Now that I’m going full time (retired and not working at all), I’m trying to figure out data storage in the RV for long-term/permanent living. Also what, if anything, I should do about a printer.

My hobby is photography and one of the cameras has large files. I’m Mac based and won’t be changing that (it works well for me). I have way too much data so cloud based storage would be cost-prohibitive, plus I’m not crazy about such things.

As a part-timer, I traveled with 2 portable hard drives, one for working files and one for backup. I don’t use the laptop’s hard drive for much beyond programs. When I get home I’ve copied the working files to an older 5 bay RAID device, set up with 2 drives mirrored and the 5th drive by itself, then erased the portable drives to use on the next trip. When the RAID device drives are full, I get new drives and store the full ones in cases. I can use a bare drive docking station to read the older drives if I want to go back to something.

That system won’t work now that I’m going full-time. My rig is very small, plus the RAID device looks frail for getting dragged around. So I’m not keeping it and am very open to suggestions for retaining lots of data now that I won’t have the RAID device.

I’m going to be getting an air cooled (swamp coolers) storage unit in Vegas for stuff, including my bare drives from the RAID device. I have a docking station that works with bare drives, and can read the drives from the RAID device on it. I am hoping that the swamp coolers will be adequate for storage of the hard drives.

I guess I should just stay with the portable drives, buying new ones as they fill up. Maybe once a year or so I can visit Vegas, get a new bare hard drive and copy the full disk to it, leaving it and the full portable drive in storage, erasing the second back-up portable. 

Are there other schemes that people use while full-timing? I’m interested in what others do, not sure my way will work particularly well. 

Second question - I rarely have a need to print anything, but it sure is nice to have the printer at the house for those times when I do. The one I have is an Epson scanner/printer with 2 paper drawers. Works great but is way too big for for my small rig. Plus I’m not planning on taking a WiFi router. 

I think I might forgo the printer completely, I can always use Kinko’s or the like for what little printing needs I have.

Does anyone have thoughts about using such places? Or traveling with a small printer (and which one for use with iPhone/iPad/MacBook Pro)?

Edited May 23 by Kirk W

I bought this printer just for the motorhome:   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079QRKWLX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's about the smallest laser printer.

For data storage I use portable HDDs, they're pretty cheap now and small enough to have quite a few 1-2 Tb drives stored away.

Neat, hadn’t thought about going with a laser printer, had been thinking in terms of ink jet, since that’s what I’ve had in the past (wanted color before). Like the WiFi direct option, doesn’t need a WiFi router, an advantage. It says compatible with MacOS. Still fairly big at 13” wide (my TT is small for full-timing), but lots to like about it. I’ve added it to my wish list for further research.

Any more thoughts or ideas?

Hi, I have some of your concerns too.  I'll finally be hitting the road (full-time) this year, but will have fewer space constraints (40 ft 5th wheel).  Photography is also a hobby of mine, and I too, have thought a lot about file storage (Canon CR2 RAW files). I also have ripped music and DVDs that I don't want to lose.  I currently use 4 TB drives and will probably migrate to 8TB ones in a year or two.

Some observations/opinions:

    The cost of storage continues to decline, and probably still will over the next decade.
    
    Best practice is to store copies in at least three locations (e.g. truck, trailer and ?)
    
    The real-time redundancy of RAID isn't very useful for folks like us.  100% uptime isn't a big priority.  But mirroring does automate a type of backup, which can be convenient.
    
    How to know if a file has been damaged (e.g. bit rot) or mistakenly deleted? I've chosen to hash all of my photos and periodically (once a quarter) check that they are still valid.  Unfortunately, the utility I use (CORS Checksum), is only available for Windows.  I assume/suspect there is something available for Mac's.
    
    Assuming some of your drives are 1 TB or less - replace them.  For archive storage, the larger 3.5" drives (which usually require a power source separate from you computer) are almost always a better choice.  At higher capacities, they tend to be less expensive per unit of storage and more reliable.
    
If by "swamp cooler", you mean an evaporative cooler for low humidity environments, I don't think that's a good idea for electronics.  Better to constrain your backup activities to cooler mornings where heat, for a reasonably vented enclosure should not be a problem.

