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...don't shop eBay as I don't use PayPal.
I received GC for 100$ at Newegg from a generous community member.
There is a Seagate 2 TB (pretty good reviews) for 60$ so I could conceivably get two for an extra 20$ out of pocket if I wanted to mirror the new library drive. The trick is I'd need an extra drive tray for my Antec P193 case, which is no longer produced so Antec no longer has replacement parts for it. Found a pair of drive trays locally here in Portland for a P180 and contacted the person to see if they are the same size as the ones I have (they look identical).
That would be a great idea.
My other reasoning for that approach, too, is that it's better (IMHO) to choose capacities which you'll utilize sooner rather than later, rather than say getting a 10Tb drive - which would probably die of a natural death before you're ever close to using it all. If you are going to use it, then sure, go for it.. as then you'd most likley replace the drives with larger capacities in a year or two anyway.
If you keep the mirror drive powered off except for when you're backing up to it, that will help extend the life too... adding a little bit of 'peace of mind'
I use SyncToy to save backups. There is a choice between Synchronize, Echo or Contribute. I have a 1TB external and a NAS with 4x3TB in an Array which I use. I also have SyncToy set to backup every night at Midnight. It has worked for me for a number of years.
OMG. I thought you were wearing a Russian-style fur hat with flaps by the ears.
I don't think worrying about the Daz library is the real issue.
I don't think there is anyone who uses (or remembers to use) 100% of what they collect. Needs change, that something better comes out, sensibilities change, etc....
I'm worried more about your archives and TRULY setting up a MASTER DOCUMENT, which is a simple word document with all your settings.
A think you can archive any number of ways....Even snap shots or Snips of Daz screens for settings would help to rebuild your work.....
I have notes on HOW I did all the signature stuff and every package has another copy of all the important content.
I used to print out a hardcopy, but the doc grew to too many pages to print for smaller changes.
That stuff can even go on flash drives...
Sometimes the WHOLE computer goes and not just a hard drive.
I once - even had a suppose-I-die file that was all kinds of stuff I wanted my friends/family to release in case I died. A lot of ideas too...
(Besides I don't want nobody digging through my files- looking for material. lol)
Eventually, I did most of them or the ideas became outdated over time...
...I saw that term "NAS" on several drives at Newegg. What does that relate to?
So with SyncToy. I could conceivably copy a complete mirror of my entire runtime structure to a second computer as well? If so, this could be very useful as I could be rendering on one system while working up a new scene on another and not having to wait for a job to finish first.
...I still have that old powered external enclosure (with dual fans) that way I could just unhook it from the main system when not in use.
So when I get the new drives and install them, I'm going to mount and extract the VHD backup from the external drive to one of the new ones and to see if indeed my runtime and scene file data is intact. If it is so, then hopefully I won't have to deal with data recovery and cost as the other items on the drive are not that critical and I already moved my finished render folders and phone pics I offloaded to the C: drive before I did the backup as those didn't take much space.
That is great news! :)
If you can't get an extra hd tray for your case, the drive can sit loose at the bottom of the case, just be mindful if/when you have to move it again to dust it out or whatever the case may be. Most HD's are entirely enclosed without any visible circuitboards / soldered contacts exposed (just pointing this out)
Additionally if you have a spare 5 1/2 sized drive bay (like a cdrom occupies) you can get a 5 1/2 to 3 1/4 hd bay adapter that'll let you fit/mount a regular hd within a bay slot. those are usually $5 or less. Similar adapters also do the same for 2.5" ssd's in either sized bay slots.
Also, a bit later down the road if you can put away a few dollars each month - you could get an external hd enclosure case for it (Thermaltake, Nexstar, whatever brand doesn't matter. some have a built in fan). Look at the ones that have both USB 3.0 / 3.1 and eSata (not sure if there's hd enclosures with Usb tpye C yet). eSata is faster than usb 3.0 / 3.1 , though i'm not sure about eSata vs Usb type C speeds.
