[Clicker]

I'll tell you now and you've probably heard it countless itmes already.


With digital backup at least 4X (FOUR TIMES)

[Alliecat]

If you haven't sent it in yet, or shot it, try deleting the drivers on your computer and reinstalling them.
Good luck!

I did something like that, I think... I used the device manager troubleshooter & it advised uninstalling something, then checking for hardware changes, which was supposed to pick up the device & start over... Somewhere around there was the point where it said it was full, & the file system seems to have been changed to "RAW". I don't think that was what it was to begin with.
I'm going to take it to the library & try it on their newer computer which is more up to date than both of ours. Not that I really must recover any files; they're just backups, but am curious what it says about the drive.
Wasting another day in which I could be either outside or doing something productive.
[edit... library's computer can't read it either. it's toast.]

...shot it, heh -- it's probably a perfect size for a skeet shooting (?) target

[Alliecat]

The $70 doorstop is on its way to NC. Bleh.
I had a thought; in the meantime I've got to get something to move some pix off my getting-full laptop, & I really don't want to fork out $130 for another portable drive which may also die, at least till I make some $$ from these pix. I have a small budget! So make lots of backups, yes, & as twitch commented about not wasting time researching "better" brands, I'm thinking, what the heck, for now I could just get half a dozen flash drives from Hong Kong for a few bucks on eBay, & surely a few of them will work, & I could make a bunch of backups on those rather than getting 1 or 2 things that are more expensive. There are a lot of them for about $8.
Would you guys do something like that or IS it better to spend a little more on fewer "maybe better" products?
[Edit... the low prices are on misleading listings... not such a good deal after all. ]

[Ratmagiclady]

The $70 doorstop is on its way to NC. Bleh.
I had a thought; in the meantime I've got to get something to move some pix off my getting-full laptop, & I really don't want to fork out $130 for another portable drive which may also die, at least till I make some $$ from these pix. I have a small budget! So make lots of backups, yes, & as twitch commented about not wasting time researching "better" brands, I'm thinking, what the heck, for now I could just get half a dozen flash drives from Hong Kong for a few bucks on eBay, & surely a few of them will work, & I could make a bunch of backups on those rather than getting 1 or 2 things that are more expensive. There are a lot of them for about $8.
Would you guys do something like that or IS it better to spend a little more on fewer "maybe better" products?
[Edit... the low prices are on misleading listings... not such a good deal after all. ]

I would suggest, if you buy a good modern computer, have storage in there. Spend perhaps at least a hundred on a good quality backup drive, and then, if you like, get some cheapie little drives off of Ebay for extra redundancy.... So at some point you can hear someone ask this, and remember you haven't backed up your extra-redundant hard drive in a long time, and start thinking....'If I were me, knowing I'm prone to epic memory lapses, where did I hide my backup drive..... '

(Answer: I would have been less forgetful than I assumed I'd be, back things up and leave that drive.... right there. Instead of in my bugout bag where it belongs. )

There's ways in which I'm not the best one to ask, but for photo computing I have a much-appreciated but maxed out fifty dollar machine that can barely keep up with two generations ago of PSP, hooked up to a a budget but obligatory what you call it.... IPS monitor, and a primary backup drive of a good brand, which is encased in *metal.* I don't know if that really helps, but I like that it is encased in metal.

---

Last edited by Ratmagiclady; 03-16-2012 at 11:20 PM.

[Nuff]

The dead single drives is why I've invested into NAS (network attached storage). It takes 4 drives, I run raid5 across them. So if 1 drive fails, it will be slow, but I will be able to access all the photos. I will just pop a new drive in and after a day it will rebuild itself and be back to itself. For extra safety I've USB drive attached to the storage which does automatic nightly backups. I've lost photos before, twice and then I've smartened up.

Best of all I can access it from any computer on my laptop...

[Alliecat]

So how much & what kind of storage should I buy? ... ... --> I've concluded that the answer to this is, "How much data do I want to lose, all in one go?"

