How do you backup your images and files?

[doughnut days]

I am starting to rethink how to backup my RAWs, data, music, etc
and wanted to take a survey on how you do it.
I know the options are endless...externals, drobo, eSATA, online storage and the list goes on.
I also have three questions :
~when I back up photo files from my internal drive (RAW, JPGS) to my external hard drives, I just do a drag and drop. Is there another way that I should be backing up my files. Perhaps using some kind of software? I use a Mac so what kind of software is recommended.
~Am needing a new external soon. Any suggestion? I’ve had a few iomega drives – and they’ve been reliable for me. any other recommendations?
- online storage for RAW files: Crashplan or Backblaze?

Thanks so much for any input!

[mipo]

Hi,
My way of doing backup's is as follow.
First I have my workstation hard drives configured as Raid1 (Mirror).

Then I do backups to additionnal internal Raid1 drives. ( That gives me kind of 4 copies internally, mean on 4 physical hard drives)

Then Backup to multiple external portable hard drives and always have a minimum of 1 copy stored externally at a relative.

For all those backups I wrote simple batch files to do the jobs and have them scheduled.

In my mind it is still not clear what is the data retention on the hard drives. The new drives are better at data retention than the older ones but it is still a magnetic media prone to lose bits of data here and there.


And few times a year take a week-end to backup to DVD's, also keep out of premise copies.
(Really thinking in going to Blu-Ray, but cannot find yet Blu-Ray discs in large quantity)

Good luck with your backup strategy!

[Photologyst]

If you have a Mac you should have Time Machine, which will back-up your system automatically. Apple - Mac OS X - What is Mac OS X - Time Machine

The best external drives are made by Seagate or La Cie.

You should be converting your RAWs to DNGs.

I would never trust my data to an online service.