external hard drive set up for imac

roc1

roc1

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hi

will shortly be getting a new imac to replace my ageing dell, and would like some advice on recommended ext hard drive set ups? I know there are various options (time capsule etc which i don't as yet know a lot about), having wired/wireless drives but wanted to see what works for people?

The imac comes with 1tb on board, but would like to keep these free of the large picture files (5d mk2 raw) ideally. So i guess i'd be wanting a 2tb ish wired external drive to put the shots straight onto, with a seperate wireless drive in another discreet location in the house to back up to? But as i said i'm not sure exactly what to do so advice would be great!

Thanks!
 
have a look at the airport extreme wireless router it has a usb port in the back that can power a portable hdd. i have this set up with a usb cable running to a 1tb hdd that sits under the stairs in a very secure safe. perfect!
 
Please dont call it a backup if its in the same house because it aint, a copy of data isnt a backup until its off site, and by that I would say at least 10 miles away.
 
Begs the question fireproof to what temperature and for how long and just where might the jet engine and fuel land, also digging around in the rubble trying to find it could be a no no for days depending on emergency services investigations etc.

A backup copy off-site could see you operational within hours assuming you arent next to the safe, maybe its overkill for a small business but I dont think so its hard enough to have that sort of disaster but then to try and remember the state of your acounts etc etc

naw bite the bullet and backup offsite even if you only ftp copies to a bit of cheap web space.
 
jd.smith said:
Begs the question fireproof to what temperature and for how long and just where might the jet engine and fuel land, also digging around in the rubble trying to find it could be a no no for days depending on emergency services investigations etc.

A backup copy off-site could see you operational within hours assuming you arent next to the safe, maybe its overkill for a small business but I dont think so its hard enough to have that sort of disaster but then to try and remember the state of your acounts etc etc

naw bite the bullet and backup offsite even if you only ftp copies to a bit of cheap web space.
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I like your optimism...........
 
jd.smith said:
Please dont call it a backup if its in the same house because it aint, a copy of data isnt a backup until its off site, and by that I would say at least 10 miles away.
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Why?

What likely scenario is going to wipe the data on two drives that are let's say between 1 and 10 miles away from each other?
 
Maybe its to many years working in IT Management and Business Continuity planning that makes me very cautious but a disaster like Lockerby saw damage spread over an even bigger area than that and it was restricted access for for days. A gas explosion will normally keep you out of your property for at least 2-3 days if your business can cope and your happy the safe will protect it maybe you can leave it in the house but its not where my backup will be when I need it same with the company backup taken off site every day.

Oh well my cup is half empty better bring a spare out :)
 
If you are using a5Dll then I'd opt for two wired drives , rather than a wired and wireless backup. The reason is the size of the files. They can take a while to backup and hog your wireless bandwidth.

I run Firewire 800 drives for main image storage, and a USB drive for local backup. That runs in the background and doesn't cause too much of an overhead problem. I also have a drive that lives off site.

Also being really paranoid I also back up to DVD. OK I know DVD's aren't really archival, but it's just another back up string to my bow.
 
I used to work for a company based in Central London. They had an IT/Data centre in the Docklands which the IRA blew up, guess where all the back up systems were? Luckily the data was backed up off site.....
 
dougietee said:
Why?

What likely scenario is going to wipe the data on two drives that are let's say between 1 and 10 miles away from each other?
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I was lived very close to- and worked in the building next door to Buncefield, let's just say there wasn't much left....
 
Back to the original question I have a Western Digital external drive which has worked perfectly with my iMac via Time Machine to back up my hard drive. Admittedly this is situated very close to my iMax so provides a back up in the event of a technology failure but not in the case of fire, theft etc

I'd be interested to know what people recommend for offside back up if it's not too expensive.

If you check out the user reviews on the Mac store you will get a good idea on which are the best hard drives for Macs.
 
Ok working as an it network manager here's what i have.

My iMac is connected wirelessly to an apple airport extreme. Connected to that I have a powered USB hub.
Connected to that is a printer and 2 x 1tb western digital my book hard drives.

