Workflow/Storage assistance needed

[ddublu]

Workflow assistance needed: Here is my scenario. I have a 2014 Macbook Pro with 3 external Dell 24" monitors connected to it (2 via display port and 1 via HDMI). I come in from a shoot and take my SD card, dump it to a new folder on my MBP. Edit, and then move to a primary external drive (passport 2TB). CCC then copies any new changes to another 2TB passport AND a 4TB G-Drive. All new data is also uploaded to Crashplan and Time Machine is also running. I lost 177gb of data last night due to a corrupt drive. Thanks to Data Rescue, I was able to recover it. What's funny is that the only reason I had to recover anything was because I hadn't moved data from my laptop to my external drive in about a week. My backup process was there, I just got lazy.

So....I was about to updgrade to some larger drives anyway and since I just saved $1000+ since I didn't have to send my drive off for recovery, I want to up my game. I like the portability of my MBP BUT part of the reason I didn't back it up over the past week was that it wasn't at my workstation...it was with me. I am considering adding another iMac 5k to my house but this one to be used as my primary editing machine...still keeping my laptop but really only for portability. Since I have three monitors and they take up my two display ports (assume at least one of those is the Thunderbolt port) and HDMI port, I would have to unplug a couple monitors each time I wanted to connect my new drives to them (going Thunderbolt vs. USB 3.0). I could remove the center one and use the iMac screen there but would that solve my Thunderbolt issues? Looking for some feedback on my scenario here. Sorry for the length but wanted all information out there. Thanks in advance.

 

[Ray2]

A few thoughts. I used iMac's or towers + laptops for decades. A few years ago I ditched my iMac and bought a fully spec'd rMBP. I have never been so pleased with a decision. 1tb internal and more than enough CPU and memory for photography. Less maintenance, no syncing, it's all there no matter where I am.

At our primary residence, a Dell monitor, 2 OWC Thunderbolt dualies (2 for power supply redundancy). Disks whatever you want, I'm using a 1tb ssd plus 13tb of spinners. Second home, 2 Oyen USB 3/FireWire 800 dualies filled with 2tb Spinpoints. One the road (we travel a lot), 2 OWC bus driven enclosures each with a 2tb Spinpoint. All drives are mirror images of their respective partner at another location other than video.

Backup is SuperDuper! On a schedule. Anytime I do a lot of work, I run a backup. Cloud backup is limited to must have files. Every now and then I backup "somewhat needed" (everything other than images, music and video) files, toss the drive and a power supply in a ziplock bag and put it offsite (our boat or a safe deposit box during hurricane season).

I'm not too concerned about 100% redundant backups for several reasons: 1), I tend to replace drives within a 3 to 4 year time frame. 2), I've seen a lot of power supplies die. But in over 30 years of pounding hard drives, other than 2 Seagates that were bad out of the box, I have yet to see a drive go down. 3), Like you, I've used data recovery tools on other people's drives and always recovered everything other than one fairly full drive where I got only 98% of the files intact. 4), I'll have a lot more to worry about if sh*t happens and a home gets blown away. Losing 10+ tb of video, music and images files is hardly a calamity. However, it sounds like you're a working photographer and need a less casual approach than mine. And you have the cloud, just use it.

From the sound of your post I'd suggest you start traveling with a portable drive and backup to it. My rMBP goes nowhere without a backup drive, that's used. At home, consider RAID plus a scheduled clone if your not attentive to backing up. If you split data between your laptop and externals, consider the Oyen mini pro dualies when you're not at home. My next move will be to toss a 1tb ssd in one along with a 3tb Toshiba for backups of the rMBP, the external ssd and my wife's MBA. That, along with a spare power supply, will be my mobile solution instead of the 2 bus driven portables I'm now using.

Just one approach. There are lots of other ways to deal with storage. I like simple, no maintenance and the speed that comes with direct connected storage.

 

[bgd]

One idea that works for me when traveling, is using DropBox. I store all photos in the DB folder and it syncs whenever the MBP has internet access. At home I run a mini as a server with DB. With no manual intervention I have at least 3 copies of photos, MBP, server and cloud. I clean up the folders when I'm home. Gets around the 'laziness factor' with backups.