Where do you store your Images

[ryankokesh]

Is there any benefit to Crashplan free. Use laymen terms please.

The free version doesn't back up to their servers - that means it'll back it up to another computer in your home, or even a friend's computer if you can convince them to let you use their storage and bandwidth!

[az3579]

Lacie makes the best external drives. You'll pay a premium for them though.

It doesn't matter what hard drive you use. Best not to pay the premium. LaCie isn't a hard drive brand; they use common brands of hard drives such as Seagate.
You really are better off either getting your own hard drive with a longer warranty and throwing it in an external case or buying one ready-made, such as the Western Digital MyBook or the Seagate FreeAgent. I recommend the SeaGate because of the long 5-year (many models) warranty.

[Rovert]

I have used Seagate since the start of PCs...LOL. No Seagate has failed on me yet. I have a server downstairs that's been running since 2002 and rarely turns off unless there's a vacation. That Seagate harddrive is still running with no odd noises and it's been more than 8 years!

The ones I have had fail or diagnosed other's failures are Hitachi, Toshiba, and Maxtor.

[danewilson77]

The free version doesn't back up to their servers - that means it'll back it up to another computer in your home, or even a friend's computer if you can convince them to let you use their storage and bandwidth!

Thats crap.

[C Withers Media]

Dane, you could always use 3.5" floppy disks in a magnetically sealed lunchbox.

[danewilson77]

Mmmm.........lmao!!!!!

I'm just gonna get a 1TB drive.....ass monkey.

[ryankokesh]

Thats crap.

Lol

For what it's worth, I've had two western digital external drives fail on me. My seagate's still going strong though.

[ryankokesh]

Mmmm.........lmao!!!!!

I'm just gonna get a 1TB drive.....ass monkey.

If you're using an external drive as a backup, make sure it's actually that- a backup. As in all the content is actually stored somewhere else. My parents' external drive was used to store all their pictures, and it physically failed. It would have cost them about $2k to have the data professionally restored, but I was lucky enough to be able to fix it and recover most of their stuff. Took me many many many hours...

You could get a RAID device though - I think it's raid 0 that you'd want? I forgot... But it's basically a couple of drives grouped together in one box, and then if one drive fails you can swap it out without losing any data. It could definitely save you a whole lot of pain. Or you could be totally fine with a normal drive. It'd just be like insurance. Except that every drive, given enough time and use, will eventually fail. Some sooner than others I guess. Oh, and if you ever hear weird clicking, immediately back it up to a new drive!

I'll stop rambling now

[Kudos]

I've had a bad experience with seagate. i had a 320 gig drive fail on me. had a lot of data that i wanted to keep. my western digital drives have not failed ever even 40gig drives that are 6 to 7 years old. essentially the best type of hdd to use is a ssd (solid state drive) so a large flash drive in a sense. They make up to 60 or 100 gig ssd drives though they are much pricier than standard magnetic drives. No moving parts= less chance of failure.

[ryankokesh]

Yeah, in a few years I bet most everything but the xl capacities will be ssd...as far as I'm concerned, that day can't come soon enough!