Digital photographers continually need more hard drive space. Not only do you need enough space for new photographs you have made, but you need room for all of the associated files, like master files and targeted print files, and for large scans from photographs you made with film. On top of that, if you are using a Mirrored RAID, you need twice the number of hard drives as everyone else.

But that’s just the start. Anyone who has ever filled up a garage with things other than their car knows the space has to be useable and organized. You need enough space to keep your files organized, orderly, and clutter free so accessing them is easy.

The common solution: FireWire drives
Many photographers I know address their storage needs with a series of external drives that attach to their computer with the FireWire interface. It seems simple enough--When you need more storage, just buy another drive and plug it in. But as you add more and more drives, the weakness of this system starts to gang up on you.

The downfalls of using FireWire drives
First of all, every drive needs to be connected with a cable. The more cables involved, the greater the chance of a loose connection. At best, a loose connection will prevent your drive from mounting, causing you frustration and lost time as you try to figure out the problem. At worst, it might lead to data corruption problems. With only one or two drives, you might not run into the problem. As you add more drives, you'll find that you have oddly shaped cases cluttered around your desk, all connected to one another--and you'll inadvertently bump the cases as you reach around for the oh-so-inconveniently placed power switch on the back--causing you to encounter (and cause) more and more loose cable events.

Defining our needs
Let’s talk about the physical space requirements for external hard drives. We don’t want our drive cases sprawled all around our desk. We want them in a nice tidy stack that is out-of-the-way so they don't get bumped while we work, but are still accessible enough to use. That’s where our challenge starts. In my experience, different enclosures don’t stack well. Sure, some manufacturers make stacking enclosures, but unless you buy all of your drives at the same time, and in the same enclosures, from the same manufacturer, you are out of luck. That’s because manufacturers frequently change their enclosure designs. And even if they don’t, the next drive you want may not be available in the same enclosure design, or at a good price. In my experience, you will pay a premium for stackable enclosure designs from manufacturers such as LaCie. So, just adding another FireWire drive whenever you need more storage becomes very complicated and difficult to maintain over time.

Then there is the issue of the drive connection interface - how you connect the drive to your computer. There are many options available. USB is a very common interface, but it can be slow compared to FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394). FireWire has been an acceptable standard for many years, but my experience with it has been hit-and-miss.

The biggest problem with FireWire is the bridge boards that are used inside the hard drive enclosures. These are the devices that let the hard drive talk to the computer over the FireWire interface. In my experience, they are the source of many problems. First of all, they can fail. This seems particularly common in empty enclosures that allow you to add your own drives. Second, there are many potential compatibility problems, as some versions of operating systems and some computers don’t like to connect to certain versions of bridge boards. Third, there can be compatibility issues between certain bridge boards and certain hard drives, complicating future upgrades.

Can these problems be overcome? Yes...but at what cost? At some point, you have to ask yourself if you want to be a photographer or a computer technician. I want to be a photographer, so the less time I have to spend fiddling with my computer, and the more time I can spend making new pictures or new prints, the better. Not only does it matter artistically, but if you make a living from your photography, your job is hard enough already....you don’t need to make it any harder. Myself, I’m ready for a better solution.

As I’ve alluded to, storage needs are ever increasing, so it’s important to have a storage solution that is easy to upgrade. The need for more storage is even greater if you are using a Mirrored RAID system, as a Mirrored RAID doubles the number of drives you need.

So, let's recap our needs:
We want a storage system that:

1. Can hold a large quantity of hard drives

2. Is highly reliable

3. Uses a minimal number of cables

4. Is easy to upgrade and maintain

5. Has good compatibility with different brands and models of hard drives

A New Solution: Sonnet To The Rescue
The solution lies in a new family of SATA port multiplication products from Sonnet Technologies, which meet these needs exceptionally well, and are a great solution for digital photographers.

