answer to my own question, but would like the opinions of others.
Should I get a larger SSD, say a 2 or 3 terabyte, or go with a few smaller ones, say 500 gigs. My reasoning for the smaller ones is that if something should go wrong with the drive, I'd only loose some of my work, apposed to loosing most or all of it, if it was put into a larger drive.
I know these drives are reliable and don't usually crash, but things happen.
What the consensus here?
Aug 14, 2020 20:59:37 #
They fill up so fast, I can't see how anything less than 4TB would be worthwhile. My current primary 4TB and secondary 4TB were purchased in Aug 2017, replacing 2TB drives. Now 3 years later, I can forecast the remaining space to probably just another year (4-year's total usage with 15-years of DSLR images and 20+ years of scans of 35mm film).
How much space you need depends on:
a) what file types do you shoot & save? (JPEG, TIFF, RAW, PSD, etc)
b) what else do you save to the drive, such as LR catalog back-ups? all software install files? other?
c) how much so you shoot / how quickly do your storage needs grow?
I'd recommend two same sized drives, possibly with different colored cases, 1 primary and 1 secondary / back-up. This will be much more efficient than a stack of smaller ones.
How much space you need depends on:
a) what file types do you shoot & save? (JPEG, TIFF, RAW, PSD, etc)
b) what else do you save to the drive, such as LR catalog back-ups? all software install files? other?
c) how much so you shoot / how quickly do your storage needs grow?
I'd recommend two same sized drives, possibly with different colored cases, 1 primary and 1 secondary / back-up. This will be much more efficient than a stack of smaller ones.
Aug 14, 2020 21:02:20 #
tcthome
Loc: NJ
Your call on that one. But it is prudent 2 have more than 1 back up. Keep one off site like at work, a family member , safety deposit box, the cloud, etc., & rotate them(if you shoot a lot of keepers)once a week , month,.
Storage is pretty cheap these days.
Happy shooting, Tom
Storage is pretty cheap these days.
Happy shooting, Tom
Aug 14, 2020 21:14:28 #
Aug 14, 2020 21:19:20 #
How are you going to backup the drive? Copy files?
If you have 1.2Tb of files, how would you split them on two or three smaller drives, and keep track of the split?
MUCH simpler to have a drive at LEAST two times larger than your total file size count.
That will get you one "backup" of everything in one place with room to spare for additional files.
Have you considered a secondary backup drive in case the first backup drive goes south?
Don't just backup photos, backup your docs, PDFs, spreadsheets, ANY data files.
If you have 1.2Tb of files, how would you split them on two or three smaller drives, and keep track of the split?
MUCH simpler to have a drive at LEAST two times larger than your total file size count.
That will get you one "backup" of everything in one place with room to spare for additional files.
Have you considered a secondary backup drive in case the first backup drive goes south?
Don't just backup photos, backup your docs, PDFs, spreadsheets, ANY data files.
Aug 14, 2020 21:21:05 #
Aug 14, 2020 21:27:15 #
Aug 14, 2020 21:28:38 #
Aug 14, 2020 21:50:47 #
Tonylum wrote:
I'm in the market for external SSD drives, to save... (show quote)
External SSD? Why? Usually, the speed limit is imposed by the interface (USB), and HDDs are faster than the interface. You'll not get any speed advantages by going to SSD. Maybe I'm missing something?
Aug 14, 2020 21:59:33 #
Why spend so much on SSD? If you get 2 4TB HDDs, make them hold identical files. Chances are, neither of them will fail, but if one does, get another and make another copy from the good one. In 15 years, I've never had a HDD external drive fail.
Aug 14, 2020 23:39:14 #
htbrown wrote:
External SSD? Why? Usually, the speed limit is imposed by the interface (USB), and HDDs are faster than the interface. You'll not get any speed advantages by going to SSD. Maybe I'm missing something?
Probably more a matter of personal preference. While the spinning HDD's are reliable, I'm not a fan of anything that spins @ 7200RPM, even though I'm a retired IT manager, and my job description included insuring data backup for 1300 customers on a dozen servers. I've switched over to the SSD's, both internal and external, for temporary storage. The call and write times have decreased greatly for the SSD's. Of course, no solution is fool-proof, but I do like the performance of the SSD.
Aug 15, 2020 06:22:31 #
Aug 15, 2020 06:47:02 #
Tonylum wrote:
I'm in the market for external SSD drives, to save and backup my photos.?
I wouldn't bother with external SSD drives - you will still be limited by the USB interface and see no speed benefit. I use 8TB powered external HDDs and they work just fine.
Now if you were going to add internal drives to a desktop machine - then definitely go with the SSD option.
Aug 15, 2020 07:07:32 #
You should buy two big drives and mirror them so that you do not lose any work, unless you really don't value it.
Aug 15, 2020 07:17:43 #
ZtaKED
Loc: Lakes Region, New Hampshire & NE Florida
Tonylum wrote:
I'm in the market for external SSD drives, to save... (show quote)
Hmmm....I guess the first thing I would do is to start separating the wheat from the chaff to skinny down the photo inventory. Less is more. I dunno- if yesterday was any measure, I keep maybe 1 or 2 frames for the 10 I shot. I can’t imagine every one of those photos can’t be masterpieces or have sentimental value. On the other hand, if everything in the inventory is business related or will be a piece of a giant mosaic sometime in the future, and, the fear of mechanical breakdown keeps you up at night, I would avoid any drive and pay the freight for cloud storage to avoid taking Ambien.
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