Okay, so I know many readers may disagree with me on this and have a different opinion. My post here is not intended to cause any offense, but more to give an opinion and start a discussion on the matter. My proof here is based on the fact that I have worked in the IT industry for over 30 years and worked in the photography industry with creative people. Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll understand how this can help with your next (or first) computer memory purchase.
Cheapest way
The cheapest and most convenient (but least reliable) way to store your images is on the internal drive of the computer you’re editing. There is no need to purchase any additional equipment and you might think this is a good place to start. When importing from a camera or memory card, an editing program like Adobe’s Lightroom copies it to a location on your hard drive. This is a terribly bad way to store your images, so now I’ll show why.
Your internal drive contains the files needed to run your operating system and the programs you use on this hard drive. The internal hard drive will slow down as it holds more data, and as a result, your computer will be slower to access the necessary files. Think of files like books in a library. Isn’t it easier to find the book you want in a small library than in a library with millions of books? Ideally, you shouldn’t fill your computer with more than half the data.
- Access to files. Unless you’re using a remote access program like Teamviewer or Google remote desktop, or a cloud-based storage system like Dropbox or Google Drive, you won’t be able to access your computer’s content when you’re not at the office. room, home, or workplace. Accessing these files can sometimes be problematic, and usually you have to be logged into your computer to access the files on your desktop.
- Computer system error. If you have a problem with your computer system. Unless it’s a serious hard drive failure. Getting files back can be a difficult thing but in general, it can be done. It may mean taking the hard drive out of the computer and inserting it into a caddy or another computer, or repairing the computer first.
- Store files. Storing files on an internal drive doesn’t really give you the option to archive files and store them for future reference in an alternate location.
The most expensive way (long term)
External hard drives are cheap and convenient. Products like WD 2TB Elements USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive Cheap and portable. Even by purchasing sturdy drives like LaCie 2TB Rugged Mini USB 3.0 External Hard Drive you are not completely protected.
- Small drives are easy to get lost or stolen if that’s what you carry with you. Unstable ones are likely to break when dropped.
- Data can only be accessed when they are connected to a computer or plugged into a device capable of sharing content. For example, some routers have the ability to plug in a USB drive and allow this USB drive to be accessed throughout the network.
- Single drives can fill up pretty quickly, and even if you’re buying larger drives. File sizes on images increase over the years, and the longer you plug the drive in and operate, the more likely it is to fail. If you’re going this route, look at the smaller drives that you buy back every year or when they fill up.
- There is no redundancy. When a drive fails, you are looking at a huge bill to recover data or worse, lost data.
My suggested solution
A network-attached storage array such as Synology DiskStation DS1821+ 8-Bay NAS Case definitely the way to go. This particular model is the one I personally own and has 8 bays and allows for a variety of RAID configurations. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) configuration provides the ability to spread files across multiple drives allowing redundancy should one of the drives fail. RAID comes in two types and many configurations. The types are Hardware Raid and Software Raid. Hardware RAID uses a physical controller chip and is generally a bit more reliable than software-based RAID systems. The most common RAID configurations are 1 and 5. The DS1821+ also has the advantage of including Synology’s SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID). This allows you to use drives of different sizes to create your array instead of RAID which only allows drives of the same size. SHR has 2 configurations with SHR like RAID 5 and SHR2 like RAID 6.
The system is super easy to set up thanks to the included Synology software, and it’s easy to understand making it easy to set up your first array. You can start by creating your SHR array with just 3 drives, and then add and increase the size of the array as you add more drives at a later date. This is one of the reasons to buy an 8-bay drive. Expansion is just a matter of adding additional drives, then clicking on the software and allowing it to rebuild.
Speed is also a factor with this device having 4 network ports on the back allowing you to bundle all your cables together and create a data aggregation link that transfers data 4x faster than just a cable. If you connect your computer to a switch or router via an ethernet cable, editing directly from the drive is possible.
Another reason why this is an ideal device is the ability for you to access your shares via your phone on an app created by Synology and available for download on the play and app stores. In fact, they have many apps that allow you to do many things, including view your photos remotely.
Finally, it allows connectivity via the Cloud Sync app that comes with multiple online data storage sources for cloud-based offsite backup. It’s easy to synchronize different folders with different cloud-based systems.
Hopefully this guide will give you an alternative option if you’re considering your backup and editing solution. Synology has a RAID calculator on their website that will give you an idea of what kind of arrays you can create with disks of different sizes. https://www.synology.com/en-uk/support/RAID_calculator
