running out of HDD space....again

[jeanie]

I need to get an ext HDD of at least 1TB.
please recommend what brand to buy.
and to RAID or not RAID?i need reliability as i really cant afford to lose all my raw pics.
TIA for any advise.

[Ah_K]

WD MyBook?
The new editions looks cool and comes in more than 1TB in fact
Worth checkin out i guess

[Klose]

The MyBook series is good! Going to get my third one soon!

[jeanie]

Originally Posted by Ah_K WD MyBook? The new editions looks cool and comes in more than 1TB in fact Worth checkin out i guess

whats that huh.....

[Ah_K]

Western Digital Ext Harddisk
check it out

[zaxh81]

Originally Posted by Ah_K WD MyBook? The new editions looks cool and comes in more than 1TB in fact Worth checkin out i guess

world edition?

[Ah_K]

Originally Posted by zaxh81 world edition?

so many editions out there to suit all ur needs
in fact i think for most o us, the home edition is more than sufficient

[Klose]

jeanie: you have a mac right? get those with firewire. super fast.

[jmmtn4aj]

I think the best option for speed, redundancy and space would be RAID 0+1. Not in an external form, because it gets crazily expensive. Instead build a PC dedicated to storage. A mini ATX motherboard + a RAID card is sufficient. If you're really paranoid, nevermind with RAID because a RAID card screwing up could destroy redundancy in the array. Manually backing up the data every few months works just as well, but it might get troublesome making sure you haven't left anything out during the backup process.

[chanxj]

I think ext hdd is not the way to go. A desktop acting as a fileserver shld work better. Best of all you could access all ur pictures from any computers in the network. better still, upgrade your network to support gigabit connection and ur ready to go.

[Big Kahuna]

Here are some ideas for you

http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livest...6a8283b30a2ac5

[Squid]

Try Buffalo Terastation which can handle up to 4TB with RAID5 capability

[jmmtn4aj]

Originally Posted by Squid Try Buffalo Terastation which can handle up to 4TB with RAID5 capability

It is also pretty damn expensive. It won't have the bells and whistles of the custom made box, but I could probably stuff more hard disks into a DIY NAS for the same amount of money..

[theRBK]

I think for minimum hassle, Terastation is a good option... simple system, RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 or RAID 5, up to 4TB total HD space (less when RAIDed of course...)... and Buffalo's support pretty good (as far as I have experienced...are they still at Riverwalk? I think they moved right?...)

[jeanie]

what exactly is raid?
i know it strips data and puts them separately into different drives.
but wouldnt that be dangerous cos if it crash, your data is like all over the place and hard to recover?

chanxj, can u please elaborate more on the network system?

how much does a buffalo/cow system cost?

[jeanie]

also guys...please indicate where to get such HDD.

i need it to PNP one hor...not those that has alot of things to setup one...
me dun have time one hor...i just want to plug in, transfer, go for a hot tub soak, and come back everything swee swee one...

[TMC]

time for you to do some homework on it first. there are a lot of products out there and a lot of terminology. Someone I know runs a server farm in his own home, server backing up server. His recommendation was thecus.

[Squid]

Originally Posted by jeanie what exactly is raid? i know it strips data and puts them separately into different drives. but wouldnt that be dangerous cos if it crash, your data is like all over the place and hard to recover?......can u please elaborate more on the network system?

RAID is acronym for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. Detailed explaination available from Wikipedia. One of RAID5 advantage is its (YMMV) ability to re-build lost data from the lost disk without using back-up harddisk. See explaination about Buffalo Terastation from Inter Genius.

Originally Posted by jeanie how much does a buffalo/cow system cost?

Pricing information available from Hardware Zone or Inter Genius Asia or other sources

Originally Posted by jeanie also guys...please indicate where to get such HDD. i need it to PNP one hor...not those that has alot of things to setup one... me dun have time one hor...i just want to plug in, transfer, go for a hot tub soak, and come back everything swee swee one...

Buffalo Terstation is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) that connects to your computer via normal network cable. It comes with a software that allow on-the-fly back of data on your main hard disk, if you wish to do so. Else, you can upload your RAW picture image via the network to Terastation for storage after if you have completed attaching it to the computer network system.

BTW, Buffala Terastation is reviewed by Hardware Zone magazine.

[Oly5050]

I have a bigger problem. My root drive, c is so full, and everyday, I get a low disk space message and have to compress and delete some files. I am like down to a few hundred free megabytes. I have tried to go and remove as much programs as I could, but it still does not solve the problem. I have also moved all my stuff in the My Documents and other My folders away. Checking my directory, I realized that a lot of space is taken up by stuff in the windows folder and My Documents folder. But all of them look alien to me and dun look like files that I can move. Is there some program out there that can help me easiliy clear my c drive without me screwing up my PC, and without having to do a reformat and windows install?

[TMC]

clear your system. reformat everything.