Options for working off external hard drive?

[mdd99]

I have two Western Digital drives for backing up my hard drive but find using the Retrospect software cumbersome when retrieving files. I'd like to either work directly from the external hard drive or find a drive where I can "click and drag" files between the external and internal drives. Suggestions?

[Joanna Carter]

I have two Western Digital drives for backing up my hard drive but find using the Retrospect software cumbersome when retrieving files. I'd like to either work directly from the external hard drive or find a drive where I can "click and drag" files between the external and internal drives. Suggestions?
Any drive can be treated as an ordinary disk. Simply don't use the Retrospect software, format the drives ordinarily and copy stuff to or from the main disk to the external disks.

[mdd99]

Any drive can be treated as an ordinary disk. Simply don't use the Retrospect software, format the drives ordinarily and copy stuff to or from the main disk to the external disks.

Joanna, I believe it's already formatted with FAT32. (I bought it 3 years ago for my 2004 XP pc.) Do you recommend NTFS instead?

[Joanna Carter]

Joanna, I believe it's already formatted with FAT32. (I bought it 3 years ago for my 2004 XP pc.) Do you recommend NTFS instead?
If you don't plan to share the drive with other machines like Mac and Linux, there is no need to stick with FAT32; it is wasteful on space and limits the amount of data that can be stored in a single partition. If it is only for use with Windows XP, reformat it to NTFS, minimum cluster size (512 bytes).

[mdd99]

All's well. I reformatted with NTFS, and it's smooth as silk. Thanks, Joanna.

[Joanna Carter]

All's well. I reformatted with NTFS, and it's smooth as silk. Thanks, Joanna.
Glad to hear it. BTW, if you want to ensure you don't lose your backup on the external drive, you might like to consider, at some time, getting a RAID 0 array external drive. this is a box with 2 (or more) drives in it; the data gets written to both disks simultaneously and if one disk fails, the other one keeps going until you can replace the faulty one. Once the new disk is in place, the RAID controller copies the data from the good disk until they are both in sync.

Not a necessity but worth considering ;)

[Preston]

Joanna,

I need to make a slight correction to your post about RAID arrays.

RAID 0 uses two identical drives. The data is split by the RAID controller so that part of the data is stored on one drive, and the other part is stored on the second drive. This is known as 'striping'.

While RAID 0 makes for very fast read/write, the problem is that if one drive fails, you lose all the data.

I believe that the RAID array to which you are referring is a RAID 1. This where you have two drives. and the all the data is written to each drive simultaneously, i.e. the drives are 'mirrored'. If one drive fails, the other can take up the slack until the new drive is installed, and the data is re-mirrored.

-Preston

[Joanna Carter]

I need to make a slight correction to your post about RAID arrays.

RAID 0 uses two identical drives...
You are absolutely right. I keep on getting those two things mixed up, thanks :o

[rdenney]

If you are having to retrieve files often from your backup, then maybe you should review how you handle your files. Are the external drives really for backup or are they used as temporary external storage?

My wife and I both archive photos, and so I went to some effort to build an automated backup system. I use a two-disk network attached storage enclosure, with two 1-terabyte disks in it. It uses RAID 1 so that the disks are mirrors of each other. After trying several cheap backup programs and finding them all lacking, I went ahead and paid a bit more for ShadowProtect, which I set up to provide a monthly full image backup and daily incremental updates. I keep two months at all times. I have to lay hands on the system every few weeks because something has caused it to stop working, but that has been true for all the automated systems I've tried. Shadowprotect does allow me to mount any given day's backup as a virtual drive, including the ability to get files from it, add files to it (though I don't really know why I would want to do that), or even run a virus scan on it to clean it before a full restore.

But I use that NAS only for the backup. The main storage is still the disk in my computer.

I have an additional single-disk NAS that I use as a network-accessible scratch disk. I can use that to trade files back and forth with guests who cannot get to my network computers through my wireless network, but who I do give access to that scratch disk. I don't use that disk either for backup or for primary storage, and I don't much care if everything on it gets erased every day.

One of these days, I'll have high-speed Internet access and then I'll set up ShadowProtect to run a post-backup process to copy the backup image to a remote site. Until then, writing to removable media from time to time is the best I can do.

This isn't directed at your issue of how to run an external drive, which is already answered anyway. I'm just addressing what may be confusion between a backup and the thing it backs up.

Rick "noting that these image backups protect the OS, hardware drivers, and software installations as well as the picture files, all of which are essential to a proper backup" Denney

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[Brian Ellis]

Joanna,

I need to make a slight correction to your post about RAID arrays.

RAID 0 uses two identical drives. The data is split by the RAID controller so that part of the data is stored on one drive, and the other part is stored on the second drive. This is known as 'striping'.

While RAID 0 makes for very fast read/write, the problem is that if one drive fails, you lose all the data.

I believe that the RAID array to which you are referring is a RAID 1. This where you have two drives. and the all the data is written to each drive simultaneously, i.e. the drives are 'mirrored'. If one drive fails, the other can take up the slack until the new drive is installed, and the data is re-mirrored.

-Preston

Thanks, this has been an informative thread, I never knew what all the Raid 0, Raid 1 stuff meant. Two questions if I can go a little off topic - what's "Raid 2" that I occasionally see in ads for external hard drives? Also, is there a particular brand you or Joanna or anyone else would recommend for Raid 1 (or 2, if that's better), hopefully in the $250 and under price range? I've seen ads for a brand called "Cavalry" in that price range but I've never heard of them. I'm on my third external hard drive in about six years, I'd like to find a brand with a better track record than the ones I've been using.

