[gringer]

What about the CIFs and corresponding files? There are situations where there is need to externally re-basecall the data with bustard. With BCLs alone this is not possible.
Storing CIF plus corresponding files takes up to 3.5TB per HiSeq flowcell ...

Both Our HiscanSQ and Solid4 chuck out the image files by default once they've been converted, but store the intensity files for recalling. The solutions here are for data backup, and if you haven't worked out the most likely sequence for analysis (from the intensity files) before you do the backup, there's unlikely to be any need for that post-backup.

IMHO USB disks are not suited for such amount of data (especially when you are running more than one machine).

You can get hot-swap SATA drive bays, which make the process easier than using a USB enclosure. There's no need to involve the slower USB connection:

http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sata_enclosures/

[sklages]

Both Our HiscanSQ and Solid4 chuck out the image files by default once they've been converted, but store the intensity files for recalling. The solutions here are for data backup, and if you haven't worked out the most likely sequence for analysis (from the intensity files) before you do the backup, there's unlikely to be any need for that post-backup.

Perfectly true if it is your own data; if you provide data as a sequencing core facility for "external" people, this is not necessarily true :-(

You can get hot-swap SATA drive bays, which make the process easier than using a USB enclosure. There's no need to involve the slower USB connection:
http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sata_enclosures/

Yes, we are not using external USB disks ... we are using SATA jbods.