Your case might have usb 2.0 ports but take a look at the motherboard - it might have usb 3.0 headers on it, then its just a front drive bay or rear panel slot for a usb 3.0 port. Then you'd be able to connect the external hd enclosure via Usb 3.0
If your board only has Usb 2.0, there's 2 or 3 more avenues:
1. Usb 3.0 Expansion card - PCIE slot type card, adds 2 - 4 extra independant usb ports to your computer.
2. eSata Exppansion card - PCIE slot type for connecting external drive enclosures with eSata ports on them, just as fast as internal Sata drives. Theres basic ones that just add extra Internal + External eSata III 6gbps ports. For a little bit more theres ones with raid capability that'll allow you to make a Raid 10 (1+0 mirrored) setup. No performance hit, and is directly about redundancy. One drive fails, the other is safe.
If you're looking at hd's that cost around $60, a usb 3.0 or eSata expansion cards cost between $15 - $30 give or take a few dollars. You probably do have extra spare PCIE slots on the motherboard and a few spare slots back of the case. PCIE 3.0 cards are usually backwards compatable with PCIE 2.0 slots, and most of those cards only use a single PCIE 1x or 4x sized (the short slots) slots. (PCIE 16x are the full length slots for graphics cards).
If your unsure about Raid, still, with 2 drives and some of the listed drive copy / sync software listed here should still do the trick.
Main thing is your looking up instead of giving up. A lot of good advise has been posted here regarding going forward from backup advise to kickstarters and releasing a small chunk at a time.
Just take it a day at a time. Once you get things installing again, don't forget to take some time out to doodle on random art and characters too. You never know, you might surprise yourself and find something you like and decide to name it/him/her "Character 2.0" ;)
NAS = Network Attached Storage. Instead of USB you just connect it to your LAN (local area network) e.g. your home network. They are usually confugurable via a web browser and can be password protected. Drive names can be assigned to them. I've been using NAS drives for years (have 7 at the moment), oldest and smallest is a still working 120 MB, newest 2 TB. They are usually a tiny bit more expensive than an USB drive. If you have more than one computer connected to your home network, each one can access all drives.
...Antec uses a unique design for the rails for the 5.25 bay as well which also are most likely no longer produced. The whole line of cases in this series (P180 - P193) were designed for quick swap in and out of drives without having to use tools. I only had one set of those rails, so there is nothing for mounting a 3.5" adapter in the case. .(got the case at Fry's, and it was an "open box" as it was the last one, should have bought it at Newegg).
With the Titan-X and the GTX 460, I am pretty much out of PCI x16 slots. This is an old P6-T X58 motherboard. If I had to replace it, I basically would be building an entirely new system as I'd need a newer CPU and DDR4 memory, which is an expense I really cannot afford.
Yeah, I'm doing this on a frayed shoestring.
Ah, those darned things... thin plastic (or metal) strips, that freely attach or get screwed onto the drive to slide in and lock/unlock by pinching or springs... Used to have a case like that, not Antec, but some other brand i can't recall offhand, but was the new "tooless" and popular thing at the time. Don't blame ya for getting the case, especially if it was a good or discounted deal at the time. That would've been me too, jubilation of getting a deal and then some and not looking forward.
Looking and comparing the P180 to the P193, the interior looks similar, maybe they do use the same hd rails... hard to say...
P 193 https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Cases-and-Cooling/Antec-P193-Advanced-Mid-Tower-Case-Review
P 180 http://www.silentpcreview.com/article249-page4.html
Like i said, at the very least the drive can sit freely inside the case, there is that room - another hd drive cage it looks like that you could sit the drive freely in there or remove the cage entirely in the bottom front floor of the case.
Or for the drive bays - especially if the bottom slot is empty (or you can move up your dvd drive the next slot or two) the hd can be sitting on the tray itself.
Alternatively you can also get the hd drive bay size conversion brackets, and zip-tie / jurry rig style mounting the brackets into the slot so the hd is fastened securely (not too tightly but kinda "floating" there).
So you do have options available.
For what its worth, yeah i too have lost lots over the years. Be it too many renders where i've spent the whole day / evening and forgot to save, then just as its nearing "pefection" some hiccup or glitch and the program crashes or the pc crashes. Yeah, it sucked, and felt daunting to redo it over again. But i would, and it would be bit different second time around, but i was still happy with it. someways even improved in certain areas details.
