Hard Drive Arrays & RAID

Creating, editing, and saving large files is an everyday occurrence for photographers, videographers, musicians, and graphic designers. From stitching together more than 100 high-resolution photographs into an expansive panorama to rendering 3D video content, you need a storage situation that works for — and not against — you and your work.

Using a Hard Drive Array

While many creatives can get away with using one or two high-capacity external hard drives, more intensive workflows require integrated storage systems featuring several hard drives.

When you choose to invest in a hard drive array, disk array, or storage array, you’re doing more than simply increasing your storage capacity. Arrays also make it easy to switch between different hard drives as you work without needing to constantly eject and load different drives.

Expandable Arrays

Expandable hard drive arrays offer multiple bays so you can add more storage as you need it. Arrays typically include not just the storage drives themselves, but power supplies, cooling fans, and a physical support structure. Most arrays feature redundant components to minimize the potential for power failures, overheating, and data loss, too.

Benefits of Using a RAID System

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) systems take data protection one step further by automatically saving your data to separate or partitioned drives. When you save to more locations, you’re better protected against loss and failure. RAID systems simplify the redundancy process to save time and effort. 

Common Interfaces for Hard Drive Arrays

When working with large files and high-capacity hard drives, write and read speeds are essential considerations. 

Saving large video and photographic files can bog down your computer and interrupt your workflow, so it’s important to maximize your speed and productivity by selecting fast interface connections.

FireWire, Thunderbolt, eSATA, and USB 3.2 offer some of the fastest and most reliable connections available.

Storage Capacity

When choosing your next hard drive array or RAID system, consider not only the storage you need now but the storage you’ll likely need over the next year or two. With drives ranging from 500GB all the way up to 160TB, you can accommodate plenty of working files and final versions regardless of your industry.

Leading Brands for Hard Drive Arrays and RAID Systems

Don’t leave your irreplaceable data up to chance. Reputable and established storage manufacturers like LaCie, Western Digital, Sonnet, SanDisk, and Other World Computing are at the top of the storage industry for good reason. With well-built hardware, intuitive software, and user-friendly customer support, these brands help to protect your data for the long haul.