[rdenney]

Thanks, this has been an informative thread, I never knew what all the Raid 0, Raid 1 stuff meant. Two questions if I can go a little off topic - what's "Raid 2" that I occasionally see in ads for external hard drives? Also, is there a particular brand you or Joanna or anyone else would recommend for Raid 1 (or 2, if that's better), hopefully in the $250 and under price range? I've seen ads for a brand called "Cavalry" in that price range but I've never heard of them. I'm on my third external hard drive in about six years, I'd like to find a brand with a better track record than the ones I've been using.


I don't remember what RAID 2 is, but it may be support for multiple drives with a rotating redundancy scheme, or for hot-swapping, or something like that.

RAID 1 is drive mirroring, and is probably the most affordable redundant storage scheme.

I'm trying to remember what I paid for my D-Link DNS-323, but I don't think it was more than a couple of hundred dollars. But it does not come with drives, though a pair of Samsun 1-Terabyte drives was not expensive at all. Together, it may exceed your budget by a bit, but it's probably the cheapest solution out there as of about six months ago.

One feature that may be a problem for you is that it's a network-attached storage device, meaning it does not plug into a USB, but rather onto a network. If you have a broadband router with multiple Ethernet ports, you can plug it into that. But if you don't have a network, you'll have to buy a small switch or hub, though these are very inexpensive.

Rick "reporting the results of personal research from some months ago only" Denney

[Joanna Carter]

I don't remember what RAID 2 is, but it may be support for multiple drives with a rotating redundancy scheme, or for hot-swapping, or something like that.
This page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Standard_levels may answer most questions.

[Jim Ewins]

The RAID 1 is called a Mirror RAID. It functions like the computer HD with back-up. I use it for all images.

[Joanna Carter]

Also, is there a particular brand you or Joanna or anyone else would recommend for Raid 1 (or 2, if that's better), hopefully in the $250 and under price range?
I use the Iomega Ultramax Pro and find them to be flexible and reliable. They also support the e-Sata interface, which allows communication with the drive at the same data rate as if it were an internal drive; but you will need to also buy an interface card for your computer if you want to use the e-Sata option. http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/external-hard-drive-desktop/ultramax-minimax/ultramax-pro/?partner=4760

[Stephen Lewis]

I recently bought a Drobo system, which has been brilliant. It does exactly what it says on the tin :) It's also simple and straightforward, which is great for technophobes like me. Have a look here http://www.drobo.com/

[David Hedley]

I also use an Iomega device, configured for Raid 1, with an additional back up on another disc stored offline. Works well, if a bit noisy at times.

Drobo looks excellent, but my Mac dealer advised me that their storage method is proprietary and for that reason they wouldn't stock it. So I ended up with the Iomega.

[rdenney]

I use the Iomega Ultramax Pro and find them to be flexible and reliable. They also support the e-Sata interface, which allows communication with the drive at the same data rate as if it were an internal drive; but you will need to also buy an interface card for your computer if you want to use the e-Sata option. http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/external-hard-drive-desktop/ultramax-minimax/ultramax-pro/?partner=4760

That looks nice and the price is right. The hardware RAID 1 capability is what one wants if the requirement is redundancy--the hardware of the device will automatically ensure that both disks are storing the exact same thing, and even if a disk is replaced, the hardware will mirror the remaining disk onto the new disk automatically.

The difference between it and the D-Link device that I mentioned is that it connects to the computer either through the eSATA port or through USB. Thus, it is tethered to one computer. My wife and I have separate machines, plus other machines that we use for various purposes, so serving the backup service on a computer would chop into the processing time of that computer anytime any other computer ran a backup. Thus, the network-attached-storage approach was better for us, and the D-link device does that. It is managed through its own web page that is available (only) on the local network. All computers on the network can reach it even if that is the only network computer that is up and running at the time.

We've done the Epson 3800 the same way, and also our laser printer.

Yes, the network interface is a bit slower (100 MB/S nominal, probably no better than half that in reality). But it slows the backup process enough so that one can keep working while it's doing its thing. With the eSATA external device, I'll bet that during really heavy use on that interface, other processes have to endure some slow-downs.

Lots of considerations and requirements to ponder, to be sure.

Rick "nobody said the digital darkroom was easier" Denney

[jim kitchen]

I happen to use "RAID 0" for my workspace, and when I am done for the day, I manually store my files in separate Firewire connected hard drives...

My RAID 0 work space is set up with a Sata controller using two 1TB hard drives, creating a fast large operating space, and my additional hard drive space is controlled through chained Firewire 800 connections. I use the following well made, almost military specification "kits" to hold my hard drives, which can be purchased through several other dealers, but I do buy the hard drives locally:

eStata kit: http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/sata/satakits.php

Firewire kit: http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/firewire/BurlyMultiDriveFWFixed.php

I use the following Sata controller card:

Sata Card: http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_sata_e4p.html

I purposely isolate and balance my files within a few "four drive" grouped hardware boxes, where I backup my isolated files onto two separate identically sized hard drives within each four drive box for safekeeping. I use a simple hard drive naming system such as jimk_a, jimk_b, and I use a colour coded hard drive icon system to keep my twinned hard drives identifiable within each grouping. For the moment, I do not set the storage hard drives into any RAID configuration, since they are connected through a Firewire connection. When the drives are full, they are properly stored in a safe external location.

jim k