[Leica] Tape backup?

[red735i at verizon.net (Frank Filippone)]

There are 2 entirely different HDD solutions.....

1) Network style with RAID arrays and specialized SW
2) USB/Firewire Drives and standard SW

The difference?  If they are truly backup to your main drives, and
accessibility to those files will only be when something goes wrong with
your main HDD, and backup need not be every time a file changes, then
USB/Firewire drives are the ticket.  They are about $150 for 3TB of storage,
use standard to whatever you want as backup SW, and you could own 3, 4
drives and copies of your images for a few hundred bucks.  Rosewill makes a
2 drive case that you can put your own quality of drives into, and pretty
much doubles your capability.  Recovery of data, if required because the
backup drive died, is pretty easy to arrange, if not cheap.  But probably
you will have a backup somewhere else that is close enough to maintain your
image bank without major upset.

All the fancy drives (drobo, etc) are derivations of RAID arrays, with
attendant proprietary storage methodology, proprietary SW, and requiring a
PhD in Electronics to keep running.  Now if you ARE a PhD in Electronics,
they might suit your capabilities and passion..... but if you are not, well,
I think you are heading into a SW and HW nightmare.  I think it is for
experts in computers, only.

Make your backups nightly, using incremental backup techniques,  rotate your
drives, keep one in the car if you wish, another at your brothers' houses,
and maybe one at your Mom's house, and another at your day job.  Plenty of
redundancy. 

Our Dear Leader, Brian, has said that in most cases, the failure of drives
is severely reduced by the use of Enterprise drives ( those for professional
storage arrays) which cost a bit more, but can deliver better longevity.
You usually cannot buy them at Frys ( enormous electronic store that started
as a grocery store in the 70's) but you need to look around.

I use standard USB drives from Seagate and WD.  I buy them when they are on
sale, and use them till they die.  I have 6 drives ( total outlay of about
$750).  I plug a different one in each month, with backups every time I add
to my image gallery, and every Wednesday, no matter what.  I use the Seagate
provided  SW as my management tool.  When not in actual use, they are turned
off.  They are stored in various places.

I should state that this images from an amateur.  The images have
sentimental appeal only.  

If I were a Pro, I might want to protect my image bank in other ways.....

Note: as far as Cloud storage... it is as good as the backups THEY make.
Have you been able to read and test their internal backup solutions?  Do you
realize they are using HDD to do the backups?  If you are not happy with
your HDD solution, why should you be happy with a vendor's HDD solution?
You are transferring your risk to an unknown.

 A side note.... even with cable BW, the initial backup or in the future,
the download, of those files will take a bit of time to do.....

Frank Filippone
Red735i at verizon.net

I am more or less down to choosing between tape back up or Amazon Glacier.


The default is to continue with hard drive back up. The major problem is
reliability. For business data, I have a a RAID netstation and multiple back
up on different systems, but for photos, doing the same is just not fiscally
viable.