The first part of the solution is the Fusion 500P Drive Enclosure. This external enclosure holds up to five SATA drives, but only requires a single cable to attach to the host controller, and is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux computers using SATA controller cards with port multiplier support.

SATA is a new connection interface for hard drives that is quickly replacing the IDE-standard for internal drives and replacing FireWire for external devices. It is much faster than previous technologies, and can use a very slim cable that takes up a minimal amount of space.

This new enclosure meets our needs very nicely. It is very easy to use (the instructions are 1.25 pages long, and most of that space is taken up by photos). It is very easy to add additional hard drives, and because it uses a single cable to connect to the computer, there is less clutter and chance of disconnecting it. Its small footprint fits easily on any desk, and it takes up a minimal amount of space. It’s also very inexpensive ($437.99 from Buy.Com) when compared to similar multiple drive enclosures.

But the 500P is only part of the equation. It needs to connect to a SATA controller card inside your computer. Sonnet offers two options: the Tempo SATA X4P, which works with most older MAC and Windows computers that use PCI or PCI-X slots, and the Tempo SATA E4P, which works with PCI Express® (PCIe) X4 slots found in many new computers.

Both of these cards offer four external eSATA connections that support port multiplication. That means you can connect up to four 500P enclosures for a total of twenty hard drives attached to your computer. This allows for an incredible 15 terabytes of storage if you use 750 GB drives, such as the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Drive.

If you need even more storage, you can install additional cards in your computer for 30 or even 45 terabytes of storage!

Best of all, these are plug-and-play solutions. You don’t have to be a computer expert to get them working. Let’s walk through the installation process so you can see how easy it is.

First, buy the proper card for your computer. For this demo, I’ll be using the Tempo SATA X4P that works with most Mac G3 and G4 computers, as well as early Mac G5s. Once you have all the parts, it’s time to do the install.

Installing the controller card
NOTE: You should always read the manufacturer's instructions before installing new hardware.

1. Shut down the computer. The power must be off before you work on it.

2. Find an open PCI slot inside the computer and remove the slot cover.

3. Ground yourself by touching the power supply.

4. Install the card and make sure it is seated firmly.

5. Secure the card with the screw that was retaining the slot cover.

6. Close the computer and leave it off.

Unscrewing the retaining screw	Removing the PCI slot cover	Ground yourself to prevent static discharge
The Tempo SATA X4P card	Installing the card	Replacing the retaining screw

 

Setting up the 500P enclosure

1. Remove a drive tray.

2. Place a hard drive upside-down on a table, then place the drive tray over it, making sure that the drive connectors are facing the back of the tray.

3. Attach the drive to the tray using the supplied screws.

4. Insert the drive tray into the enclosure until it stops, and then push the lever to secure the drive in place.

5. Repeat as necessary with the remaining four trays.

6. Attach the enclosure to the computer using the eSATA cable provided. Plug in the enclosure and turn it on.

7. Give the drives about 30 seconds to spin up, then boot your computer.

8. Use your computer’s formatting tool to format the drives (ideally using RAID 1 to create a mirrored RAID. Read more about RAID storage in a previous Imaging Tip.)

9. Fill up your new drives with beautiful photos and add more drives as necessary!

Removing the drive tray	Aligning the drive so the connections are at the back of the tray	Use screws to attach drive to tray
Slide tray into enclosure	Push lever to secure tray in the enclosure	Attach eSATA cable to enclosure
Attach eSATA cable to computer

 

If you have data on FireWire drives, you can transfer that data to a drive in the 500P enclosure, and consolidate your information on a larger drive. From there, it’s up to you, but whatever you need, you’ll now have access to a huge amount of storage space, and can easily add more as your digital archive grows.

Additional Reading

Sonnet Tech Website

West Coast Imaging Imaging Tip on RAID storage

Barefeats.com REVIEW: Sonnet's PCI Express SATA Host Adapter with Port Multiplication

AMUG article on the Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P

Wiebtech Storage Enclosure Reliability White Paper