Storage for your clipart files

[slappy]

Just wondering where you all keep your clipart collections? Do you keep them on your computer? Leave them on the disc? I got a new internal hard drive and not wanting to fill it up like i did the other.

 

[Cyw]

I have over 25 years of accumulated clipart and custom files and I wouldn't want to lose any of it

I keep the original disks as well a copy of all the files on a portable USB external drive
In addition, I have a backup of the external drive that is stored offsite

Diane

 

[slappy]

what size of portable USB do you have?

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

I use a couple of external drives for all my clip art to, I use the 2TB portable drives

 

[slappy]

I bought a 1TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex.... hoping it holds everything i want it to. I have another one that is 320GB, but this 1TB, i think i just want everything sign related on it and clear the other and just keep "home" stuff on it like my photos

 

[petesign]

Just bought a Buffalo LinkStation NAS, its building the Raid 1 array now. I filed up my 1tb hard drive, and didnt want to just slap another in. Now ill have a 3tb archive accessible from any of my computers -- not a bad deal for about $375.

I need to consider off site data backup next - the peace of mind having a mirrored raid server is nice, but a lightning strike will still fry everything.

 

[slappy]

okay, customer files
do you store any sign related files on your computers??? Like maybe a job that is in production is kept, but once done, do you store it on both your computer and external drive or just kept it on the external drive once finished with it?

 

[Suz]

Just wondering where you all keep your clipart collections? Do you keep them on your computer? Leave them on the disc? I got a new internal hard drive and not wanting to fill it up like i did the other.

Mine are on the original disks, but I don't have many of them. Most of my Customers want Art from scratch. I do store all my Art files on a portable hard-drive. That way, I can move it from home studio to shop and on any computer at either location.

 

[Gino]

On the server. We have a huge one dedicated just for job files and the artwork which goes along for it. It's also backed up about monthly onto 3 different portable hard drives.
The clipart is all on dvd's, cd's and all non-important graphics, which are almost all cataloged.

We have another computer for all customer files [accounting and important information]which is on another computer completely and not even networked to our production computers at all. This one is backed up daily and the backups are kept separate.

 

[CanuckSigns]

We have a computer set up just as a server, it holds all customer files, clipart, fonts etc. it is backed up instantly to Carbonite, as well as being backed up once a week to an external HDD that we keep off site.

 

[SightLine]

Recently added a Xyratex 36 drive SAN giving us 14TB of storage. After raid overhead it's about 7TB but the speed rivals single SSD's. Got it for dirt cheap (really ridiculously cheap - like under $300) and it was brand new unused gov't surplus. Currently has all 400GB 15k rpm SAS drives but it also supports SATA drives up to 2TB each giving it the raw potential for 72TB of storage. Also has a whopping 12 8GB fiber channel connections (4 per shelf.

 

[synergy_jim]

all files on hourly backup system. Also back up monthly to external that goes home with me.

 

[synergy_jim]

Recently added a Xyratex 36 drive SAN giving us 14TB of storage. After raid overhead it's about 7TB but the speed rivals single SSD's. Got it for dirt cheap (really ridiculously cheap - like under $300) and it was brand new unused gov't surplus. Currently has all 400GB 15k rpm SAS drives but it also supports SATA drives up to 2TB each giving it the raw potential for 72TB of storage. Also has a whopping 12 8GB fiber channel connections (4 per shelf.

I'll take 2!!!!!

 

[kffernandez]

this definitely is a great piece of hardware. but having all 36 slots populated running at 15k rpm sounds awfully like a power/cooling hog.

kelly

 

[SightLine]

I should point that out. Each of the 3 shelfs has dual power supplies as well. As a whole the thing is fairly loud and puts out quite a bit of heat. We actually just moved and I have the server rack only partially setup still. One of the things I still need to do is put and exhaust blower in for the closet it is in. With the SAN, 2 cable modems, an 8 port phone modem, 48 port switch, router, firewall, 3 servers (also loud and hot), KVM, monitor, and 2 6000va UPS's the ambient temp in there is hovering around 80 with the closet doors on both sides open. I cannot close them right now or it will all overheat.

Another of my soon to do tasks is to configure a lot of power management abilities on the servers and the SAN. They can spin arrays of drives down after a period of inactivity and 2 of the servers can essentially go into sleep mode overnight. The "closet" is actually decent size with about 18" of room on each side of the rack. This is a shot of it as of now if you are curious. installed so far, the 2 UPS's on the bottom, temporary have a workstation sitting on the UPS's for testing as well as one of the servers (running), then 2 of the SAN shelves (both running, the other is sitting in the background on the floor on it's edge) then the rack monitor/keyboard (KVM on the back of that), up top is the switch, firewall, and patch panel. The other 2 servers are on the floor sorta behind the rack running. Hoping to make time this weekend to rack everything up and cleanup the mess.

 

[Techman]

some of my cd's are so old they are losing their power. So I trans'd them to a hard drive. Sheesh,,they old