well in hopes I can get back to art sometime, decided to make things easier on myself for archiving, which is a HUGE pain but vital when storing stuff from C3D, Rendo and DAZ3D, plus gifts from folk for helping 'em, tutorials, etc.
Losing such is catastrophy, or even just a huge pain when you can re-download, hence archives are essential.

My Vue library's around 20 gig, iirc, plus all archives needed for Mike3, Mie 4, V3, V4 etc...jeesh. So just bought a bunch of USB sticks since they have come down in price/upped storage on 'em.

Does leave you with one odd problem though: what the hell to store the little things in, safely? :P ("Cruzer Blade" usbs's are tiny!)

I have a 1TB external that I archiv on now. Just wack whatever I download onto that and Bob's your father's brother... ;-)

I have my WHOLE DOCUMENTS folder including all the Vue content copied onto a 1TB HD along with all my downloads, saved work etc.

I also run a programme called Allway Sync which updates everything for me :)

Yeah, an external HD is your best friend. Glad to hear from you, btw!

Indeed, I use an external drive and Genie backup with set jobs to run on certain days, not just my Vue stuff, but pictures, documents, music etc. That way if the computer goes wrong or the house is on fire, only need to grab the external drive and run run run lol.

Rather that than searching around for a usb key lol :)

Jon

I don't trust hard drives after several nasty incidents! :P

hence I like nice, hard back up ;)

Bruno,
yeah sorry mate, health sucks plus mum/dad are...well...ttheir health is worse than mine.

edit removed Dumb Question #14567!

as usual found answer 10 seconds after posting

Here you go mate, a 32GB USB key. And only £16.42!!

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/32gb-verbatim-49064-pinstripe-usb-drive-black-capless-push-pull-feature-and-windows-readyboost-ready

All the best

Jon

Good to hear from Steven. I've had a couple of nasty experiences with external hard drives, but found the best I've ever had. It's a one TB Rikiki USB 3 External drive by Lacie and its powered by the PC it's connected to, so a bit like a USB stick. I put all my PC backups on it and it's fast. I can backup 40 GB in less than 20 minutes. ;-)

Steve -

I have been wondering where you have been. Sorry about your health. I'm glad you're back.

Every few months I copy all my data to an external 2TB drive. In between, I copy my data to another one in a semi-organized fashion and make backups of all my programs using ghost. I, too, have had hard drives go out, so I ghost alternately to two different externals.

waves at Paula :)

Had hard drives fail way to often, also if connected to your PC, and running, they wear out...or if you get a virus...

so external HDs should only be connected/powered when doing back ups ;)

My archives are at around 600 gigs these days. It's a combo of models, textures, photo's and what not. The largest being photo's as I use professional gear and the RAW files are huge for each photo. It's not unusual to fill up a half dozen 8gig CF cards in a day. I'm blathering.

The sollution I settled on is a Thermaltake product called BLACX. It connects via eSata (USB is a fossil) and allows me to use SATA drives like a USB flash drive. It holds two hardrives and the computer sees them like an internal drive. You just slip a hard drive into a slot (holds two, but they make one that holds one). My files are saved on both drives in case one fails.

You can buy anti-static cases for hard drives I think are mainly used by network folk, but you have to search and order them over the Internet. Now I keep two harddrives containing the same files until they are full and then throw two more in. I leave then half empty though for performance sake. 1Tb drives are dirt cheap now.

I use USB 32 gig flash drives to transport files between work and home and then place the files on the SATA drives. Because the connection is eSATA it's fast and easy.

I've noticed some external drives have eSATA now. I have some externals but always bought them with firewire connection and now I only use eSATA. Got rid of those nasty slow USB things.

It does not cost me that much compared to what loosing the files would cost me in time, expense and plain old work. One trip to photograph the Redwoods in Northern California cost me over $5,000. I loose that the only option is to spend the money again if needed. If I loose a model I have 100 hours invested in, how do I put a price on that?

Another idea that you may not realize exists. I think that BLACX that holds two SATA drives cost me around fifty dollars at Best Buy. 1 Tb SATA's I manage to find on sale for around a hundred bucks. Two of those (total $250) and I never have to worry about loosing what amounts to many thousands of dollars of stuff and tens of thousands of dollars worth of manhours. Cheap insurance by any estimation.