Long Term Digital Storage?

[EspressoJunkie]

I'm currently in the process of beginning to update my 5 year old PC and I've around 3TB of images to sort through ( yay....!). A lot of these will most likely end up being deleted but there are still going to be plenty left that are important and are currently just stored on standard internal HDD's.

I'm conscious that (especially for the important family stuff ) this isn't the best option as any type of hardware failure would be potentially disastrous.

So I'm wondering what the best ( cost effective) option for long term digital storage is? I don't want to use something cloud based as with the likely amount of files I'll have I would probably need to pay for something subscription based.

I had thought about getting an external Blu-Ray recorder and doing it that way, as it wouldn't be expensive and I like the idea of having them 'physically' stored.

Are there any better options?

 

[Paul W. H]

Blu-ray/DVD disks is not something I would use as years ago when I was into video I archived some files onto both and after about 5 years one had failed completely and two others were "mucking about". I would use external hard drives and store some "Off-Site". I personally I would not trust the "cloud" as the only source of backup.

 

[SFTPhotography]

Good news - external SSD's and HDD's have never been cheaper. Two drives stored at two different places is back up enough.

 

[SFTPhotography]

Something like this

Samsung Portable SSD T5 1TB

The Samsung Portable SSD T5 1TB in blue offers 1TB of storage space for laptops, computers and mobile devices.

www.photospecialist.co.uk

 

[SFTPhotography]

Or

G-Technology G-DRIVE External USB Drive for Desktop, USB 3.0 | Western Digital

G-DRIVE USB delivers high performance storage in a compact, yet stylish package. Encased in an all-aluminum enclosure and featuring a remarkably fast USB 3.0 interface that meets the needs of the creative professional, this 7200RPM drive is perfect for storage-intensive multimedia files...

shop.westerndigital.com

 

[EspressoJunkie]

That 6TB one looks ideal!

 

[Harlequin565]

I don't want to use something cloud based as with the likely amount of files I'll have I would probably need to pay for something subscription based.

If you have Amazon Prime you get unlimited photo storage along with all the other jazz. It's potentially not "long term" but having an off-site backup in case your house catches fire is never a bad thing. Photos are probably the one thing you can't replace along with people. And if you already have Prime, it's free! If you don't though - this is probably of no use.

 

[SFTPhotography]

That 6TB one looks ideal!

Get it done...but do keep multiple copies at different places.

 

[SFTPhotography]

If you have Amazon Prime you get unlimited photo storage along with all the other jazz. It's potentially not "long term" but having an off-site backup in case your house catches fire is never a bad thing. Photos are probably the one thing you can't replace along with people. And if you already have Prime, it's free! If you don't though - this is probably of no use.

Does Prime include RAW's in that?

 

[Harlequin565]

Does Prime include RAW's in that?

Yep. But not any sidecar xmps. However you get something like 2Gb of free (non photo) storage too which is plenty for the sidecar files.

 

[SFTPhotography]

Yep. But not any sidecar xmps. However you get something like 2Gb of free storage too which is plenty for the sidecar files.

That's the answer for me also.

 

[adrianlambert]

I used to use tapes in duplicate and a local online copy. Cost a fortune and was a pain. Now buy 2x cheap hard drives and duplicate my archive but also make lossy DNG files at full size which end up about the size of a jpeg and upload to backblaze. So I end up with offsite onsite and online copies of everything for a decent outlay.

 

[Tysonator]

I would suggest investing in NAS unit with HDD mirroring, that way you can add HDD in the future when larger storage TB become cheaper.
I am looking at buying 2 x 6TB for backing up my files. One 8TB will be the back up disk and the other one will be a copy / mirror of No1 6TB disk.
Cloud storage will be expensive as our image files will just increase over time and NAS unit will be your personal cloud storage which can be expanded as HDD become cheaper.

 

[adrianlambert]

I would suggest investing in NAS unit with HDD mirroring, that way you can add HDD in the future when larger storage TB become cheaper.
I am looking at buying 2 x 6TB for backing up my files. One 8TB will be the back up disk and the other one will be a copy / mirror of No1 6TB disk.
Cloud storage will be expensive as our image files will just increase over time and NAS unit will be your personal cloud storage which can be expanded as HDD become cheaper.

There are more efficient ways to arrange the drives which will save money but for me after buying a high spec synology nas which implied a long life ahead of it I found it to be limited. Currently it’s in a cupboard after being retired a few years back in favour of a simple external Hd system. But then again I had a spare computer that I could attach the disks to. The biggest bonus for me is being able to remotely work on the files in storage if need be.