I chose to give up my printer many years ago.  I print a PDF to a USB stick and take it to my library, Staples, Office Depot ...  But I only tend to have an actual need to print a dozen pages a year on average.  So this wouldn't work for folks with frequent printing needs.

Best wishes

Edited May 23 by DanZemke

Do you regularly view your pictures and delete what isn't good?  Perhaps you're just storing way too much stuff.

First I totally back data redundant storage. Local copies allow for recovery from operator errors.

But as a long time consultant of protecting data centers, the major item missed by most planners is the loss of the facility.  In this case, the RV is highly at risk.  RV burn like crazy.

Any day duplication on local storage will go with the fire.  Cloud storage has become a relatively low cost option to off site back up.

Most of what RVers store on disk is irreplaceable. Financial records are obvious but it is really hard to go back and reshoot photos.

Cloud storage isn't free.  There is the storage service and then there is the data bandwidth to send the data to the cloud.  But what is the value of your data?  But you can shop and minimize the cloud storage cost.

Even if your have off-site backup during the off season, can you afford the lost of several months of irreplaceable data

I've been running mirrored Raid storage for at least ten years in my 5th wheel I've had no issues at all with it. Not one. So I think it is reasonably reliable. 

I do weekly backups of anything major to USB-based memory. I rotate those and store them in my truck. NAS is in the trailer. I also use offsite storage, and these days I'm almost 100% Cloud-based, so the NAS is not getting much work. I'm about to take it down. I've been running Cloud-based for about three years now. I rarely find it an issue. But you do need good comm gear. 

With our business, we run it 100% cloud except video production/editing. You can say that is good or bad. I have mixed feelings. But it sure does seem to work well.

We have an HP laser scanner/copier/printer/fax. While it is wifi, it can also be hard-wired, and I'll be doing that one of these days. We have a Verizon router that feeds our Time Machine, which is our actual wifi. The router's radio is turned off. One of these days I'll check into getting a new Time Machine just because this one is starting to get full and is several years old.

We print a few times each month and scan maybe one every 3-4 months. About once a year we actually copy something, and since we don't have a phone line the fax part is never used.

Like most people, our financial records are the most important data we have. I'm working with our son-in-law (app developer) and son (computer security) to figure out a way to safely store those records off-site without using up all of our data just storing stuff.

I keep at least three portable hard drives--one with me, one is in a safe deposit box in Ohio near one son, and the third is in a safety deposit box in California near my other son.  Why not just at their homes?  Well, when one had to evacuate due to fires, they lost something of mine that was a family piece.  It is just too iffy to ask someone else to keep track of my stuff in an emergency, hence the safety deposit boxes.  My third device is in a small safe in my RV.  I switch them out and update the backups of the ones in the safety deposit boxes once a year when I go to visit them. 

It sounds as if you might need something much larger than mine, but that would still fit in a safety deposit box I think.

I also have a small printer that stays in its box with the original packing material.  It is a pain to get it out when I need it, but I think it is less likely to break when I hit a chuckhole this way.

Edited May 24 by Solo18

Interesting viewpoints, very helpful and is helping me think this through better.  

I've tabled any printer purchase to later - my printing needs are very minor, such that I had to clean the heads on my inkjet type printer before printing the paperwork on the house offer.  I'll skip the printer for now.

I should probably explain the swamp cooler comment.  I don't need to access my old raw files (old photos) as a rule, but don't want to toss the files out (they've come in handy in the past).  So I was planning on leaving the hard drives in storage in the storage unit I'm going to be getting.  It will be located in Las Vegas and the units I can afford are ones that are "air-cooled" as in evaporated coolers/swamp coolers.  True climate controlled storage in Vegas is very expensive. Should I re-think this?

How many 3-1/2 inch plus storage case can fit in a safety deposit box?  Or will it?  That's an intriguing idea.

Thank you for pointing out that buying larger hard drives would mean storing fewer drives - that's very attractive.  At the moment all of my back-ups/original files are on bare hard drives (the kind one would find inside computers - no enclosures to break, which I've had happened) and are 1 or 2 TB.  So getting 4 or 8 TB drives would save a lot of space.  That will also mean doing the transfer, which takes time.  I did try to back up the one working hard drive that has an enclosure to one of my bare drives but it was very slow going (original drive is USB while the hard drive dock is USB3/E-SATA but I no longer have a computer with a E-SATA port/card).