Even pc gaming, some of the open adventure world building type games (on steam, and it's auto-updates) i've invested over a year's worth of time putting more effort into the world building than completing the quests to advance the story along. then to lose the hd to a crash or some issue i cant load any of the save games, some game engine update that breaks something that cant load the prior save games. royally sucked. So i'd start anew, remaking my character (a tad different so it feels fresh), not trying so hard to recreate things as i originally had, and having fun and being able to design the world differently. (trying to rebuild that world exactly as i had in the prior game would have been really painful and time consuming - hence why i say "Character 2.0" ... similar but different, and enjoyable doing so in the process)
NAS -- Network Attached Storage. This is the one I have https://www.netgear.com/home/products/connected-storage/RN314.aspx
Data loss is non-discrimintory. Remember this? https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/oct/11/arts.media
@kyoto kid
I have two external drives hanging out of my laptop :)
This is one of the docking stations.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N9M2UHW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This is the second one. I wouldn't recommend it though as has quite flimsy connections which are easily broken although the casing is made of metal and it doesn't work properly on USB 3 but seems to be fine on USB 2.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LLWC14E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I actually have a third one connected that I have had for a number of years but it is no longer available for purchase.
https://www.amazon.com/HyperDrive-TB-Hard-Drive-iPad/dp/B004Z9001Q
I once had a computer that had a corrupted drive and wouldn't boot at all. I created a bootable linux instance on a thumb drive, booted to linux and then could mount the drive and look at the files. I plugged in a portable hard drive, transferred everything to it, and got about 90% of my stuff off that old seemingly dead hard drive.
General advice for all creative people:
Don't keep 'perfecting' the same project for years. It stifles creativity and produces really bad work habits. Better to get whatever it is out there and move on.
Like, with writers? If you spent a year working on chapter 1? You're never completing that story.
There are exceptions and people who manage to make repeated polishing work, but chances are very good you aren't one of them.
I hope you don't lose patience and heart.
Right now all I can suggest is patience. I am on a small pension and just got my computer back after it being gone for a month for repairs.
Step back and take a break.... even if you are only able to save $20 a month for getting through this mess, then it might be doable, even after a year or two.
In the meantime, put your attention to something else that is dear to you.
So sorry..... hope this is even a small help, as I can't do anything practical to help.
Actually, I don't think many people make repeated polishing work. *Cough!*(Star Wars)*Cough!*(Special Editons)*Cough!*(Ruined the franchise!)
Man, I gotta get this cough checked out.
+1 I'd definitely go for the Raid. I've been using it for years and haven't noticed any performance drop. Plus, just a few months ago it paid off when one of my drives died. I ordered a replacement, installed it and in about a day or so, Windows had the volume back to 100% health. Hardware Raid may be faster, but if the controller fails, you have to find an exact replacement or the new one may not recognize the file structure and all that. Like it or hate it, Windows is always Windows. You can move a Win Raid volume to a completely different machine and Windows will still recognize it.
Dont give up. Dont quit. Even if you truly feel you cant recover the project that you gave your heart to for so many years, there are other things that will insprie your creative spirit.
Enterprise HDD are made to work 24h/24 and 7days/7 and are supposed to be more reliable than consumer HDD. But I've seen server HDD not filling this promise and consumer HDD which are still alive (a 20 GB which I don't use anymore but it never had problem. ). Specialized drives be it Enterprise or NAS have specifications that are only required if you use them in their designed purpose with specific hardware. I don't think that is your case (cost a lot of money)
For backup purpose I tend to use 5400 RPM HDD. Lower speed put less stress on the mechanical parts and these HDD are cheaper
Ok, you're in luck -
P6T-X58 https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P6T/
1. Industry Standard SATA on the Go = you do have an eSata port on your back IO panel (usb, audio, etc jacks) so you don't have to worry about buying an expansion card if you dont want.
2. Look at your board: 2 blue PCIE16x sli/crossfire slots your 2 graphics cards are likely plugged into. Aside from the single 1x PCIE slot tucked inbetween those (dumb board design lots of companies do that however) , you still have 3 White PCIE 16x - 8x - 4x type slots you can fit a 1x card into. that being said usb/sata/e-sata expansion cards are PCIE 1x size but you can plug them into any of the 16x sized slots. Rule of thumb: you can fit a 1x card into a 16x slot, but you can't fit a 16x card into a 1x slot.
2a. PCIE 2.0 vs 3.0 spec - is revision class. yeah 3.0 is a bit better than 2.0 however you can fit 3.0 cards into 2.0 slots and they'll work - backwards compatability like usb in the sense.
