Huge HDD storage requirements - need help 2

[concisa]

PROBLEM: Scanned thousands of slides and hundreds of video tapes. Therefore require lots of disk storage and more importantly RELIABLE storage.

SOLUTION: Thought of purchasing a couple of 500 GB external drives (or even TB drives). Thought of having an enclosure, or something of the sort, that could house three to four HDDs. I'd like to be able, for instance to back everything up into one (or two) disk(s) and have this (these) disk(s) removed and kept elsewhere for safety while working with the ones storing the original copies of my files. (I don't believe I need the RAID sophistication -- I'm not thinking of hot swap-ability or real time redundancy). This enclosure, I suppose, would connect to USB or Firewire and have its own power source

QUESTIONS: Is there an enclosure that would do the job? Is the set up above viable? Would it be best to just purchase as many external disks as needed -- each with its own enclosure? Any word on HDD reliability? [Maxtor has large drives (One Touch III and II) in a reasonable price point, but have read about its reliability reputation. So I'm kind of leery about them]. Is there a problem keeping a HDD on a book shelf without connecting it to the computer for extended periods of time?

MY SET UP: Windows XP SP2 Multimedia Center on a VAIO; two internal HDDs: Ultra ATA/100 Seagate HDD (One 200 GB the other 250 GB).

I'd appreciate any help, advice, or recommendations.

Thanks a lot.

Armando

 

[rvnguy]

Your solution sounds viable. It is not what I use or do.

I have an extra 1-2 5.25 bays. and use a rack (IDE or SATA) your choice. I also purchase additional trays for additional HD's. See one here: There are many available:

http://www.directron.com/rh10.html

You could use this to back you live data, then shelve it. I lean/prefer Seagate for drives but just a personal choice. And with MTBF's in excess of 50,000 hours, you should never have a failure from the working parts.

If you opt for an external USB type, I would assemble it yourself. Get an enclosure that you favor and place the drive you want in it.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[pmonett]

There are a few affordable NAS units you might want to look into. Check this article.

Pascal.

 

[concisa]

Thank you all for your help.

Already visited the directron site: it seems that the rack is for HJDD speeds up to 4500RPM...I'll check further if they have another rack for higher speeds as well. Thanks a lot rvnguy.

pmonett >>> I read the article you refer to, however, I'm unsure if I can use a NAS because I don't have a network. This is a home setting with XP Multimedia center. Appreciate your help and comment.

Thanks again.

Armando

 

[rvnguy]

it seems that the rack is for HDD speeds up to 4500RPM.

I do not know why they list this as a limit??

Having several of these types of units, they are an enclosure that consists of a housing that installs in a 5.25 bay and accepts a tray that containg the HD. There are 'pass through' plugs that facilitate inserting and removing a drive/tray without having to mess with either power or data cabling.

I opt for a metal vesion over a composite type for durability, or at least what I feel as durability.

They are not overly costly & you might try one (type your choosing) to see if it fits your needs.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[concisa]

May be because the plugs you mentioned differ between Sata, Pata, Ultra ATA, and all the alphabet soup?

Thanks again, rvnguy

Armando

 

[tallboy755]

Check into the towers on

http://www.promise.com

... their product is what i use for about 14tb of hard drive space.

 

[concisa]

Thanks Tallboy755....

I visited the promise site and it seems to me that their racks are mostly RAID. Do you know whether they have non-Raid racks? What model do you use?

Thanks again

Armando

 

[rvnguy]

May be because the plugs you mentioned differ between Sata, Pata, Ultra ATA

Not fully, "IDE, Pata, Ultra ATA, etc", use the 80 conductor 40pin cable. But yes there are other racks for SATA.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[concisa]

Thanks rvnguy.

Can anybody tell me about LaCie drives reliability and MTBF? Their 500gb drives are probably the cheapest around.

Thanks

Armando

 

[smithles]

If you contemplate parking your hard drives on a shelf, remember that the plastic packaged ICs can absorb moisture into the plastic over time then boil, blast it out explosively and destructively. Yes we are talking extended time here but that seems to be what you are expecting. For this reason you either climate control to low humidity (and expect destructive static problems because of that), or you power up at appropriate intervals.

 

[concisa]

That is scary, smthles....thanks for the warning. By the way, what is "ICs"?
Armando

 

[smithles]

IC" Integrated Circuits. They probably now have more moisture proof plastics but the coatings are much thinner than they were.

 

[concisa]

Thanks...I'll certainly keep it in a humidity-controlled closet and connect it to the computer onece in awhile.

Thanks again,

Armando

 

[tallboy755]

Sorry about the late responce ... Yes they all are raid towers ... i personally use the Vtrak 15110 models ... Is there a perticular reason you dont want to go raid?

 

[concisa]

Thanks, tallboy755. A couple of reasons:

(1) More technical stuff to pay attention to and more than I care to learn at this stage of my life
(2) WIndows is a pretty precarious system. Any thing out of the ordinary can though things out of quilt...lot of headaches to fu=igure out what happened.

Although cost is a concern, the items above are major for me. I'm just tired of windows getting slow for no apparent reason, getting those random blue screens when you are in the middle of something, getting cryptic error messages coming from nowhere.

Thanks again.

Armando