Hard (Drive) Decisions

In the era of high-megapixel cameras, storing your large image files requires the use of a separate hard drive

By Jon Sienkiewicz

Labels: Gadget Bag

This Article Features Photo Zoom

You can set your watch by it—well, your calendar, anyway. Within 30 days of buying a new 12-megapixel camera, photographers everywhere are smacking themselves on the side of the head and asking, “Where am I going to keep all of these large image files?”

Having a large number of large files is a good problem to have. A large file means lots of data and, ultimately, that means more options for creative expression. If you shoot RAW, you already know that gives you expanded control over the final results—but that control comes at the expense of file size. Plus, many cameras nowadays have built-in editing and “art filter” functions that, because you may save more than one version of the same file, once again, increase your need for storage space.

The good news is that we’re living in the golden age of data storage. The porosity of storage media has increased faster than average image file sizes have swollen, and cost per gigabyte has tumbled to all-time lows. The most popular place to store images is still the hard drive, although other options—like online data centers and Blu-ray optical drives—are gaining momentum.

Your computer came with a hard drive installed, but in the final analysis, it’s the worst place to store your images unless you have a beefy, automated backup system. Even a largish, 500 GB internal drive soon will be filled if it’s used for everything including your operating system, program applications and image files.

Imation Apollo Expert UX

The best approach is to deploy matching sets of two or more hard drives installed in a RAID configuration. RAID is an acronym for “redundant array of inexpensive drives.” The most popular configuration for photographers and graphic artists is RAID 1. The drive controller creates identical copies of a set of data on two or more drives. If one fails, the others are unaffected, and at least one full set of data remains intact.

Although it may sound like a Star Wars character, a JABOD system gets its name from the fact that it’s assembled from “just a bunch of disks.” It’s a collection of dissimilar physical drives that are configured to be read as a single virtual volume. This works great for those who keep adding drives to their systems because it allows them to consolidate their searches and backups.

You can set up a RAID or JABOD system using internal or external drives. Choose your drive controller carefully. Some specialized RAID controllers, for example, can be set up to read two data drives simultaneously, compare the data and correct any errors that are encountered.

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Paul makes this comment

Tuesday, 14 July 2009

I know I'm a dino (was cutting edge just a couple years ago) but I still put all my images onto DVD after a photo shoot, back it up with another copy and store all originals in a seperate building. DVD's are ultra cheap. What's the downside?
Lew makes this comment

Monday, 29 June 2009

Re- the previous comments. What happens when you have 2 TB of images stored on 3 separate external firewire hard drives, plus two internal hard drives close to being maxed out of 1 TB each. These internal drives are mirrored, plus backed up on another external hard drive. The images are the only thing now on the external drives. Obviously, you can just keep adding external drives but I believe RAID 5 with the enclosure having at least 6 TB capacity[or greater]] is the way to go. With newer cameras having huge files we must plan on capacity that may seem ridiculous now but in a year or two will probably be full [if not sooner].]
Le Phuoc makes this comment

Saturday, 27 June 2009

These HDD (Hard-disk Drive) could be eclipsed by SSD (Solid-state Drive) in the future. SSD has higher tolerance for wider temperature range, absorbs shocks well, and perform well in high altitude. The CF card is a form of SSD.
JP makes this comment

Saturday, 27 June 2009

JABOD is the way to go, by far. RAID and Drobo are overrated for most photographers. The only thing they protect against is mechanical failure; no protection against file system corruption, viruses, theft, natural disasters like fire and flood, etc. Much better: internal drive(s) for primary storage, two external drives for backups. One backup is kept on-site for nightly backups with the software of your choice (ideally kept in a data-rated fireproof safe), the other off-site, such as home/office or better yet a safe deposit box, for weekly backups. Much cheaper than a RAID with only two drives. When combined with a proper backup strategy, the benefits of RAID become insignificant to most photographers vs the complexity/cost. So why even bother?
JP makes this comment

Saturday, 27 June 2009

JABOD is the way to go, by far. RAID and Drobo are overrated for most photographers. The only thing they protect against is mechanical failure; no protection against file system corruption, viruses, theft, natural disasters like fire and flood, etc. Much better: internal drive(s) for primary storage, two external drives for backups. One backup is kept on-site for nightly backups with the software of your choice (ideally kept in a data-rated fireproof safe), the other off-site, such as home/office or better yet a safe deposit box, for weekly backups. Much cheaper than a RAID with only two drives. When combined with a proper backup strategy, the benefits of RAID become insignificant to most photographers vs the complexity/cost. So why even bother?
Dale makes this comment

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Another Drobo user. I just had a 500GB drive fail (thermal failure) and just hot swapped it with a new drive as soon as I brought it home. Still had full access to the all my data via the remaining drives through the entire process given the Drobo redundancy. Yes, the box is a bit pricey, but the backup and protection is very good.
Dave makes this comment

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Your article forgot to mention the DROBO www.drobo.com Many us are using this product and have found it to work well. The product generally gets rave reviews from photographers so I'm more than a little surprised that you forgot to mention it. It works great for me.

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Hard (Drive) Decisions

In the era of high-megapixel cameras, storing your large image files requires the use of a separate hard drive

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