Hello all Husband and Wife Photogs,

I'm trying to set up a reliable system for all our digital assets and I was wondering how did you guys solve this problem. Or maybe you're struggling too :-((

Here's what we would like to do.
As for now we're in the middle of switching from PC to Mac platform. I operate out of my Macbook that will soon be replaced by MBP. My wife works still on a PC, but would like to switch eventually to Mac too.
I guess we will replace our PC with 17" MBP and connect it to our LaCie 321 monitor (which is a cool screen BTW).

I would like to build a system that will allow us to connect to the main external data storage where we could both have access to all files and have a Raid 1 setup.
I think a NAS hard drives would be a good start.
What solutions do you use and how it works for you?
Do you know any good companies that you could recommend for this kind of solutions?
Thanks in advance for your input.

Why do you need a RAID 1 setup?

Why not just share a NAS?

Better yet, why not just share drives over the network?

Complexity is your enemy in file storage...

We have two workstations in the studio, just networked together so we can share files between the workstations. One is more of the business machine, and the other is an editing workstation.

Both are connected to a Drobo which contains long term storage and backup files. I really can't recommend the Drobo enough...such a great piece of equipment!!

I thought Raid 1 setup was one of the easiest ways to protect your files. On the other hand I don't think it's the best solution. With a mirror setup anything that happens to the main drive or drives is copied to the backup drive or drives. So if your files get corrupted on the main drive, they will be copied onto your backup drive as well.

I guess the best solution is to have an array of drives and use software to perform backups. I wonder if you guys use setup like that?

NAS:
I just started researching the subject of sharing data over the network. To be truth I never tried to setup remote access to my home pc.
I would usually upload files on our server and than access them via FTP.

How do you guys share files over the network?

DROBO:
this setup sounds interesting, but I don't like the idea of having half of the hard drive space reserved for s*** happens situation. If I'm correct Drobo doesn't let you to use more than 50% of it's disk space.

You hit the nail on the head about issues with RAID 1.

My business partner and I use LaCie 500GB NAS drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822154165

Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

For sharing our live files, etc. We also have rotating external hard drives and DVDs for long term protection and disaster recovery.