20:42
Since I got myself a Canon 500D at the start of this year, I’ve been taking a lot more photos and as such have been filling up the hard drive in my laptop a lot quicker.
I’ve started looking for a storage solution for all of the photos and videos I’ve taken and have so far come up with the following:
1 x PogoPlug (£80, John Lewis)
2 x Western Digital Elements 1TB Drives (£60 each, Amazon)
1 x 80GB Picasa Year Long subscription ($20 = £14, for 1 year from Google)
Total cost £214
Firstly why the pogo plug?
I’ve decided to go for a pogoplug because as I use a laptop, it’s going to be a lot easier to have something that can stay connected to my network and not rely on me plugging it in each time.
Having online access will also be useful, as there is a good possibility I may need to access some of the photos when I’m not at home.
I’d also look at utilising the pogoplug in other ways. For example, the hard drive the rest of my documents are backed up onto could be connected to create something a little more automated.
I’ve also got some other ideas of where it may be useful, but those aren’t quite as important.
Why the Western Digital 1TB Drives?
The main reason for choosing Western Digital is that’s who my other couple of external drives are manufactured by. I’ve found them reliable and reasonably priced. Fairly simple really – no complicated reasoning linked to tests or anything.
I went for 1TB as although I don’t have that much to store yet, it will keep me future proofed for a while.
The speed of the drives wasn’t much of a concern to me as once the files are written there for the first time, I probably won’t be doing a huge amount with them on a regular basis.
Why 2 drives?
The second is a backup. It will have an exact copy of the other drive.
It may be used for backing up other things, but that’s unlikely.
Why the Picasa Subscription?
It is of my opinion that unless a file exists in 3 places (main storage, local backup & remote backup), it doesn’t exist (I’m sure I’ve borrowed that phrase off someone, sorry I can’t remember who).
The second 1TB drive sorts out local backup.
Unfortunately, the photos will no longer be backed-up under my current carbonite online backup as they’ll be off my laptops hard drive, so Picasa seems to be a cheap alternative. I already use my free storage quota as a backup for my phone photos and would just continue the technique I use here, keeping the albums private in the majority of cases.
The only downside is going to be the hassle and time it takes to upload everything.
I’m not going to be going out and buying this quite yet, but I’m probably not far off. It’ll probably be the pogoplug and one drive first, then the picasa subscription, then the second drive slightly later. Until the second drive is in place, the photos will be remaining on my laptop as a backup.
I’d be interested on your feedback. Think I’ve gone a little over the top? Think there is a better way of going about something? Want to hear more about my reasoning for one of the items? Then leave a comment.