I hate moving! But I must. What to do with 10+ terabytes of video, motion graphics and other storage? I am concerned the current aged equipment (windows based) could be damaged in the move. I would like to back it up. I have multiple drives, mostly 2 and 3 terabyte systems.

I had one drive fail me after less than 5 hours of use.

My current plan is to put almost all of the drives in dry storage, unheated, and our weather is blistering in the winter. I would like to have a backup of about everything on a newer drive to take with me.

Who is making reliable storage drives these days at an affordable price? I am not necessarily looking at a single drive source, but would consider it.

If I put it or some of it in in the cloud, who has the best deals?

Thoughts?

Have to be moved in about 15 days...

I use a Stardom RAID5 4 x HDD bay unit. With it filled with 2TB drives (the sweet spot when I purchased) the resulting 8TB of storage formats / RAIDS down to 5.5TB of usable space. If you were to use 4TB drives, you might just reach your target.

I purchased mine through VideoGuys.com, but can't locate 'em on their new web site.

Andrew

Depending on your internet connection, I don't see cloud storage as being an option for the amount of data you're talking about. I send out my DVDs for duplication by uploading them to the vendor, and it takes something like 12-15 hours to upload a 4.7GB DVD using fast AT&T internet. No matter how fast your download speed, upload is usually very throttled in comparison.

If you decide on a "single-drive" solution, I'd recommend something that can handle RAID-5 so your data is protected. Looking at a 4-drive RAID, the capacity of one drive is used for redundancy, so a 12TB RAID will offer about 9TB storage, or 16TB would provide 12TB storage. G-Tech G-Speed Q would be one solution, or you can find an appropriate housing and populate with your own drives.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

it takes something like 12-15 hours to upload a 4.7GB DVD using fast AT&T internet. No matter how fast your download speed, upload is usually very throttled in comparison.

YIKES! I get 10mbps upload on a $30/month plan... mind you, I'm a mile away from the 2010 Olympic Village so we get to take advantage of the infrastructure that was built up to support that but I can't IMAGINE running a video business in this day and age without at LEAST 5 mbps up.

What is the shelf life of data on the shelf? I like the raid idea. Not the price, but the idea.

Very good question, and I believe there is no definitive answer. But it's different to how it was in the old days as the stuffing of data in to less physical space on the drive platter means that the degrading of the recorded signal becomes apparent sooner than it used to. (not a good thing)

I'd recommend refreshing your data on an archive drive once per year. And Spinrite (see https://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm) is a great application to have for your drive maintenance.

Andrew