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Re: [OM] Amazon cloud drive

Subject: Re: [OM] Amazon cloud drive
From: Jim Nichols <jhnichols@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2016 21:24:44 -0600
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


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