Struggling to figure out the best way to centralise files for office and home working

[notamondayfan]

Hello!

 

I have a bit of a conundrum, and was hoping someone might shine some light on my problem.

 

I have an office set-up (1 PC and 1 rendernode) and I have a home / mobile set-up (1 laptop). Currently my files are stored on a drive inside the PC.

 

The thing I'm struggling to work out is what is the best way to store my files so I can work either from the office or home.

 

My first option is to store the files on the laptop, and "map drives" the PC and rendernode to this for when I'm in the office, and of course the files would be with me when I'm not in the office. My concern with this method would be that I'd be putting the laptop under extra strain, but would this be really an issue? Also I'd have the problem of rendering when the laptop isn't there, but I could archive a job before leaving the office so it's just an extra step I'd have to do.

 

The second option is to buy a NAS drive and store my files there. The downside with this is it would mean carrying a bulky drive, and I really don't know if it would last very long being bumped around.

 

The third option I have is to manually sync the laptop and PC files, so if I'm at the office I would sync to the laptop before leaving, then when I return to the office, I would sync back to the PC, so in theory both computers would be up to date. The only downside here is if I work on the laptop and PC at the same time, or a job renders on the PC, it could be messy keeping track of what files are most recent.

 

I'm really thinking the first option is the most fool proof and easiest option, but it's just whether it's going to put a strain on the laptop, being on constantly though the day.

 

Anyway, any advice would be appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Dean

[Tommy L]

I guess you could sync the directories using dropbox or something similar. As long as the paths are the same you'll fool your file into thinking its on the same machine. Advantage of that is you will be working on the 'same' max file. Your assets will update automatically too.

[Francisco Penaloza]

Howdy,

I had a similar issue time ago and I resolved in a few different ways actually, first and more important if you are serious about your work, you should never put your files in the same work station, you can build or buy a cheap PC and make it your server, there you can stuff it up with HDD saving your working files, textures, proxies and what not.

Second as Tom suggested, dropbox is a great alternative to remote sinc files and folders. you can create a temp working folder that it is your current project and put your files there, then no matter where you are all the files will be there. This gets a little complex with the textures though, if you don't mind to have double copies of textures it is not a problem, but if you want to have all your textures in a single folder, then you need to use drop box to store those textures too.

Other option is Microsoft Skydrive, the main difference with drop box is you can tell skydrive what folders to share, no need to move them to a drop box location.

 

Third option it is use any personal cloud storage system, such Seagate, or Western digital. I tried Seagate and it work great, the only thing is you need to manually download the files to work in other place so not a fan of that one.

 

Four option is VPN, so you build a server, setup a VPN connexion and put all your working files there, whether you are working from your laptop at home or your PC at the office you can connect directly to your server and life is beautiful. Recommended would be to get a static IP address but there is some work around with this one too.

Best luck

[notamondayfan]

The only problem with dropbox, skydrive and VPNs is the need for a super fast, reliable upload and download speed. What I really want is a hardware solution that doesn't rely on the internet, is pretty fool proof, and portable.

 

The dropbox does though sound ideal for rendering jobs remotely.

 

Dean

[Tommy L]

Well if you dont have an online solution youre back to an offline solution, which you already said you didnt want to use due to the fragility of carrying around the drive.

[Dimitris Tolios]

I really like Sugarsync too...its the only cloud service I've actually paid for (have free accounts for a few).

 

Never tried the MS Cloud, but as Francisco said above, Sugarsync also offers you a far superior folder management system that allows you to sync your selection of folders between your devices (doesn't need to be the same path or be included in a specific folder structure, nor you need to sync all of you data to all of your devices) which is a huge plus over Dropbox.

[notamondayfan]

Yea I use sugarsync for my wife personal laptop for our photos and such, and it is perfect for adding folder quickly.

 

I keep coming back to the problem that the internet speed won't be sufficient enough. If I have a 1gb PS file, save it, I would then have to wait for that to upload, then download it again once home.

 

I'm starting think I either need a portable NAS drive, or I use the 2nd drive on the laptop. The laptop will be with me where ever I am, so it would just be a case of figuring out a workflow for rendering when the laptop isn't there.

 

Cheers,

Dean

[notamondayfan]

I've been looking as NAS drives, and there really isn't much in the way or portable drives, but I did come across this

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00499DMR6/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

 

I just really hate using external drives when on a laptop, too many wires and messing around, especially if you just want to quickly open the laptop and do 30 mins work.

 

I think I'm going to try moving my files to my laptops 2nd drive, and see how that works out. I can't see why it would put the laptop under any more stress than it should cope with, it's not like it's dealing with 50 pcs.

 

HHmmmm :-S

[Scott Schroeder]

You can selective sync in dropbox, it's in the advanced folder options. For my work dropbox, I only sync my work dropbox folder and leave the rest of my personal stuff off.

 

I use dropbox for all work stuff, but if I have those large PS files, I just use a USB drive the transfer the big stuff. My system at home is always on and dropbox is always running so if I do load up a large file from work, by the time I drive home, it's all ready to go. The upload time is usually the killer though, the downloads are fine.

[notamondayfan]

After doing some very basic read and write tests (saving and open a large psd file) from various computers on various drives, it's quite obvious that transfering files from the laptops harddrive is going to be very tedious.

 

So my next idea is to keep my current set-up (harddive in the PC, with the rendernode and laptop mapped to it), for when I'm in the office, then get a small usb 3 drive (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CRZ2PRM/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers), which will be sync with the harddrive, so when I'm out of office I can plug it into the laptop, and have it so the drive letters appear the same, so in theory it should work. Then when I return to the office I can sync again, and continue working.

 

The reason I've gone back on my "no additional drive" thing is because I didn't realise that now the portable USB drives don't need an additional power supply, and can run from the USB, which makes things so much tidier!

 

I think I'm getting somewhere now!

[AJLynn]

Don't carry around hard drives, that's an easy way to break them. Just run a sync service like Sugarsync or Skydrive and leave the computers on. They sync in the background. The majority of your stuff won't change in any given week, and even if you do have a 1gb PSD file (at which point it's time to reconsider your PS usage patterns) on your work PC, just leave it uploading as you head home and when you get home turn of the laptop, leave it on the desk, have a beer and when you're done your file is on the laptop.

 

Cloud sync is so much easier, and provides backup in the process, that it doesn't make sense to use your own hardware.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

BitTorrentSync. It is brilliant, ....direct computer syncing regardless if you are in the office or at home. No need to go to a third party server.

http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html

 

But the real trick to having a seamless workflow involves assigning a drive paths that are identical to your work computer. It takes a bit of research but you can essentially crate a system that appears identical to the drive paths on your work computer.

 

This means you can work on your project at work, and then open your project at home with no missing maps. And he best part is that when you go to work in the morning you simply submit your job to the farm without changing any paths or copying any files.

 

Dropbox users will say it is to complicated but I would rather have a seamless system than to spend precious time copying files or reassigning paths.

Edited November 2, 2013 by Crazy Homeless Guy