RAID hard drive for photo library backup?

[joejoejoe]

My mom's backup hd for her iPhoto library failed, I'm under the impression that a RAID hd should be the best way to go to prevent this from happening in the future.

I need a RAID that has 2 hd's that simply mirror each other. I think 2 x 2TB drives should be more than plenty for her.

I searched but all the results seemed to cater to much more professional inquiries. I'm just looking for something simple, easy, reliable, and not exhorbitant in pricing.

Any suggestions?

Better alternative?

Am I in the wrong sub forum?

Thanks everyone.

 

[flynz4]

RAID 1 does not offer that much extra protection than a single drive. While it does protect you (at least temporarily) from a HDD failure... RAID also introduces new failure mechanisms that are not present with single drives.

A MUCH more robust system would be to use a redundant backup system... using totally different software and destination HW.

My personal choice is the combination of Time Machine for local backup, and Crashplan+ for cloud based backup. I personally additionally use Carbon Copy Cloner for a separate and independent clone copy of my media files (including my Aperture photo library).

/Jim

 

[FreakinEurekan]

RAID offers benefits for an online data drive, e.g. you don't have to stop work right away in the event of a disk failure. For a backup drive it's not necessary, since Time Machine allows you to specify multiple destination disks without having to RAID them. I would suggest just using two separate backup disks and add them both to Time Machine.

 

[joejoejoe]

RAID offers benefits for an online data drive, e.g. you don't have to stop work right away in the event of a disk failure. For a backup drive it's not necessary, since Time Machine allows you to specify multiple destination disks without having to RAID them. I would suggest just using two separate backup disks and add them both to Time Machine.

Would this work even if I'm trying to get her whole iPhoto library off her internal hd? I know time machine just backs up everything on your computer, I want to have her iPhoto library booted externally to free up space on her hdd. I need this to be double backed up so if the drive fails she doesn't lose everything. Could time machine do this?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Would this work even if I'm trying to get her whole iPhoto library off her internal hd? I know time machine just backs up everything on your computer, I want to have her iPhoto library booted externally to free up space on her hdd. I need this to be double backed up so if the drive fails she doesn't lose everything. Could time machine do this?

Yes. You'd have three drives - the internal drive, the external drive with the iPhoto library, and the external drive used for Time Machine backups. Time Machine will backup both the internal & the first external to the 2nd external, so you'll want your Time Machine external drive to be the largest one (bigger than both others combined, to account for backing up all the data plus versioning).

Edit: That scenario I describe above puts all your data in two places - Everything is either on the internal drive or the iPhoto drive for its primary copy, and everything from both of those drives is also on the Time Machine (2nd external drive). If you want everything in three places (i.e. in two backups in addition to the main data) then just add another Time Machine drive as a redundant backup.

 

[joejoejoe]

Yes. You'd have three drives - the internal drive, the external drive with the iPhoto library, and the external drive used for Time Machine backups. Time Machine will backup both the internal & the first external to the 2nd external, so you'll want your Time Machine external drive to be the largest one (bigger than both others combined, to account for backing up all the data plus versioning).

Edit: That scenario I describe above puts all your data in two places - Everything is either on the internal drive or the iPhoto drive for its primary copy, and everything from both of those drives is also on the Time Machine (2nd external drive). If you want everything in three places (i.e. in two backups in addition to the main data) then just add another Time Machine drive as a redundant backup.

You are the man. This is perfect. Thank you!

 

[flynz4]

Yes. You'd have three drives - the internal drive, the external drive with the iPhoto library, and the external drive used for Time Machine backups. Time Machine will backup both the internal & the first external to the 2nd external, so you'll want your Time Machine external drive to be the largest one (bigger than both others combined, to account for backing up all the data plus versioning).

Edit: That scenario I describe above puts all your data in two places - Everything is either on the internal drive or the iPhoto drive for its primary copy, and everything from both of those drives is also on the Time Machine (2nd external drive). If you want everything in three places (i.e. in two backups in addition to the main data) then just add another Time Machine drive as a redundant backup.

This is a good reply. The only thing I would add is to make sure that your iPhoto external drive is enabled for backups.

By default, when you attach a new drive to your computer, it is excluded for backup. Go into System Preferences > Time Machine > Options and make sure it is not on the excluded list. If it is, then select the drive and click the "-" below the list.

/Jim