Where/How to store hard drives?

[fatejd]

I'm working on copying all my music onto hard drives and want to make
clones of each hard drive for backup purposes and store them somewhere.
Where/how is a good place/method to store them? Should I keep them in
static free cases in a cool place, a warm place, a dry place? I would
just setup RAID, but I fear I won't have enough room in my case and on
my mobo for enough hard drives, at least right now, so I figure this is
the best bet at the moment.

Thanks

 

[Rod Speed]

I'm working on copying all my music onto hard drives and want to
make clones of each hard drive for backup purposes and store them
somewhere. Where/how is a good place/method to store them?

Really depends on the detail of the hard drives you want to store.

Should I keep them in static free cases

Only necessary if they are bare drives, not say in external cases.

in a cool place, a warm place, a dry place?

Dry and normal temps.

And best where they wont get consumed in a house
fire, ideally not in the same house as the originals etc.

I would just setup RAID, but I fear I won't have enough room in my
case and on my mobo for enough hard drives, at least right now,

And RAID is no substitute for proper backup anyway.

so I figure this is the best bet at the moment.

Yeah, it is a pretty viable approach.

If you want maximum convenience, its probably best to have
the hard drive in an external eSATA enclosure, and just put
that into a decent solid case thats intended for carrying cameras
etc, with internal foam etc. Then you wont risk the drive when
you move it out of the house etc and its still easy to plug in
and synchronise with the main system etc.

 

[fatejd]

Thanks for the quick response - that's a good idea to use hard cases
with foam, in fact the cases where I keep my optical discs that I'm
copying from right now is exactly that. I'll have to look into buying
a rather bulk order of some external cases for them, that's definitely
the safe way to go.

Thanks again.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I'm working on copying all my music onto hard drives and want to make
clones of each hard drive for backup purposes and store them somewhere.
Where/how is a good place/method to store them? Should I keep them in
static free cases in a cool place, a warm place, a dry place? I would
just setup RAID, but I fear I won't have enough room in my case and on
my mobo for enough hard drives, at least right now, so I figure this is
the best bet at the moment.

Dry, cool, antistatic and safe against mechanical shock.
That should do it.

Arno

 

[Iago]

I'm working on copying all my music onto hard drives and want to make
clones of each hard drive for backup purposes and store them somewhere.
Where/how is a good place/method to store them? Should I keep them in
static free cases in a cool place, a warm place, a dry place? I would
just setup RAID, but I fear I won't have enough room in my case and on
my mobo for enough hard drives, at least right now, so I figure this is
the best bet at the moment.

Thanks

Sounds like a bad idea to me. Hard drives are vulnerable when moved
outside of their cage. Did you consider using a DVD recorder instead?
How much space are you going to need?

 

[timeOday]

Sounds like a bad idea to me. Hard drives are vulnerable when moved
outside of their cage.

How do they ship them all over the world after making them in Taiwan or
wherever? Just keep the original packing materials for the drives, and
store them in there - static bag, foam, cardboard.

 

[Arno Wagner]

How do they ship them all over the world after making them in Taiwan or
wherever? Just keep the original packing materials for the drives, and
store them in there - static bag, foam, cardboard.

Some manufaturers also seal them in (Maxtor), while others put them
into plastic, non-sealed shock absorbers (Seagate, Samsing). But all
I have seen so far had some silica gel for moisture absorbation in
with them.

Arno