Back-up hard drive storage options

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Giles2373

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I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction in regards to photo storage.

I currently have my photos on my iMac and/or on a Western Digital hard-drive. My concern is of course a failure in the hardware causing me to lose all the images I have taken.

If I copy photos from the iMac to the hard drive it seems to remove them from one and put them on the other. Am I doing something wrong or is that the way it's supposed to be, so as to simply free up space?

If so, what are my options to duplicate and ensure I have proper copies of all my photos? I have read a little bit about RAID and have seen the LaCie drives. I believe these will allow duplicate back-ups but I'm thinking that if they are on the same physical device there is still a risk if that fails?

What I am after is storing everything in at least two locations, even if they are side by side. As I use RAW all the files are of a significant size so backing up to things like memory sticks or CD's doesnt seem practical? Advice please if any one can make some suggestions.

Thank you

Giles
 
asaspasas6 said:
NAS device + Online storage? And of course External HDD copy (or even 2) :)
Click to expand...

Would an apple time machine be considered a NAS device? I was thinking of maybe getting one but am still not sure if it would meet the requirement. In other words if I had a total loss on the iMac would the Time machine provide a back up of all the RAW files? I'm assuming this is what it is there for?
 
A basic rule of backup as I see it, is to have multiple copies on physically separate hard drives. This is simplistically a numbers game, the more HDD's the lower the statistical likelihood of more than one failing at a time.

I am not a Mac user but in PC terms copy means copy so why your Mac is 'moving' the files and not copying them I have no idea.

I have yet to create or use online storage because with ADSL broadband shifting GB's of files is not practical.........also what I need to act on is regularly ensuring a backup HDD is actually off site.
 
Frankly where my photos are concerned I'm paranoid about loss.

So I have them on 2 HDDs; on the cloud at 3 different FREE hotmail One Drive sites and on Blu-Ray and a lot of old ones on DVDs.

The old DVDs are all now backed up to HDDs but I keep them nevertheless.

And the Blu-Rays are the metal ablative ones NOT the cheaper dye based ones.
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Giles2373 said:
Would an apple time machine be considered a NAS device? I was thinking of maybe getting one but am still not sure if it would meet the requirement. In other words if I had a total loss on the iMac would the Time machine provide a back up of all the RAW files? I'm assuming this is what it is there for?
Click to expand...
No. Its a backup methodology. A device would be an external hard drive, NAS or server.

What you do depends on how careful you want to be and how much you want to spend.

First figure on a single hard drive failing.
Then figure on a power supply failing affecting all backups on each hard drive powered by that PSU.
Then figure on your house burning down.

So first is an external hard drive with one copy of whats on your computer.
Then is a NAS with 1-2 copies on 1-2 drives in the NAS , along with the external drive.
Use the external drive and drop it off at a family members house, then back it up from time to time. Or upload invaluable items online.
 
Have a look at Carbon Copy Cloner. It can be set to automatically backup all of your photos to any hard drive. I use it to backup to an external hard drive every week. I also use time machine as as a second backup along with an off site external hard drive that carbon copy cloner does too when the drive is connected. Carbon copy cloner can be downloaded as a free trial so it's worth trying be you buy. It's a great program, I have it set up yo complete to automatic backups each week and after each is completed it emails me to say if it was successful or not.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Its clarified a few things and i now just need to get the methodology right.
 
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