Re: [ARSCLIST] CF or microdrive?

["Richard L. Hess" <ArcLists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 07:12 PM 9/27/2005, Steven C. Barr wrote:

> It seems to me that another possibility might be to equip at least
> one computer with an exchangeable/insertable disk drive, save the
> material as digital files to a disk drive used only for that
> purpose and use that as a backup. Since the disk drive(s) wouldn't
> be constantly spinning, useful life might be extended considerably?

Hi, Steve,

When I'm in the field shooting pictures, I copy the CF cards to the 
laptop AND to a LaCie tiny 40GB USB drive that is powered off the USB port.

I would do the same with audio. The LaCie drive lives in my camera 
bag (which comes with me often). The computer stays buried in the 
luggage in the car, but comes into the motel every night. It's as 
much diversity as I can muster -- better than the film days, for sure.

I think USB or FW drives are the way to go for this stuff.

I don't think putting CF cards on the shelf makes any sense, and I 
think putting MDs on the shelf makes little more sense, how will we 
play them in 50 years? It's such a niche format.

In my opinion, there are only two things better than a USB or FW drive:
  (1) A drive that has BOTH USB and FW ports
  (2) A drive that has an Ethernet port, although that is a bit more 
difficult to use in the field
       but easier to use back at the ranch. It's also, at least now, 
more expensive.

While exchangeable drives are useful, I think the universality of the 
USB/FW drives makes them a better choice for this application. In 
fact, my two 1TB stores are made up of four 250GB drives. Two are in 
each main LaCie Ethernet Disk and two are FW attached to each 
Ethernet Disk. I can add a fair number of additional drives. As you 
may have read, one of the 1TB stores is now in my neighbour's 
basement at the end of a 100 BASE FX fibre link. He has an IOMEGA 
250GB Ethernet drive in my basement.

Cheers,

Richard


Richard L. Hess                           email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vignettes 
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