Virtual Report from CES
Announced today at CES
I’m a big fan of these external drives, this may be the best of the lot. They sure do look the best!
With the goal of making data backup and protection effortless, Maxtor Corporation (NYSE: MXO) announced today a new family of Maxtor OneTouch™ III external storage and backup solutions that offer a range of features, capacities and performance for home users, creative professionals and business executives. Available on retail shelves starting this month, the line of Maxtor OneTouch III storage solutions, with capacities from 100GB to one terabyte (1,000 GB), provide easy-to-use, automated backup and restore capabilities for PC and Mac users. New software tools, including the ability to synchronize data between two or more computers and a System Rollback feature that helps return PC systems to a healthier state after a damaging spyware attack, are now integrated into the entire Maxtor OneTouch III family of products.
The Maxtor OneTouch III solution, with a triple FireWire 800/FireWire 400/USB 2.0 interface, was selected as a CES 2006 Innovations Design and Engineering Honoree in the Computer Accessories category
Manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for the Maxtor OneTouch III family ranges from $159.95 for the 100GB USB 2.0 only version to $479.95 for the 500GB triple interface solution. MSRP for the 1TB Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition is $899.95.
I have several of these, but I’ve switched to a NAS solution. Automated software that backs up all the computers, even the Mac. It’s great having the photos and music on a single server.
These critters have gotten affordable enough that you can even have redundance. I use one standalone as an image and music jukebox. I use another, larger standalone to back up the home files of my computer — and the standalone jukebox. Every file I own exists in two copies. Ditto RT on automated backups.
My entire files use only 8Gb and 4 of these are the default Windows XP install files. ^_^
Wow, a terrabyte for under a grand – to heck with MP3’s – I’ll just keep those files in WAV’s! Spring cleaning can be as simple as drag and drop now! Oh the bad storage habits I’ll develop now…
OK, so I’m all for TB storage and NAS, but I need a gigabit Ethernet connection to the box. The GbE Si is cheap now (I work for a major GbE Si vendor). When you are moving these big files around, you need all the network horsepower you can get. I picked up a 5 port Netgear GbE switch for the home for $40 after rebate a few months back! I need TB storage with a GbE connection…
Come on people… if you are using 1 TB of storage, you darn well better be using RAID 5 at least to give you some kind of minimum loss prevention capability. That is a whole lot of data to lose, specially if the individual drives are striped to provide the apparent 1TB of contiguguous storage (RAID 1 = 1 drive dies means all drives die) Unprotected it is fine as a backup solution, but not as a primary storage.
LOL…I recall the waning days of one-time hard drive maker Micropolis who used to make the same comment about 9 gigs. Refusing to jump on board the 9 gig drive (way back when) an engineer (also promoting RAID) said to me, “How can anyone trust 9 gigabytes on a single spindle??” The company folded shortly thereafter.
Yehh John, but it doesn’t adress the main issue… data protection.
How do you personally backup 800GB of data? Do you use tape? Really, I am interested to hear your answer. Or do you leave it all without backup?
As a side note, every professional photographer that I work with will not use cards over 2GB for the simple reason that it’s too much to lose for one single point of failure. We use 1 or 2 GB cards in multiple cameras, swap them out whenever time allows, and distribute our possible losses over multiple cards, so if there is a problem with one card (happens quite often in recoverable ways), the whole session isn’t lost outright. Can you even imagine a wedding photographer trusting the entire ceremony and reception to a single 8GB card?
I would never stripe multiple drives just for the convenience of one big drive, if it means losing everything if one out of 4 drives goes bad. And a 1TB drive is a striped drive.