File Storage solution

[limvo05]

Hello,

I would like to know your thoughts on the file storage solution. For years I've been buying external storage drives to store my photos. While the cost for storage is fairly cheap, I am curious if there are other storage solutions available?

I have heard of cloud storage services such as Amazon, Apple, Google, etc. Have anyone used those and if so, what your experience like? Would you say it's cheaper and move convenience to store photos on the clouds or locally? I once had a drive died on me, luckily I was able to recover all my photos.

Thanks.

[FloridaDrafter]

@limvo05, Give Wondershare Recoverit a try.

[wq9nsc]

Is that drive powered via the USB port or does it have an external AC adapter?  For an external drive with and AC adapter, suspect the adapter and try another one if possible if you have another of the same type drive.  Just checking with a DMM or VOM to read the voltage isn't a good test unless the drive is connected to the adapter because the cheap switching type supplies contained in the adapter will still generally produce rated output when not connected but voltage drops off tremendously under load when capacitors in the supply begin to degrade.

Rodger

[limvo05]

It's the Western Digital My **bleep** USB drive. It plugs directly to the back of the computer, no external power source is needed.

Thanks.

[FloridaDrafter]

Rodger, I've had that happen with USB powered externals. I have USB to SATA and USB to IDE devices (just the connector), both powered by AC wall worts, that allowed me to use the HD's from the external storage device, once popped open, and get the data. I have the devices to get files from laptop and desktop HD's that I have kept over the years and to utilize the 1 TB SATA drives removed from laptops for non-essential storage. 

Once I popped opened the case on the external USB drives, I could see the damage on the cicuit board. That board is attached to a SATA connector plugged into the external HD (I'm sure you already know this, but it is woth repeating for others that don't). These external USB drives are just regular drives, in brand X cases, with capacitors to boost the USB power to get "spinup".

My point is, I would also suspect the USB powered devices capacitor as well.

-FD

[Mitsubishiman]

I have had several and stiil do utilize WD external hard drives, my experience has been the original cable that come with the drives are of lesser quality, I always use a better cable.
I will assume you tried a different one, I have experienced more bad cables than defective hard drives.

[Waddizzle]

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@Mitsubishiman wrote:
I have had several and stiil do utilize WD external hard drives, my experience has been the original cable that come with the drives are of lesser quality, I always use a better cable.
I will assume you tried a different one, I have experienced more bad cables than defective hard drives.

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I have never had a problem with cables.  Probably because I do not move them around much.

These are two 4 TB drives on the rear of my screeen.  These are for primary editing.  

I have decided to retire the old server before it fails on me.  I now have a 24 TB NAS 5-bay drive array for longer term storage.  There three 8TB drives installed, and two empties.

[limvo05]

Nice!

Given the cost of storage is relatively low these days, I think I am going to get a bunch of 1TB SSD drives. I think 1TB drive is better than a larger one because if something happens to it, I would only have to deal with 1TB of backup vs large one. The cost for a 3 or larger SSD drives is still pretty high.

Technically speaking, because there is no moving part in the SSD drive, they should last a lot longer than other type of media storage.

[Waddizzle]

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@limvo05 wrote:

Nice!

Given the cost of storage is relatively low these days, I think I am going to get a bunch of 1TB SSD drives. I think 1TB drive is better than a larger one because if something happens to it, I would only have to deal with 1TB of backup vs large one. The cost for a 3 or larger SSD drives is still pretty high.

Technically speaking, because there is no moving part in the SSD drive, they should last a lot longer than other type of media storage.

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I have a 1TB SSD built into my laptop, in addition to a conventional 500GB drive for the C: drive.  

Those external drives are storage for photo editing.  One is primary, and one is an identical backup.  I use Microsoft SyncToy to synchronize the data.  I download camera files to the internal SSD, and then move them to the editing drive.

BTW, the Velcro is mounted in opposite directions, for lack of a better description.  I cannot physically swap them.  I also use SyncToy to backup the editing editing drives to NAS device.  

Your drive failure reminded me that I forgot about my round tuit.  My old server runs Windows Server 2008 R2.  I have been meaning to upgrade the hardware ever since Windows Server 2012 came out.