What’s Your Preference?

Ariana Murphy · #1 (**permalink**) 09-15-2011, 04:10 PM

Hello, everyone,

I'm wondering what everybody else does in the way of backup. External hard drive? Online backup services? A multitude of memory sticks or CD/DVDs? (Maybe a good subject for a poll!)

I've been using Western Digital hard drives, including a Passport (1 T) and a MyBook LIveDrive (2 T). In theory, they work really well, but in practice, not so much. The wireless one has had intermittent connection problems since the beginning, and now the other one has an issue with the connection cables. Also, the "retrieve" functions and other interfaces are clumsy and very very slow.

I checked out some online options, but they are pretty pricey. Also, don't trust the ads! The ad for Carbonite in the Outdoor Photographer magazine is VERY misleading. It says, "No one can put a price on the treasures on your computer. But backing them up automatically is just $59 a year." What they don't tell you until you've signed up is that they delete all files older than 30 days! So if you're thinking of going that way, BEWARE!

So, what say you? What do YOU do?

- Ariana

Krusty79 · #2 (**permalink**) 09-15-2011, 04:23 PM

I have two hard drives on my pc, so I use one for backup. I also recommend an off-site backup in case you have a fire/flood/earthquake, so I have a portable hard drive I keep at work for that. Some people even use safety deposit boxes at their bank for an off-site backup. I really haven't checked out the cloud based services - I suspect it may take a looong time to upload my RAW files.

smcilree · #3 (**permalink**) 09-15-2011, 05:25 PM

I have an external drive which contains a backup of my image files. In addition I am using CrashPlan to back up those same files to the cloud. I like the CrashPlan software which monitors the folders on my system which I wish to back up, and then makes the copies to both my local backup drive and the cloud without any intervention on my part. It will also allow one to make backups to a friend's system across town, but I haven't felt that necessary. You can download the CrashPlan software for free, and use it to make automatic local backups or backups to a friend's system even if you choose to not use their cloud storage. Other cloud backup providers are available, but since I keep my images on an external drive that immediately eliminated the popular Carbonite, and I found too many unhappy users on the rest.

SwissJon · #4 (**permalink**) 09-15-2011, 06:46 PM

I have a 2Gb Dropbox account.. But I've just signed up for LiveDrive, because Dropbox isn't so big, Livedrive offers 2Tb, which will cover all my RAW files, I'll keep a local backup also.. But I like LiveDrive because there's a mobile app too.

Matthias099 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-15-2011, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ariana Murphy

Hello, everyone,

I checked out some online options, but they are pretty pricey. Also, don't trust the ads! The ad for Carbonite in the Outdoor Photographer magazine is VERY misleading. It says, "No one can put a price on the treasures on your computer. But backing them up automatically is just $59 a year." What they don't tell you until you've signed up is that they delete all files older than 30 days! So if you're thinking of going that way, BEWARE!

So, what say you? What do YOU do?

- Ariana

I tried the Carbonite service for the free month, because I was considering them as well. However what they don't tell you, is that their service does not support external harddrives. That means that you would need to have all your picture files on the internal harddrive of your PC in order for them to be backed up to their server. And who has 2TB or more on their internal HDD? So I dropped them again.

In lack of a better option so far I have an external 1.5 TB HDD where I backup all my pictures. Also I burn a DVD for backup as well. You can do this by year, occasion, theme etc. I think the main point is to have not just one location where you have a backup but two or even three for redundancy, just in case the worst is going to happen . . . .

Jonbar18 · #6 (**permalink**) 09-15-2011, 07:46 PM

The most common use is an external hard and another offsite in case of a disaster. I wouldn't recommend disks or memory cards though: they have much smaller storage, break easier, have shorter lifespans, and become obsolete real quick. Online storage is always good since its less susceptible to physical damage and becoming obsolete. For $25 a year, you can get unlimited uploads to Flickr and limit the viewing size, and make personal stuff private

Ariana Murphy · #7 (**permalink**) 09-15-2011, 07:52 PM

This is all really good stuff! I'm going to check out that CrashPlan, and I'm also looking into customer service for my Western Digital stuff. I have a Flickr site, but I can't store my RAW files there.

Ariana Murphy · #8 (**permalink**) 09-16-2011, 12:03 AM

Thanks for the tip about CrashPlan, smcilree. I'm trying out the 30 day free trial. It looks very good, and the reviews I read were very positive.

kirbinster · #9 (**permalink**) 11-17-2011, 06:08 PM

My primary storage is on my RAID10 array which is comprised of four 2TB drives, this give me both speed and redunancy. Once a month I back up all my photos to an external 2TB firewire drive as well. In addition to this I upload almost all my photos as full size jpeg files to my Flickr Pro account. Flickr only charges $25 a year for unlimitted storage - can't beat that.