Hands up who does not back up thier photo files...

Nice one Kipax. Forums seem to get filled with threads like this!

Now what I do . . . only joking!!
 
I sync my "my documents" every week to an external hard disk.

I used to copy /. archive all my RAW files to DVD but don't bother anymore....I keep them in a sub-folder now on my main disk and just keep one years worth...deleting older ones as space if filled.
My system does nt have the biggest hard disks so the above may not be necessary as my plan is to purchase a PC with a larger hard disk later this year....

I use my flickr account as my off-site backup and cherry pick best photos for there.

Everyone's requirements will be different but the above works for me....
 
When you upload your photos to flickr, dont they all get resized making them pretty useless if you want to retrieve them as they are pretty small?
 
neil_g said:
in contrast i (and a lot of other people) wont touch maxtor drives with someone elses bargepole due to the amount of failures theyve seen from that make.
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Have to agree Neil. Maxtor is a big no-no, and even some large Western Digitals are that good. We always use Seagate Baracudas and never had a problem.

(I'm now looking round for a piece of wood to touch !)
 
jimmy83 said:
When you upload your photos to flickr, dont they all get resized making them pretty useless if you want to retrieve them as they are pretty small?
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you still have the original size available.

however i would not want to restore my files from flickr, as it would be a case of opening every single image and right click to save image. a complete PITA.
 
There's not much of a vote for online back-ups so far!

I use Carbonite, which has the disadvantage of not backing up external HD's. It's competitor Mozy does, however, so that would be a better choice for anyone going down this route.

The main disadvantage of online back-up seems to be the initial upload. It can take weeks, which might prevent me from switching over to Mozy.....

Now I'm getting 25Mb files from a 5D mk2 I wonder how long each shoot will take to upload....I think I'll be deleting more images straight away from now on....:thumbs:
 
I back all mine up to an external drive upon import and they also back up to an online server (CrashPlan). I couldn't even comprehend losing all my photos.

Online back up does take a long time to start with but once you're through that it's very quick. You can pay of course to send a disk and get the initial back up done that way, which of course is a lot quicker. I really like CrashPlan
 
Surely online backup is the only way forward. No matter how many HD's you have at home, if you have fire or theft, they're all gone. Even if you keep a separate HD in the garden shed, do you really want to go get it everyday after you've added more pics? And any way the damp would probably kill it in there.

As the main issue with online is the time to do the initial back up, (two weeks in my case), I would have thought some enterprising company with ultra fast Broadband, would offer the service for you. Any one with sooper dooper broadband speed wannna start offering this service :shrug:
 
treeman said:
Surely online backup is the only way forward. No matter how many HD's you have at home, if you have fire or theft, they're all gone. Even if you keep a separate HD in the garden shed, do you really want to go get it everyday after you've added more pics? And any way the damp would probably kill it in there.
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thats why you have more than 1 external drive and rotate them offsite (friend/neighbour/work drawer).
 
jerry12953 said:
That's a really good idea. Any more info about Crashplan?
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Their web site is at http://www.crashplan.com

The software also allows you to back up to a friend's PC/Mac over the net too. So you and a mate can back up to each other for added security. Also you can encrypt the files.

neil_g said:
thats why you have more than 1 external drive and rotate them offsite (friend/neighbour/work drawer).
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Hardly the height of convenience.
 
neil_g said:
so taking a hard drive to work (or wherever) with you once there is new data on it and swapping it for another is inconvinient? depends how much you value your data i guess..
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Certainly more inconvenient than allowing your system to just upload to an online storage site that's housed in a secure building and fully redundant, overnight with no interaction required by you. The swapping HDD idea is a bit weak if you ask me. It would require extensive cataloguing of exactly where a file you need is and then going to, and retracting that drive, from work, installing the drive when you get home, getting the file, uninstalling the drive and putting back the drive you are presently working with and then taking the archive drive back to work.

Give me online storage any day.
 
Online is all very well, if you've got a quick broadband connection (and unlimited data on the bb package)

I rarely get above 1mg down, and 300kb up, so if I were to backup online, I would be leaving my machine on 24/7 and it'd probably be constantly uploading.

My first backup would be about 100gb, and then even if I only send 1gb afterwards, it would take so long it wouldn't be worth it.

External HD is the only real way for me, rotated to a family members address (and double hdd backups inside the machine, in case a single drive fails)
 
LJR said:
Their web site is at http://www.crashplan.com

The software also allows you to back up to a friend's PC/Mac over the net too. So you and a mate can back up to each other for added security. Also you can encrypt the files.

Hardly the height of convenience.
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How long have you been using them? Did you seed your initial back-up? How much did it cost for them to send you a HD?

I know some people don't like the idea of online back-ups, but that's their decision......
 
LJR said:
Certainly more inconvenient than allowing your system to just upload to an online storage site that's housed in a secure building and fully redundant, overnight with no interaction required by you. The swapping HDD idea is a bit weak if you ask me. It would require extensive cataloguing of exactly where a file you need is and then going to, and retracting that drive, from work, installing the drive when you get home, getting the file, uninstalling the drive and putting back the drive you are presently working with and then taking the archive drive back to work.

