CONCLUSION
Can two, or more, external drives be placed in a RAID array so you save the same information to both drives simultaneously and thereby cut the time in 1/2, or less, to have identical disks, aka, backups?
ALTERNATIVE
Or, to make it simple can the "Save" command be upgraded on the toolbar to add a 'save cc:' choice - File / Save cc: / specify drive (s) / ask each time / don't ask WD
]
REVIEW
Durability: stepped on MacBook Pro power cord. Highly magnetized plug didn't come out. WD harddrive was pushed off table edge to carpeted hotel floor.
Likely drive was in the idle mode at the time.
Firewire 800 plug came out. Reconnected. drive worked.
When compared to the other WD drive on the other MacBook Pro, ear to case hears a slightly lower overtone to the drive as it now uploads folders to Google drive, but test file opened OK, and upload is proceeding.
#46 of 64: William Hale (hinging0) Thu 27 Sep 2012 (06:03 AM)
Errors in effort to upload massive folders from my passport WD to google drive, but that could be bandwidth issues - or the drive after being dropped.
Need settings in the external devices that let you mark files then and there for upload all the way through to cloud destinations, or to stop and reside on your own internal, or local external drives; xref: morse code; xref: President of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi.
COMPARE
Compare this to Lacie ruggedized hard drive with orange bumpers which fell out of the box while opening the clever packaging - and failed to work after a 3.5 foot drop to a carpeted floor, but which was replaced with only the question, "Did you drop it?" from Lacie; xref: quality control, I guess.
RAID
Can you place two external drives in a RAID array so both simultaneously fill up as identical copies of your internal drive?
I once put two external Lacie drives in a RAID array, but that didn't last for long why I can't recall and I ended not copying the same data to both drives.
Using the copy command to get identical copies of folders from the internal drive to the two (or more) external drives takes hours even at FW 800 speeds. A simultaneous 'save' command which saved to more than one location might speed things up, but that would be like a selective RAID array. Is that right?
COST
At $99 / month per 2 TB on Google drive the limiting factor is the wi-fi upload speed, or iPhone unlimited 4G speed with Sprint, or whom:
$1,200 / year to have 2 TB external hard drive via on line.
COMPARE
Compare this to $212.49 per 2 TB WD drive or $460.49 to have redundancy of two 2 TB drives you have to carry and protect and can access at FW 800 speeds vs. wi-fi or 4G speeds.
PACE
But I just found my work flow did not permit me to get all the data from my 2, 500 GB Mac Book Pro's and my daily 5 - 10 GB of video data on to both drives identically before stepping on the power cord the plug of which is so highly magnetized now id didn't come out and thus slid the Mac Book pro and pushed the WD hard drive off the edge of the table for a 3 foot drop.
DAISY
Power from the MacBook Pro through the FW 800 cable and bandwidth of the cable while multiple drives are working appear to be the limits on daisy chaining external HD's to have external drive libraries.
THEORY
Theoretically 64 X 2 would mean a 128 TB external library [ignition] would be possible, but searching it would require all 64 drives to spin. If you want to access the drives individually, it doesn't appear the drive has to be up and running for the daisy chain to pass through it.
NO FANS
Quiet. One less highly used part to fail.
ON
Does the drive need to be on for the pass through to work? ...
CHRONOLOGIC
So would a chronologic system let you look back one drive at a time and search it?
SPOT
Spot light searches both internal and external drives which are on.
COST
16 TB of external storage, or 16 WD 2 TB drives (redundancy) would cost $800 / month via Google drive = $9,600 / yr...
COMPARE
compared to $460 for two WD drives X 8 = $5,280 for eight, two TB, WD drives AND a cc: copy of another eight drives, and that might be expected to last 18 or 24 months? 48 months? under heavy use...
REDUNDANT
...(plus shipping and storage costs of the redundant drives and confirmation they arrived with the data intact - so theoretically three identical drives are needed until safe arrival is confirmed, THEN you can erase the second one you have on site, if you can wait however long it would take to copy the back up and send you the copy in the event it is lost, stolen, damaged...
CLOSE
Lacie recommends keeping the external drive as close to the mother board as possible. But if they are data files, documents, desktops, videos, text edit, Open Office, or passive, data files, and not applications, why shouldn't they be able to sit out there?
INTENTION
The main thing I want is for spotlight to find stuff to xref: or insert into what I'm doing so I can give verbatim proof.
PROFIT
What would be easiest for me is a Remote Desktop Client like Google Drive with sharing choices and ticket sales so people could "Come on in," and enjoy the show of me working live on my hard drive, with permission to edit copies in real time for me and / or who else to see... and glass bead game winners would get access to one, or more, cursors to work in real time with whom.
COLLABORATION
So this next line might be typed by whom else, while I pause to think.
TICKETS
Ticket sales might cover the cost of archiving the show on a google drive, ...
APARTHEID
...but you should be able to record to your own WD external drive so you can access the archive whether or not you are on line, and thereby have a level playing field and overcome unnecessary barriers to entry to search, aka, information apartheid.
| Hard Drive | 2048 GB portable |
|---|---|
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