  On 5/24/2019 at 6:26 AM, Jack Mayer said:

I've been running mirrored Raid storage for at least ten years in my 5th wheel I've had no issues at all with it. Not one. So I think it is reasonably reliable. 

I do weekly backups of anything major to USB-based memory. I rotate those and store them in my truck. NAS is in the trailer. I also use offsite storage, and these days I'm almost 100% Cloud-based, so the NAS is not getting much work. I'm about to take it down. I've been running Cloud-based for about three years now. I rarely find it an issue. But you do need good comm gear. 

With our business, we run it 100% cloud except video production/editing. You can say that is good or bad. I have mixed feelings. But it sure does seem to work well.

What RAID device do you use?  I have an older LeCie 5 bay Thunderbolt (thunderbolt 1) device, no NAS capability.  Last year, before deciding to go full-time, I thought about upgrading to a NAS device to gain the ability to set up a VPN when I'm on the road as well as a little extra speed, but decided it wasn't worth the cost.  I can start off buying larger hard drives and backing up what I have on the RAID device onto the larger drive(s).

I'm now thinking that it might be worth it to buy a new docking station with USB 3.1, that's faster than the one I have, with 2 slots for drives (mine has one).  But now I'm confused about the whole thing, I only have a vague grasp of computer stuff and need to look at the bare drives I have that I would want to put on larger drives.  Other option is to get 5 larger drives for the RAID device (though I'll need to research how big a drive it's capable of reading - there's always something isn't there?) and use it to transfer the files.

This has got my head spinning, as computer stuff does when I start thinking about changing something.

I'm not full time and have never needed to print while traveling, no ideas there.  For travel storage we have a few external SSD drives.  No moving parts means no issue with vibration or being moved around, and they are super fast.  My wife and I both have newer MacBooks with USB-C so that's super easy and fast, as well as easily shareable.  We have several, this is my recent acquisition mostly for video and photography work...

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-t5-1tb-external-usb-type-c-portable-solid-state-drive-deep-black/6026202.p?skuId=6026202

I also still do full photo/video backups to iCloud so that's our backup while traveling.  We have a pretty large data plan so it works so far.

The safe deposit box I have is a small one--2" high by 4.5" wide, and 24" long.  I could fit quite a few of my portable hard drives in one.  They are come in 3" heights and even larger.  I pay $75 per year in the one in a California bank and the one in Ohio is in my and my son's name, so it is free because he has an account there. 

I have a lifetime of photos scanned and stored, and having them in a bank makes me feel confident it will be dry and safe. 

We have needed to print things from time to time so I bought a cheap HP printer.  It doesn't need a router to print wirelessly.  It works both with my android phone and my laptop.  Folded up it doesn't take up to much room.  It has really been handy, especially to print and scan documents for things that require signatures. 

  On 5/24/2019 at 11:37 PM, fpmtngal said:

Interesting viewpoints, very helpful and is helping me think this through better.  

I've tabled any printer purchase to later - my printing needs are very minor, such that I had to clean the heads on my inkjet type printer before printing the paperwork on the house offer.  I'll skip the printer for now.

I should probably explain the swamp cooler comment.  I don't need to access my old raw files (old photos) as a rule, but don't want to toss the files out (they've come in handy in the past).  So I was planning on leaving the hard drives in storage in the storage unit I'm going to be getting.  It will be located in Las Vegas and the units I can afford are ones that are "air-cooled" as in evaporated coolers/swamp coolers.  True climate controlled storage in Vegas is very expensive. Should I re-think this?

Put the hard drives, etc. in a sealed ammo box or a Coleman style cooler along with a couple of silica gel dessicant packets to absorb any moisture that may seep inside.  The cooler will stay the average temperature of the swamp cooled air surrounding it, while keeping excess moisture out.

You can make your own silica gel packets using cat litter and coffee filters.  Look at the ingredients on the package of cat litter, many contain pure silica gel . . . the same stuff as in those little dessicant packets.

Put some in a cheap coffee filter, fold it and staple it to keep it sealed and you're set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7zdebMqov4

Don't use Dri-Z-Air or other dissolving type dessicants - they're corrosive.

Edited May 28 by Lou Schneider

Online storage is far safer and cheaper than sticking a drive in a bank deposit box.  And easier.  And more up-to-date.