Give me online storage any day.
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no it wouldnt.

youll always have a copy on your system, youll then copy all files to hard drive 1. take hard drive 1 offsite, retrieve disk 2 from offsite, copy all files to hard drive 2. youre always doing a full copy so youll always have 3 FULL copies of data.

show me where that method falls over..

however regarding online backups what happens if your internet fails the night before your house burns down?
 
mattyh said:
Online is all very well, if you've got a quick broadband connection (and unlimited data on the bb package)

I rarely get above 1mg down, and 300kb up, so if I were to backup online, I would be leaving my machine on 24/7 and it'd probably be constantly uploading.

My first backup would be about 100gb, and then even if I only send 1gb afterwards, it would take so long it wouldn't be worth it.

External HD is the only real way for me, rotated to a family members address (and double hdd backups inside the machine, in case a single drive fails)
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My first back up was 120GB and so I know where you are coming from and if I had to list a downside to online storage back up then that would be it for sure. Like I said though you can send them DVD's, disk, whatever and they'll do an express set up for you (for an additional fee of course). As for on going back ups. I find that my raw files, which I convert to DNG files, are actually around the 12MB mark which isn't very prohibitive for uploading (these are from a Nikon D300. I'd expect DNG's from a Canon 5D MKII to be around 20MB given the additional resolution).

jerry12953 said:
How long have you been using them? Did you seed your initial back-up? How much did it cost for them to send you a HD?

I know some people don't like the idea of online back-ups, but that's their decision......
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I was using MozyHome for about a year and then I moved to Crashplan as I really didn't get on with the Mozy interface. I think I've been using them now for about 6 months or so.

I didn't send a HDD to them I bit the bullet and allowed my 120GB to upload. It took about 9 days (it only did it in the small hours while I was asleep). I think the cost to send a disk and have them do the initial upload is around £150 (kind of why I just let mine update over the 9 days) :)

neil_g said:
no it wouldnt.

youll always have a copy on your system, youll then copy all files to hard drive 1. take hard drive 1 offsite, retrieve disk 2 from offsite, copy all files to hard drive 2. youre always doing a full copy so youll always have 3 FULL copies of data.

show me where that method falls over..
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I never said it fell over. I said it wasn't as convenient and you having to climb into a vehicle to pull a drive from a location, come back, install, pull the file, uninstall drive, etc, etc, is not as convenient than pulling a file over the internet - probably why the internet took off in the first place ;)

however regarding online backups what happens if your internet fails the night before your house burns down?
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lol yeah that's likely. But to humour you and answer your question - I go to my parents' house, use their internet to download my files and burn them to DVD's. That's the beauty of the net :)

What do you do if
- you drop the hdd you are retrieving
- the weather prevents you from going to the site to retrieve the drive you need
- your house burns down before you got to take the drive you are working with to the archive location
- a Yeti breaks in to the off site storage facility and eats your archive drive

To be honest if you don't want to accept that online storage is a good solution then fair enough. I don't really care either way. I can tell you though that it is a good way to make a secure and virtually always available back up (I can pull any archived file I want from any location in the world which has internet access)
 
LJR said:
I never said it fell over. I said it wasn't as convenient and you having to climb into a vehicle to pull a drive from a location, come back, install, pull the file, uninstall drive, etc, etc, is not as convenient than pulling a file over the internet - probably why the internet took off in the first place ;)
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you should still have a copy on the external disk that is still on site though.
 
LJR said:
To be honest if you don't want to accept that online storage is a good solution then fair enough. I don't really care either way. I can tell you though that it is a good way to make a secure and virtually always available back up (I can pull any archived file I want from any location in the world which has internet access)
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for the record, dont mistake me defending my backup methods as being argumentitive :)
 
I tried to use online backup but I have a terabyte to upload and I generate more data daily than it is possible to upload. So this would never work for me. I have a 2Tb WD firewire drive and I used time machine to back everything up. I'm really need another backup drive to keep offsite.

I also need more primary storage since I only have 30Gb left free on my iMac!! :(
 
I use a combination of onsite and offsite automatic back ups (Time Capsule/Mozy) and system back ups and hard drive for the less important archive back ups (prettymuch every RAW file I've ever taken).
 
neil_g said:
you should still have a copy on the external disk that is still on site though.
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Upon import my files back up to a local external drive. The online back up is purely for added security and to get the files away from the home in case of fire, stolen drives, etc.

As long as people are backing up with a strategy which supports the importance they place on their images then s'all good in my book.
 
neil_g said:
no it wouldnt.

youll always have a copy on your system, youll then copy all files to hard drive 1. take hard drive 1 offsite, retrieve disk 2 from offsite, copy all files to hard drive 2. youre always doing a full copy so youll always have 3 FULL copies of data.

show me where that method falls over..
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I wish I was that organised!

I wouldn't have a hope in h*ll of keeping to that routine for more than five milliseconds......
 
Dropbox maybe an option? They have a nice iPhone app too.
 
I reckon your best bet is to go a similar route I've done with a couple of USB boxes that get synchronised. It's cheap, (£100 for 1TB x 2 hard disks, and £10-£30 for software if not free). Easily upgradeable (just replace with larger drives, dont even need to be the same models just enough disk size on each to replicate), plenty of space, there's only so many GB's a usb stick can take and even the largest ones cost more than a usb hard disk, nice and fast and if you wish you could take a hard disk away with you every day
 
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