3. amazon.co.uk 3.5 inch e-sata hd enclosures
and for the future:
4a. PCIE esata expansion cards
4b. PCIE USB 3 / 3.1 Expansion cards
4c. PCIE USB 3 / Type C expansion cards
4d. 3.5" usb type c hd enclosures
:)
..so connectability and added security is the advantage then. So do you need a separate server box for them? of can they be in one system and accessed through a router from a different one? never really got much into networking.
...I just received confirmation on the tray measurements and they are an exact match. As 3.5" HDDs are the same form factor the mounting holes will match up, so going ahead and getting them. The P193 has two separate pull out drive bays so I can add an extra storage/backup drive internally. Still love this case for it's size (lots of "breathing space inside and can accommodate a Titan card), airflow (7 fans including the large one on the side panel), and elegant professional look (doesn't look like a disco lounge inside with all the lights or that it might transform into a Decepticon when my back is turned)..
...thanks, so you would need a separate "server box" to connect other systems to.
If your router has additional ports (often there are 4), you can connect the NAS drive there. If there's only one LAN port, you need a Switch with 5 or 8 ports. Any one port goes to the router and one of the the remaining ones you can use to connect any other network device. If you need a Switch, get a 1 GB, not a 100 MB one. You can get them at roughly $25.
A NAS is a separate items, the HDs are claiming to be better suited for use in a NAS than others - but they would still be regular HDs as far as actual method of use was concerned.
As has been said the NAS connects to the router and is accessed like any other drive.
..well G3 is a major improvement over Gen4 (which had no teen characters) and even G1/2 (particularly in bending and posing). Just a couple weeks before the drive failed I finally had Leela looking the way I always envisioned many years ago.
I only came into this in the latter part of 2007 (mostly tinkering around, really didn't get serious with it until 2008) and pretty much all that time has been one long learning process. As I mentioned this is a whole new animal compared to drawing and painting. I used to be able to whip out a fairly detailed colour drawing of a character in maybe an hour or so as I have a lifetime of experience with pencils, coloured pencils and water colour paints to fall back on. With 3D, I've only been at this about 1/6th the amount of time as I have been with traditional media (1/10th the time if you count working with the Genesis platform and 1/20th the time working with Iray). So a lot of that "improvement time" was spent also learning the ropes of a new technology to where I could become confident and comfortable with it as I was with a pencil or brush in my hand (and I still feel I have a bit to go before getting there).
Drawing and painting hasn't changed very much or very rapidly over the last couple centuries. CG on the other hand does so, often in a matter of months sometimes thanks to the tech curve. So all lot of "learning time" is spent just keeping pace with the curve. "Oh, now Daz has a sort of open dynamics tool (dForce) which allows for more natural draping of cloth and restyling hair that wasn't around six months ago". "Octane has added a subscription track so one no longer has to come up with nearly 600$ up front to have a very powerful professional grade render engine available." "The aweShader for 3DL was just released which opens much more of that render engine's functions we never had access to with the "vanilla" embedded version (and the few results I've seen are stunning)." This is one of the reasons 3D CG is so much more difficult to get a good grasp on as technology changes so rapidly, suddenly, there is a new learning curve to deal with. Crikey it didn't seem all that long ago we had to write code to create even simple 3D images and objects.
As I mentioned a while back on this thread, there are still items on my wishlist that I need for settings, scenes, & such which I cannot afford at the moment, some which are necessary for the early part of the story line so finances is one of the hangups. Again years ago this was not an issue as I could simply draw and paint what I needed, I didn't have to scrape up funds to purchase an asset or digital resource to do it, or hope for something I needed to be released in the store or as a freebie (like an accurate 280cm grand piano as music is a major theme in the story line).
Yes, this is a lot more complex and there are many more variables involved than simply drawing or painting what I needed like I used to do.
As to the work itself, I am doing it in a classic storybook style with many high quality illustrations (colour plates as they are referred to in the publishing industry). So yes, I expect it will take time. It doesn't fit an "episodic" format like a comic book, graphic novel, or television programme. Releasing one chapter at a time online and making people wait months for the next would easily cause interest to wane.
sorry for you ! good luck ! hope you will recover everything
..thanks. Weighing out different options after the initial shock subsided.