advice on backing up

[SpydieNut]

i'd like to start backing up my pictures and would like to hear what other people use.

i think a few on here said they back up to more than one device and store them in different locations. that's great, but do you just use extra CF cards, or external hard drives?

any advice will be gratefully received.

many thanks

SN

[Scho]

i did use dvd's for a while, was a proper pain in the arse to find anything.

i use a 1tb external drive now which makes things very easy.

[agent006]

I use www.mozy.com

I have a paid account for my home PC that backs up everything (around 350gb). When i'm on holiday i use one of their free 2gb accounts and upload critical things along the way whenever i get WiFi access.

Edited by agent006 on Tuesday 17th June 12:10

[White Fly Swater]

I hav all photos on three computers, back up to a couple of removeable 500Mb and use dvd's as well - and when I am out and about I have a 120Mb Digimate

[MartinP]

I use an external hard drive too (have done so ever since I lost loads of data from a failed internal drive).

[Kurtblythman]

Did use a 320gb external harddrive untill i accidently plugged the laptop charger that was 7v too big into it and i blew the harddrive. Going to cost a hell of alot to get anything off it.

So now im just using CD's and DVD's. Less easy to accidently delete anything on a CD.

[ofcorsa]

Are Pendrives any use for backing up?

[_dobbo_]

Network attached 500GB hard drive, which has an extra 250GB hard drive connected via USB.

All photos are stored on my main PC and backed up on the network drive.

[SpydieNut]

thanks all

sounds like i need an external drive (or 2) then, as well as possibly an on-line site.

also have a CD / DVD burner which i could start using.

[VxDuncan]

Bear in mind CD's and DVD aren't long life for back-ups as the can (and do!) fail eventually. I think they're rated about 10 years or so. I know some of my early audio CDs have started to delaminate.

[Gold]

Time machine and facebook/flikr

[AlfaFoxtrot]

If you've got nothing at the moment then an external hard drive is the easiest way. Only about £60 from Amazon now for 250Gb or more, and just plug it in and copy the folders across (or use a specific backup application if you like). Store it somewhere safe in your house, although obviously if you can leave it elsewhere that's the best. I'm happy backing up once a week or so, but if you're income depends on the photos or you have some extra special ones make it more regular!

I'm increasingly finding DVD's too small for backing up any volume of data now, and BluRay is still too expensive to use, so I'm looking to get a 2nd external drive as it's so quick and easy with USB2.

[CVP]

Originals kept on 750GB external hard drive. That drive backed up to another portable 500GB drive kept in fire proof safe when not being backed up.

DVD burnt for each 4GB of originals uploaded onto machine and also DVD burnt for each 4GB of submissions to picture agency, burn copies of tiffs and submitted jpegs (no sales yet )

I hope this is enough to prepare me when a hard drive failure comes my way.

My big worry is all the programs I have on my PC should that disk go, might have to sort that out soon as Pc is getting old now.

Chris

[m12_nathan]

AlfaFoxtrot said:

If you've got nothing at the moment then an external hard drive is the easiest way.

Mozy is easier and cheaper than an external drive, or carbonite or one of the others. Just install it and forget, it'll automatically backup new files as they are added to the folders you specify. And if your house burns down or you are burgled you don't have to worry about losing the external drive.

[beanbag]

agent006 said:

I use www.mozy.com

I have a paid account for my home PC that backs up everything (around 350gb). When i'm on holiday i use one of their free 2gb accounts and upload critical things along the way whenever i get WiFi access.

Edited by agent006 on Tuesday 17th June 12:10

I would never rely on an external drive. Just like internal drives they go wrong and are susceptible to theft and more so to damage.

As agent006, I also use Mozy and I've not looked back. You get unlimited storage and you can retrieve the data wherever you are and you files are safe and sound while you get on with your things.

You don't even have to think about backing them up as it's done automatically for you.

