Redundant Storage options for Photographers

Every so often I get asked about what I use for RAID. I use the RAID tool built right into Windows 10 called Windows Storage Spaces with disks physically installed right in my desktop tower.

Here’s a little chart to help you see what’s possible depending on what you have for a computer.

Data loss due to hardware failure is a preventable catastrophe.

Most people solve this problem by filling up external storage drives in an ad-hoc fashion.

• Direct attaching one’s external storage, USB, Thunderbolt, eSATA, External SAS, etc., is never an ideal solution, as it is dependent on the user to have it always plugged in when it is needed.
• An external Network Attached Storage, or NAS, solves this problem by making the storage available as a Network Drive, regardless of whether it is a single disk, or an array of disks.External Network Attachment requires a more robust home network infrastructure, and a dedicated machine to run the disks and make them available on the network.

Windows Storage Spaces

Here’s the decision making process that led me to using windows storage spaces.

• I had room for four extra disks in my tower
• I have windows 10
• the Windows storage spaces tool allows a two way mirroring disk array. If one disk were to fail, I can then plug in a new disk and it’ll just rebuild all the data.

You might also like the next computer specifically for photo and video editing build I’m planning. I haven’t built it yet. lol! I’m thinking of doing it in a series from start to finish so you can follow along and hear “the Why” for each component as I go along.