All my photos and data is stored on the iMacs internal drive. I use time machine to backup the whole machine hourly to one of the my book drives. The other drive gets a copy of my photos and documents every night. I use chronosync to schedule this.

I then have a 1tb portable drive that I make a complete bootable clone of my machine every 2 weeks. This is kept either where i work or at my parents, both of which are around 20 miles from my house.

I also have a 50gb Dropbox account where I store my most important documents and a few precious images (mainly the kids being born) but there's probably only 300 images out of about 10,000 in the cloud


Works pretty well for me though
 
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neil_g said:
as mentioned above wireless can be very sucky (technical term) for transferring large amounts of data.

a couple of USB drives rotating one off site should do it.
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But just set the imac to backup and sync overnight.
 
Ok given you've said nothing about business requirements and the need to be working 24-7 with zero downtime, i'm going to make the brave assumption that if there's a Buncefield-type accident near to you then you'll have more important things to worry about than using your computer for a few days until you can go home to pick up your drives!.

Important thing to remember is that backups are protecting against a number of potential accidents and failures, each of which has a level of risk associated with it.

Ususally, the most common failures are either the hard drive itself failing, or accidental deletion of data. To protect against this, i have a fast (firewire 800) drive connected and always on when my iMac is on, and running TimeMachine backups every hour. Time machine keeps a history of data, so has everything backed up very regularly in case of drive failure, and has a long history in case you delete something you didn't mean to.

My second line of backup is a bigger but slower USB2 drive, which you could easily use wirelessly. I use a separate bit of software (can't remember the name, but it's free and made by Lacie and available from their website) for that drive which does incremental backups of both my main drive and my TimeMachine backup. Mine is usually at home, though not directly next to my iMac. When i'm away from home for a while i will sometimes take it to work and leave the backup there. Doesn't always protrct me against fire / theft, but i consider the biggest risk of that to be when i'm away for a while. Usually, if the drives are at opposite sides of the house (such as your example with a wireless drive) then the chances of a fire or flood destroying both is extremely small, and a risk i'm willing to take. A few of my best photos and other documents are backed up online.

So, in summary, fast always-connected drive for Time Machine, and a slower, drive for a second backup which could be wireless if you like.

David
 
thanks David

so if i got an airport extreme connected via firewire800 to the mac, with a 2tb drive connected to the airport extreme (via firewire800 too) for main storage of photos. And then a seperate wireless drive somewhere else in the house to backup this, then would that be something that would work well?

had a look at the 2tb time capsule but it does seem pricey and has received some dubious reviews, but also would be equally interested to hear about this option as opposed to the alternative setup i mentioned above.

thanks!
 
Obviously depends on your how you can physically set things up. Personally I'd connect the main 2TB drive to your iMac directly via FireWire800 and then have your Airport connected via Ethernet cable as you would normally. My preference for the back up drive would be to have that sitting on the network connected via cable rather than WiFi as that'll be more reliable. Personally if I can avoid it I would avoid WiFi unless absolutely necessary for something you want to be 100pct reliable...it's just something to go wrong.
 
I recently purchased an iomega 2 tb external with FireWire 800 to use as main storage, it looks like a mac mini and is lightening fast with my MacBook pro. I then back up on to a USB external kept elsewhere. I paid 149 at pc world, a good price for 2tb and FireWire.

Hope this helps
 
My set up with my iMac:

Working drives - I'm using the internal drive, but get rid of unused images regularly.
OS Back up - Time capsule hidden away, takes a while for initial back up, not sure it will back up external drives though (also backed up online).
Image Archive - External drive connected by FW800 - much faster than USB on your iMac AND NAS attached to Time Capsule. I usually sync these as it is much faster to import images to FW800 drive than over the network.
 
I think the use of online storage for the most important files is a good idea.

I am currently in the process of looking into my backup system and am planning:

Main drive on computer
FW800 drive for main photo storage
Time machine backup of main drive which will be over wireless network and also have an aperture vault backup on the same drive (split)

Online backup of most important data.

I think online is becoming more usable and will increase over the future as speeds increase and price per GB comes down.
 
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