Posted by Peter D on 05/17/07 15:06

"Arny Krueger" <arnyk@hotpop.com> wrote
> <leekazimir@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> Looking for a good backup solution for big HDV files and
>> projects.
>
>> Currently looking at Maxtor's OneTouch Turbo III
>> (available in 1 TB or 1.5 TB sizes) and Lacie's BigDisk 1 TB drives.
>
> I tell my clients that anything by Lacie or one of the prime drive
> manufacturers (Seagate, Maxtor, Hitachi, Western Digital) is going to be
> a better choice than some no-name cheapie.
>
> But, watch the GB/$ index. You generally pay a big premium to get the
> highest possible density. A cursory look suggests that GB/$ is relatively
> flat up to a surprizing 1 TB.
>
> However, I'd rather have 4 each $100 250 GB external drives rather than 1
> each $400 1 TB drive. Shelf space isn't an issue for me at the 3.5 form
> factor. With the 1 TB drive, one human or hardwaer destorys lots more
> than it would with 4 smaller drives. If the goal is backup, then the
> smaller drives give you better options for off site backup. Also, I would
> probably never buy 4 drives at one time, but buy 2 to start for
> redundcancy and watch the cost per GB of the remainder of my future disk
> drive farm drop as the price of storage continues to drop.

Good advice. I would also recommend DVD-R as a viable backup medium. Now
before anyone disregards the idea because of problems with long-term storage
of some DVD medium, let me suggest that a combination of recoverable methods
make it very viable except in the most extreme of cases. Simply use a
combination of RAR/ZIP or any software that can break large files into
smaller chunks, and create PAR files to act as verifiers and recreators
should a files get damaged or lost. You can store a lot of info on a DVD at
very low costs (less than 10c/G), and properly stored it is less susceptible
to damage than a hard drive.

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