Cloud storage

[clairebear150980]

Ok, so I'm starting to fill up the space on my external Hard drive, and I'm concerned about what will happen to our pics if the hard drive corrupts. With this in mind I've been considering cloud storage.

Do any of you have any recommendations for good storage sites? Or any that you would recommend I stay away from?

Thanks xx

[sk66]

I'd just burn DVD's and put them in a fire safe. I'd consider cloud storage if it is free, but the transfer times and connectivity issues can make it less than convenient, and it's not a guarantee.

[Indigo November]

Glad someone posted a thread on this, I've been considering the same thing.

@sk66 are DVDs better than CDs, and if so, why?

[sk66]

Originally Posted by Indigo November

@sk66 are DVDs better than CDs, and if so, why?

Nope, they just hold more.

[tuxcomputers]

My suggestion, get a NAS, even if all you have is a single PC. I just bought a Western Digitial MyBook 1TB NAS for home between 3 PC's. The NAS is replacing a noisy old server that only has 400G of storage.

If at a later date you get more PC's then they can share the storage. If you have a PS3 or Xbox (or a DLNA device) you can stream your photos (or videos) to your TV.

Some of the NAS devices allow you to access your storage from offsite even if your PC at home is off.

[ShantDotMe]

I personally would not trust in any company to hold my files for good.

As for storage it all depends on how much you are willing to spend to make those photos "safe", The more you spend, the safer.

the best thing will be to have a RAID 5 (at least - RAID 0+1/ 1+0 / 5+1 are better options) configued NAS/eSATA/USB or even internal Hard disk drives & an external equivelent HD copy that is stored somewhere different & a bit far, than the location of the first set.

RAID 5 - Distributed parity requires all drives (at least 3) but one to be present to operate; drive failure requires replacement, but the array is not destroyed by a single drive failure. Upon drive failure, any subsequent reads can be calculated from the distributed parity such that the drive failure is masked from the end user. The array will have data loss in the event of a second drive failure and is vulnerable until the data that was on the failed drive is rebuilt onto a replacement drive. A single drive failure in the set will result in reduced performance of the entire set until the failed drive has been replaced and rebuilt.

[tuxcomputers]

Originally Posted by sk66

I'd just burn DVD's and put them in a fire safe.

Just be aware that burnt DVD's (or CD's) do not last forever, they have a shelf life of about 5 years, heres why:

1. Pressed DVD's use a very thin layer of material (usually aluminimum) that has been "punched".
2. The laser shining on the material is at a different angle on the surface than the punched pits, reading the DVD's picks up this difference.
3. "Burnt" DVD's have a layer of material that reacts to the laser
4. The output of the laser during the burning process is 10x the output when reading
5. The material reacts to the burning laser and becomes hazy
6. The reading laser can't reflect off the hazy spots and reads it as a pit.
7. Over time the punched DVD's do not change (apart from surface scratches)
8. Over time the chemicals in writeable DVD's breaks down.

There are things you can do to overcome the time limit of the burnt DVD's:

1. Write on the DVD the date it was burnt
2. Every year check how long it has been since the DVD was written
3. Burn a new copy of DVD when the it gets to like 2 or 3 years old

[candleman]

you could get a flickr Pro account.. and then you have unlimited uploads.
set them to private and nobody will ever see them.


if something does crash.. you can get a Cd's sent to you from flickr for a fee.... or i believe there are batch downloaders available.

of course this will only back-up your jpegs.. not the Raw files.

[Quo Fan]

Originally Posted by tuxcomputers

Just be aware that burnt DVD's (or CD's) do not last forever, they have a shelf life of about 5 years, heres why:

1. Pressed DVD's use a very thin layer of material (usually aluminimum) that has been "punched".
2. The laser shining on the material is at a different angle on the surface than the punched pits, reading the DVD's picks up this difference.
3. "Burnt" DVD's have a layer of material that reacts to the laser
4. The output of the laser during the burning process is 10x the output when reading
5. The material reacts to the burning laser and becomes hazy
6. The reading laser can't reflect off the hazy spots and reads it as a pit.
7. Over time the punched DVD's do not change (apart from surface scratches)
8. Over time the chemicals in writeable DVD's breaks down.

There are things you can do to overcome the time limit of the burnt DVD's:

1. Write on the DVD the date it was burnt
2. Every year check how long it has been since the DVD was written
3. Burn a new copy of DVD when the it gets to like 2 or 3 years old

Playing Devil's Advocate here. If the above is the case, then why don't I have to replace my audio cds and commercial DVDs every 5 years or so? Are commercial discs different than consumer discs?

Just so you know, I used to fix copiers, and one of my former clients was a disc duplication company. The copier was in the warehouse where they stored the discs, and they were the same as the discs that you and I could buy, except they didn't have any identifying marks on them, save for the encoding at the hub. Disc duplication firms have machines that automatically burn images onto the discs. Example with color printer and example without printer.

[Swisstony10]

Originally Posted by Quo Fan

Are commercial discs different than consumer discs?

Yep - see points 1 & 2 which explain how pressed discs work, as compared with the burned discs explained from point 3 onwards...