[Nuff]

It all depends how much you want to spend and how valuable is your data. Also how much storage will you need?
I got QNAP TS-412: QNAP Systems, Inc. ( TS-412 Turbo NAS ) - Quality Network Appliance Provider

I have 4 x 2TB hard drives for total of 6TB of storage. I also store videos on it for my media player, so I need the extra space.
If you need less space you could get one of the lower end models: QNAP Systems, Inc. ( TS-219P II ) - Quality Network Appliance Provider
With 2 x 2TB drives you will have 2TB usable space, since it uses RAID1 (it mirrors the disk).

Also you might need a fast 1Gig network if you don't want it to be laggy, wireless is a bad idea when working with photos.

If you go for the same system as me, you can initially start with 2 drives with RAID1 system, and when you need more space you can pop in 2 more drives and it will take about a day and half to rebuild into RAID4 system that I have. That's what I did, but you want to make sure that there's no power outage, otherwise you will lose your data.

[Racer X 69]

Allie, forgive me for stumbling in here late, but I feel compelled to comment.

First, let it out (I suspect you have already done so because this thread is almost a year old now.).

Here is what I do with my pictures.

I have a portable USB hard drive, 1.5TB. I store my pictures there and keep the folder sizes small, about 700mb. I collect those 700mb folders in another folder until there are enough folders to equal the capacity of a DVDR DL, which holds about 8.5gigs. Actually I never let the size get over 8gis to allow a little buffer. I found that if I try to push the limits for storage I will burn too many coasters.

When I have enough to fill a disc, I burn the pictures to the DVD. Actually I make 2 discs. That way if something goes wrong I will still have a backup.
I also have enough SD memory cards so that I don't need to clear them until the pictures are safely burned to disc.

DVD's are small and don't take up a lot of room, and so far they have held up over time.

I keep them in my gun safe, where it is cool and dark, and of course if the house burns down I will still have the pictures and my guns.

So how did the exchange of the hard drive go?

[Colbyt]

Yep. As rants go, that was a dandy; and justified as well.

+next on what he said. And I think highly justified.

I would even get real bitchy if I did not get the full remaining warranty for the replacement unit.

[Rupert]

Nice rant....I'm not much of a gambler, but I'd bet a squirrel is responsible for the crash. I'm still ranting about my $750. Jeep wiring harness destroyed by the little renegade rodents. If you see any peeking inside your place with that silly little grin, you know they were behind it.

A grin like this is a sure sign something is messed up.... power surge, lines gnawed, something....
[IMG] [/IMG]
Regards & Good Luck!

[Alliecat]

Thanks Rupert & Racer for comments.
It's a good idea to back up onto DVDs. Until our old desktop died (& that's a whole other story) I did not have something that could burn DVDs. I have yet to try it on the new (refurb) one. What is a DVDR *DL* ? I think the new puter takes DVD-R's. Have not had time to investigate, nor has it been a priority.
They did replace the drive, but at some point, I think it was on the phone, someone told me the 7-year warranty for replacement, would not be transferred to the new one. Feh.
I haven't used it much at all since I got it. (So I guess it hasn't had time to break yet!) The project I got it for, fizzled out, although I will have to get some stuff off my laptop soon as it's kinda filling up. I will definitely want more backup after that experience though, for anything I really can't replace. Not much confidence in the product now. I mean, it could be just one lemon, but you never know!

[bigted]

You've likely mailed it back by now but if you haven't you should be able to mark the item returned merchandise or product being sent for repair/replacement to avoid duty. It also has 0 value in it's current condition which should mean it's not subject to duty.

[Racer X 69]

What is a DVDR *DL* ?

Dual Layer.

The disc has two layers of emulsion for the laser to etch the data into, doubling the capacity of the disc. There are also dual layer, dual side discs that essentially can have 4 times as much storage capacity, but I have not tried them out.

Oh, and you are welcome!

[elliott]

One thing I've discovered about external hard drives is that the SATA-to-USB converter found in most of them is far less reliable than the drives themselves. Unless the drive is making bad noises, I'd suspect the converter to be the problem. I've removed a few drives from "dead" external drives and used them in laptops or bought new enclosures for them. I always have a couple of the bare converters on hand for data recovery, they come in handy very often.