Hi Moose,
Our choices are similar, though our approaches are different. I have a
1TB Seagate drive that came installed in my computer as the C drive, and
a 750GB Western Digital external SATA drive that serves only two
purposes, backups and to store photo files. It is only running when I'm
making backups or editing photos. The rest of the time, it is
unpowered. The Seagate is only two years old, so should be ok for now.
Although the WD drive has a 2010 date, and could be said to be at the
end of its useful life, that is not my main concern. The 750GB, which
was fairly large 5 years ago, when photo files were smaller, no longer
provides enough space to meet my needs. Hence, I want to reduce the
hassle by installing a larger drive. I have concluded that a new 3TB
Western Digital Black drive would be my choice.
I do have my previous years of photo images backed up on several bare
hard drives, providing one more layer of redundancy.
My eldest son, who is a retired Computer Systems Analyst, will be here
next week, and I will make my final decision after talking with him.
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
On 3/3/2016 8:50 PM, Moose wrote:
On 3/3/2016 9:53 AM, Jim Nichols wrote:
Hi Ken,
The drive that needs replacing is a WD Caviar Black from June 2010,
and it is still working fine, but is too small to handle my weekly
backup and current photo images. My 16MP Fuji RAF files appear as
25MB, and full-size TIFF files appear as 95MB, so I'm adding about
14GB per week. And this is with an old sensor! The newer cameras,
with modern sensors, devour the space even faster.
My review of Newegg comments on WD Black 1-4TB was not encouraging.
Some comments were about overheating, and many, many were about
noise. Others were DOA. I'm still scratching my head.
Assume that all brands and models have the same failure
characteristics. Take an infinitesimal sample, such as we represent.
The anecdotal reports of individual failures from us are statistically
meaningless and of no use whatsoever in predicting our future failure
experiences.
User reviews are always biased toward the negative. Those who have a
bad experience will always review in greater proportion than those who
have no problem. Whatever past reviews are about, it's most likely not
what is currently being sold. There are constant changes in production.
The only sensible solution is to recognize that one cannot know a best
choice. Then, the answer is simple, find a strategy that is as
insulated as possible form individual drive failure. RAID arrays of
the proper type are one solution. You can tell it's not mine because I
don't which configuration.
What I do is buy pairs of drives at the same time. One in or connected
to the computer all the time. The other is only on and connected
briefly when I make fairly frequent incremental back-ups. The expected
life of the back-up drive could be measured in centuries, with such
light use. The B-U drives live in a small fire resistant safe at the
other end of the house, unlocked.
(Just to balance the anecdotal "evidence", the only drive I've had
fail is a WD, which failed within a handful of minutes of being hooked
up.)
Wet Blanket Moose
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|