it's all gone crazy

I always remember when starting out in digital photography being told "storage is cheap".  Meaning of course that shooting images digitally versus film was much more financially viable, and that therefore you could just shoot as many images as you wanted.

And then the next stage of storage - a hard drive or the like to keep all your digital files - was always really very inexpensive.  So many photographers (myself included) built up a collection of hard drives holding raw image files, video, audio and completed projects.  I've now got around a dozen or so archive drives and four solid state drives holding all my current media.

I wonder how much this lot is worth!

Anyway, the other day I had to get another hard drive as my latest archive disc was filling up quickly and... well the prices are just ridiculous.  It's all down to the increase in demand for AI services apparently, meaning more data centres cropping up and the demand per things like hard drives, solid state drives and RAM easily outstripping supply, and even the capacity to make more of the stuff quickly enough.

And who pays for this at the end of the day?  The average everyday consumer that's who!

I stumped up the money needed and got my drive, but I it may be the last one I buy for some time. I fear I'm going to have to say goodbye to many of my older images, and certainly the capacity to keep two copies of anything older than the last two or three years.

As an example, I looked at building a NAS (network attached storage) system.  So, I'd need a case for the drives and the operating system to run the thing, and some drives (I'd need around 30 to 40 terabytes of disc space to store and clone everything properly and safely) and the cost was just eye wateringly expensive.  Well into four figures.

So, I'll continue with my own self-designed solution for now, but as I said, in a couple of years time I'll have to completely rethink the whole shebang.  

Or keep it all in a data centre.