1 TB at Wal-mart

PetersCreek · Dec 29, 2006

My first computer, the Commodore VIC-20, had a whopping 5 kilobytes of RAM...but I could only write programs to 3K. I even learned 6502/6510 assembly language to make my programs faster. I also expanded the memory to 32K by building my own expansion module, to save money. I planned it, etched the PC board, and assembled it chip by chip. I loaded my programs to/from cassette...slowly.

Later, I upgraded to the C64. The first hard drive I owned was large, external, and had a capacity of 170 kilobytes, IIRC. When the Commodore 128 came out, I remember a friend saying there'd never be a need for more than 128 kilobytes of memory.

My first real camera all my own was a little kodak 126 insta-matic. First SLR was the Canon AE-1, purchased in '81. I traded it in weeks later for an AE-1 Program, which I still have today. It's stored in a box but it still works like a champ.

ball · Dec 29, 2006

Azuth said:
Hard drives have a reasonable life span...

I had two Maxtor disk drives fail recently. One was less than a year old. It was replaced under warranty, but had we lacked tested backups, we would have lost important data.

Torus34 · Dec 29, 2006

Backing up to the present 'new' technology is an on-going, never-ending process. The trick is to transfer from a technology going out of style before it goes too far out of style.

How do folks transfer 33 1/3 LPs to CDs?

Or wire to tape cassette?

ball · Dec 29, 2006

Turntable -> Preamp -> Sound Card.

blooper · Dec 29, 2006

fmw said:
I can remember when the ball point pen was invented.

you are the winner

ball · Dec 29, 2006

Cue the Four Yorkshiremen: "I can remember when writing was invented..."

hobbes28 · Dec 30, 2006

Back to hard drives...

Now with the prices of the SATA drives going down and most motherboards coming with at least RAID 0, 1 and 0+1 and some of the others coming with the RAID 5 onboard, it's getting cheaper by the minute to run a good RAID configuration on your computer. The sad part is that you can get a TB drive with a RAID 5 configuration for just a little more than the 20GB HDDs were going for in '99. Technology is moving on along.

Alex_B · Dec 30, 2006

RAID level 0 actually is more prone to data loss than anything else. one of the drive fails and all data might be lost. the probability of one out of say 5 drives in a RAID failing is large than the probability of one single drive failing. If I understand it right, RAID 0 only gives you a speed advantage.

the other raid levels are nice, but not neccessary for archives.

Mad_Gnome · Dec 30, 2006

fmw said:
Currently, I put my images on DVD RW but who knows how long those will be readable?

Burn to DVD without fear. Most optical discs (even the cheap ones) are designed to last for 50-100 years worth of normal use.

Alex_B · Dec 30, 2006

Mad_Gnome said:
Burn to DVD without fear. Most optical discs (even the cheap ones) are designed to last for 50-100 years worth of normal use.

But there are reports of failure where archive CDs could not be read anymore, even when they were stored and treated well.

50-100 years lasting for music and movies, where minimal failure (actually on original music CDs many bits cannot be read due to poor production as far as I understand) can easily be compensated for by the player'S software.

this is different when we speak of databases or documents or RAW images and JPGs where a single corrupted bit can corrupt the whole file if it is just the wrong bit.

captbunzo · Dec 30, 2006

Any writable optical media (CDs, DVD, etc) are VERY unreliable as a long term storage media. The best choice, at present, are external hard drives.

But more importantly, data security is about more then just the failure of the physical media. It is ALSO, very critically, about the failure of the storage facility. As in, if you have your data backed up in triplicate, but then your house burns down, then you are still screwed (on many levels).

The way around this is off-site store for backups. There are lots of easy choices for this. If you can backup all your data to a SINGLE external hard drive, do this.

Buy 2 of them.
Leave 1 plugged into your computer, backup nightly using a program that can schedule backups for you.
Weekly, or so, take the other, sync the files on it (using a backup program again) with backup hard drive #1. And then bring it with you in the morning to your office or something. In short, leave it OFF SITE from where your first backup is stored.

Also, as far as speed is concerned... Either USB 2.0 or firewire is pretty good. HOWEVER, if you can get external hard drives with eSATA connections and then arm your computer with the necessary PCI or PCMCIA card to connect via eSATA, you'll have AMAZING speed.

Anyhow, hope that helps some.......

Highspeed · Dec 30, 2006

fmw said:
I have a nagging concern about image archiving. Hard drives have a life span. Every single one will eventually fail. So there needs to be a backup. Currently, I put my images on DVD RW but who knows how long those will be readable? I've thought about getting a RAID and a couple of spare drives for it but that is a pretty expensive option. For me, this is the biggest issue of digital photography. I can still enjoy the chromes I made in the 1950's. How long will I be able to see my digital images?

I just had mine fail on my laptop after 3.5 years. I'm glad I had everything back up on an external HD or it would have been really bad.

Mad_Gnome · Jan 2, 2007

What it comes down to is that nothing is foolproof. An external hard drive can be inadvertently exposed to magnetism, houses can burn down, drives fail,sectors can go bad, discs can deteriorate. I love some of my photos, but I also have to realize that nothing lasts forever. I've already lost some photos to circumstance. I moved on. Back your stuff up however you feel is the most reliable and leave the rest to fate.