With the low cost of hardware (still not free but getting close) and the huge amount of data a digital camera can make, the thought of a total hard drive failure (especially the one your using to back up your data to, but that is another story!) should send shivers through even the most brazen computer user.
How can you provide protection against data loss? Tape drive? Have you ever actually tried to get data off a consumer grade tape drive? You might as well inscribe your data on grains of rice an keep it in an old sock… The commercial drives cost way too much and the software is sketchy at best.
Backup to DVDs? Sure, as long as you don’t mind plodding through the 30+ disks you made when you backed up your 160GB drive. That is if none of them have developed a read error (that is yet another story for me to write.).
So what are you to do? Well, why not build a RAID…
What is a RAID you say? Well, it stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives. Once a thing only for servers that cost as much as last years Ford Focus can now be build at home for next to nothing. You just need some drives and a controller and your all set!
What’s RAID? – Tweak Hardware
Beginners Guides: Installing RAID on Desktop PCs