Backing Up photos
Discussion
Sorry to distract from a forum of really amazing "fantastic", "random" and macro photos, plus sensible questions about equipment, by asking a really basic question .......
I have about a thousand photos on my laptop - if the laptop crashed and couldn't be sorted, I'd lose the lot. What's the best/simplest way for an IT dumbo like me to back them up? Thanks.
I have about a thousand photos on my laptop - if the laptop crashed and couldn't be sorted, I'd lose the lot. What's the best/simplest way for an IT dumbo like me to back them up? Thanks.
Personally, I want my backups entirely under my own control. So inital backup is to a second hard disk in my PC. Then to an external hard disk usually kept at opposite end and floor of the house. Finally, once every couple of weeks to a second HD that normally resided at a friend's house (more than 2 miles away so fire unlikely to jump the gap!). I keep his off-site back-up.
Don't use backup software just a batch file running XCOPY. The backups can be read on any PC that can read NTFS format files.
Don't use backup software just a batch file running XCOPY. The backups can be read on any PC that can read NTFS format files.
Glosphil said:
Personally, I want my backups entirely under my own control. So inital backup is to a second hard disk in my PC. Then to an external hard disk usually kept at opposite end and floor of the house. Finally, once every couple of weeks to a second HD that normally resided at a friend's house (more than 2 miles away so fire unlikely to jump the gap!). I keep his off-site back-up.
Don't use backup software just a batch file running XCOPY. The backups can be read on any PC that can read NTFS format files.
I use Microsoft SyncToy to an external drive for backups. It allows mirroring of files and directories and has a UI for ease of configuring and a command line tool so you can use it in scheduled tasks. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.as...Don't use backup software just a batch file running XCOPY. The backups can be read on any PC that can read NTFS format files.
I also use Dropbox - you can get a lot more than the initial 2Gb by doing different things - installing the mobile app, referring friends etc. One thing that isn't widely shown on their website is that if you use their photo import feature it adds quite a lot of space to your account.
I'm planning on getting one of these:
http://www.ebuyer.com/248760-d-link-dns-320-sharec...
And installing 2 x 2TB Hard drives. It can be set up to use RAID 1, which means what ever you put on 1 hard drive will be mirrored by the other. This means that although you have 4TB worth of hard drive installed, you can only use 2TB, as the second just copies whats on the first.
Its means that should one break you always have the data saved on another and when you replace the broken one it copies everything back over and your ready to go again.
With it being plugged into the router it means that you can also access your data from anywhere within your network, and also over the internet should you want to. It can also back up USBs and act as a printer server and an iTunes server.
You can spend hundreds to thousands of pounds on these NAS boxes, you have to decide how much its worth to you to not lose the data your storing.
A NAS box like this is what I would recommend
http://www.ebuyer.com/248760-d-link-dns-320-sharec...
And installing 2 x 2TB Hard drives. It can be set up to use RAID 1, which means what ever you put on 1 hard drive will be mirrored by the other. This means that although you have 4TB worth of hard drive installed, you can only use 2TB, as the second just copies whats on the first.
Its means that should one break you always have the data saved on another and when you replace the broken one it copies everything back over and your ready to go again.
With it being plugged into the router it means that you can also access your data from anywhere within your network, and also over the internet should you want to. It can also back up USBs and act as a printer server and an iTunes server.
You can spend hundreds to thousands of pounds on these NAS boxes, you have to decide how much its worth to you to not lose the data your storing.
A NAS box like this is what I would recommend
GetCarter said:
Dropbox.com First two gigs free - share with any other computer worldwide. The best Interweb backup/file sharing thing ever. (If you put Dropbox on two of your own computers, it backs up to both as well as in the 'cloud'
You can get easy space by recommending it as well IIRC - I'm sure I got a few extra gig by recommending it to one of my other email addresses.Personally I'd stick with offline storage though. I'll happily use Dropbox (useful for moving stuff to and from my mobile) but I'd rather have it backed up on an external drive or (in my case) spare PC.
My method:
1. I have a big (32Gb) card in the camera which stays there all the time.
2. Every month, I copy the files off the camera onto an external HD.
3. Also every month, I do a backup of all the computer data, including the external HD on which the pictures are stored, on to a backup HD.