Forget external drives. Online storage is miles better as it's more secure and better protected.

[furtive]

Another Mozy user here. Works great - a real fire and forget solution

[tangerine_sedge]

beanbag said:

Forget external drives. Online storage is miles better as it's more secure and better protected.

I've never trusted online storage. Who's got access to your data? What is their backup strategy? Do they have disaster recovery in place? Who owns the data? What happens when the company is taken-over? What happens when the company folds? What's the SLA on getting your data back?

I'd much rather trust to things that are fully in *my* control, i.e. data replicated across several disks (internal & external) in several locations. It's a fairly simple process that I do everytime I upload any images from my camera, it consumes some time whilst copying, but it's usually just enough time to make myself a cup of tea

[beanbag]

tangerine_sedge said:

beanbag said:

Forget external drives. Online storage is miles better as it's more secure and better protected.

I've never trusted online storage.

I see your point but....

tangerine_sedge said:

Who's got access to your data?

Mozy is owed by EMC. The largest storage corporate in the world. The data is stored in their data warehouses.

tangerine_sedge said:

What is their backup strategy?

The data is mirrored in at least two separate locations. So effectively, your data is copied at least twice. All in different places.

tangerine_sedge said:

Do they have disaster recovery in place?

As mentioned previously. One data center goes down, there is another that simply takes over. There is redundant backup on this also since there are data warehouses in many other places also.

tangerine_sedge said:

Who owns the data?

You own the data! There's not much Mozy can do with it anyway. It's under lock and key with a 128bit encryption string that only I know.

tangerine_sedge said:

What happens when the company is taken-over?

Already happened. Mozy was an independent firm that was taken over by EMC. This happened about a year ago. No changes happened and the service simply got better with much higher bandwidths for uploading.

tangerine_sedge said:

What happens when the company folds?

Highly unlikely. EMC are on the map to stay. It's 99% likely, the disks of your hard disk are made by them. Most corporates like Amazon, Microsoft and many others use EMC for storage. Even HP has some EMC Clarion servers in their warehouses!!! I know as I worked on them briefly!!!!

tangerine_sedge said:

What's the SLA on getting your data back?

You can retrieve your data at any time. You have the option to have it burnt on DVD or downloaded. Either way Mozy still cannot read it as it's always encrypted. Even if it's burnt on DVD.

tangerine_sedge said:

I'd much rather trust to things that are fully in *my* control, i.e. data replicated across several disks (internal & external) in several locations. It's a fairly simple process that I do everytime I upload any images from my camera, it consumes some time whilst copying, but it's usually just enough time to make myself a cup of tea

Again I understand what you're saying, but I know already of 4 cases where friends and clients of mine have backed up their data on an external drive and then it gets lost, stolen or broken. Worst case is the laptop or PC is stolen also (which happened to a client of mine recently), and he lost the lot.

He's using an online backup now and couldn't be happier. Replicating disks across several mediums is not ideal for a normal computer user. It's relatively ok for an experienced user but not for your every day Joe Bloggs.

Online backup is simple, secure, relatively cheap and unless you can break a 128bit encryption string (which would make you an overnight billionaire), it's totally secure.

[Jenx]

I just signed up for Mozy...$103 for 2 years is pretty good, that's about 50p per week.

[stigmundfreud]

Jenx said:

I just signed up for Mozy...$103 for 2 years is pretty good, that's about 50p per week.

enjoy your glee whilst it lasts! You did notice that if you delete an image from your local hard drive it is then deleted from mozy? If you use an external hard drive to store images on, if the hard drive isnt attached when you connect to mozy it sees them as deleted and boom they are gone from mozy!

I too signed up for Mozy - its great so long as you dont delete the files from your local system.

I use Flickr for a large jpeg store, I also use a removable hard drive which I am going to get a 2nd one with and alternately swap them between my house and my girlfriends place.

Mozy is good so long as you never remove the files from your system which can be an issue if you run low on space