4. At the end of the year, I cut (not copy!) and paste all of the files from the SD card on to another (smaller) SD card and archive it somewhere safe. Card size relative to number of shots taken, obviously; I'm not made of money!
Card in camera is now empty for the following year.
So, in the event of a computer failure (which happened to me about two years ago), I have the choice of either restoring my pictures from the external HD, the backup or the individual SD cards from the camera.
1. I have a big (32Gb) card in the camera which stays there all the time.
2. Every month, I copy the files off the camera onto an external HD.
3. Also every month, I do a backup of all the computer data, including the external HD on which the pictures are stored, on to a backup HD.
4. At the end of the year, I cut (not copy!) and paste all of the files from the SD card on to another (smaller) SD card and archive it somewhere safe. Card size relative to number of shots taken, obviously; I'm not made of money!
Card in camera is now empty for the following year.
So, in the event of a computer failure (which happened to me about two years ago), I have the choice of either restoring my pictures from the external HD, the backup or the individual SD cards from the camera.
At the risk of starting an argument, a NAS or RAID box is not really a backup - it's protection against a disk failure. The majority use specific boards, so if the controller toasts itself, you've lost everything.
In addition to this, they are on site copies - I would recommend that you look at offsite storage in some shape or form.
Watch the T&Cs with websites - you may well be giving away the rights to your photos.
Personally, I'd go with a local copy and an offsite cloud solution whe volumes of data start increasing.
In addition to this, they are on site copies - I would recommend that you look at offsite storage in some shape or form.
Watch the T&Cs with websites - you may well be giving away the rights to your photos.
Personally, I'd go with a local copy and an offsite cloud solution whe volumes of data start increasing.
Podie said:
At the risk of starting an argument, a NAS or RAID box is not really a backup - it's protection against a disk failure. The majority use specific boards, so if the controller toasts itself, you've lost everything.
Run that past me again? I've got my main desktop that I store my pic's on. Once a day it backs up to a separate HDD on a separate PC...where's the risk? I'm not being sarcastic here - I just don't understand.I looked at a lot of on line storage but for the cost of an annual on line fee, I got a decent sized HD and take it away from home after backing up, I have also spread it around several HD and DVD including one HD torn out of a NAS when the controller died. It is the off site that I am interested in. Just in case the worst happens.
I may still go for an online. Spideroak seemed to come out the easiest for me on the trials. One or two converted the raw to jpeg though.
Edit. I do have flickr and use that but it will only do jpeg.
I may still go for an online. Spideroak seemed to come out the easiest for me on the trials. One or two converted the raw to jpeg though.
Edit. I do have flickr and use that but it will only do jpeg.
tenohfive said:
Podie said:
At the risk of starting an argument, a NAS or RAID box is not really a backup - it's protection against a disk failure. The majority use specific boards, so if the controller toasts itself, you've lost everything.
Run that past me again? I've got my main desktop that I store my pic's on. Once a day it backs up to a separate HDD on a separate PC...where's the risk? I'm not being sarcastic here - I just don't understand.If you were ever unlucky enough to suffer a flood, fire of theft - where would your backup be?
Cheib said:
I back up onto a hard drive using Time Machine on my iMac.
What would be brilliant is if I could say set up a hard drive (via her computer) at my Mum's hous that would automatically once a month back up my photo library.
Does anything like that exist ? If not it should.
Try crashplan. It offers that for free. This would enable you to back up your data to another computer elsewhere.What would be brilliant is if I could say set up a hard drive (via her computer) at my Mum's hous that would automatically once a month back up my photo library.
Does anything like that exist ? If not it should.
e320dave said:
Cheib said:
I back up onto a hard drive using Time Machine on my iMac.
What would be brilliant is if I could say set up a hard drive (via her computer) at my Mum's hous that would automatically once a month back up my photo library.
Does anything like that exist ? If not it should.
Try crashplan. It offers that for free. This would enable you to back up your data to another computer elsewhere.What would be brilliant is if I could say set up a hard drive (via her computer) at my Mum's hous that would automatically once a month back up my photo library.
Does anything like that exist ? If not it should.
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