Simple photo storage system
Discussion
I'll start by saying that whilst I'm not completely IT illiterate, this kind of thing just doesn't do it for me so my knowledge is pretty low level
I have about 4 old laptop hard drives (all windows based) and a load of CDs/DVDs with photos going back 25 years on them. Not scans, all digital camera/phone images.
I'd like to get them all onto one storage device, some thing that I can sync with a cloud document storage of some type. Ideally which can also read the CDs as I don't have anything I can use at present (no drive on my laptop, no other PC)
I have an Amazon photos account I can use, not bothered if there are better options as it was a freebie (in fact there was a promotion of an Amazon gift card for setting it up and uploading some photos so I just put a load of plant room photos I took for work on it
)
My laptop is a Chromebook. I'd rather not have to buy anything new to use with the storage device/cloud if I can get away with it. The hard drive reader I have may or may not work with the Chromebook, not tried it yet.
There are multiple copies of lots of the photos, I'd like to be able to manipulate them on the storage device to sort into folders etc rather than just a straight upload, is this even possible?
Any ideas?
Thanks
I have about 4 old laptop hard drives (all windows based) and a load of CDs/DVDs with photos going back 25 years on them. Not scans, all digital camera/phone images.
I'd like to get them all onto one storage device, some thing that I can sync with a cloud document storage of some type. Ideally which can also read the CDs as I don't have anything I can use at present (no drive on my laptop, no other PC)
I have an Amazon photos account I can use, not bothered if there are better options as it was a freebie (in fact there was a promotion of an Amazon gift card for setting it up and uploading some photos so I just put a load of plant room photos I took for work on it
)My laptop is a Chromebook. I'd rather not have to buy anything new to use with the storage device/cloud if I can get away with it. The hard drive reader I have may or may not work with the Chromebook, not tried it yet.
There are multiple copies of lots of the photos, I'd like to be able to manipulate them on the storage device to sort into folders etc rather than just a straight upload, is this even possible?
Any ideas?
Thanks
Why not use Google Drive? That will give you the cloud storage you want and it mounts as a folder on your computer. The free version only gives you 15GB, but more is available for a few quid a year.
You can get external cases for about £5 that you can put your old hard drives in, these then USB to you computer and away you go transferring the files from them to the cloud or your local drive.
Be warned though, uploading a few hundred GB on photographs takes a long, long time on ordinary broadband.
You can get external cases for about £5 that you can put your old hard drives in, these then USB to you computer and away you go transferring the files from them to the cloud or your local drive.
Be warned though, uploading a few hundred GB on photographs takes a long, long time on ordinary broadband.
Edited by Steve_H80 on Sunday 26th November 15:11
I had something similar, and went for the more expensive but reassuring answer....
Your options are free storage from Google (15gb), or Amazon (unlimited with prime). Or paid for storage (many providers). Or the 3rd option which is to get your own "cloud" storage, Network Attached Storage (NAS). This works the same as the cloud, but is owned by you, so after the initial investment ongoing costs are minimal.
What always worried me about the paid for storage is that once you stop paying, its gone. You're getting into a lifetime contract if you want to keep your photos. Seems a huge commitment!!
The system I have now is free Google Photos (although likely paid for in future), and duplicated to my NAS drive. The liklihood of them both failing at once is tiny, so whatever happens I should have a backup. I think it cost about £200 to set up (buy the NAS and HD) and once I'd figured it out it's not difficult. Works in the same way as Google photos, whenever you connect to WiFi if backs them up from wherever you are in the world, but does so in the origial (uncompressed) format. I use a Synology NAS, which has some great tutorial videos on YouTube presented by this guy called Rex or something. Really easy to follow.
Overall really happy with it. The NAS can do other stuff too, I'm going to use it as a CCTV recorder for 2 cameras at home, it can also be used as a VPN so when abroad you can access iPlayer/British TV etc for free. Its basically a mini PC with a big HD.
Oh, and for the CD drive, buy a USB one from Amazon/Ebuyer. They're like, £10.
Your options are free storage from Google (15gb), or Amazon (unlimited with prime). Or paid for storage (many providers). Or the 3rd option which is to get your own "cloud" storage, Network Attached Storage (NAS). This works the same as the cloud, but is owned by you, so after the initial investment ongoing costs are minimal.
What always worried me about the paid for storage is that once you stop paying, its gone. You're getting into a lifetime contract if you want to keep your photos. Seems a huge commitment!!
The system I have now is free Google Photos (although likely paid for in future), and duplicated to my NAS drive. The liklihood of them both failing at once is tiny, so whatever happens I should have a backup. I think it cost about £200 to set up (buy the NAS and HD) and once I'd figured it out it's not difficult. Works in the same way as Google photos, whenever you connect to WiFi if backs them up from wherever you are in the world, but does so in the origial (uncompressed) format. I use a Synology NAS, which has some great tutorial videos on YouTube presented by this guy called Rex or something. Really easy to follow.
Overall really happy with it. The NAS can do other stuff too, I'm going to use it as a CCTV recorder for 2 cameras at home, it can also be used as a VPN so when abroad you can access iPlayer/British TV etc for free. Its basically a mini PC with a big HD.
Oh, and for the CD drive, buy a USB one from Amazon/Ebuyer. They're like, £10.
Edited by Condi on Saturday 2nd December 05:43
Don’t rely on a single storage solution. Google drive is known to lose customers data, iCloud has lost data, I know people who have lost data with Dropbox. Cloud services are not a ‘backup’ . Flickr is probably more secure but I think they have also lost data before.
A local NAS with redundant drives is a backup system but because it’s local, you run the risk that a disaster at home destroys your data.
So you need a combination. Ideally a local NAS backup and an offsite copy. This can be a cloud system but that’s not the safest option. If you do go local plus cloud, it’s important that the two are kept separate to avoid that a loss of data in one is propagated to the other.
My (excessive?) solution is a cloud system (iCloud photos) combined with local storage (copies on my Mac Studio) which is backed up to a local time capsule and to an offsite system (backblaze). I also keep a totally separate copy on a Synology NAS.
So, if my Mac dies, I have copies locally and offsite. If the cloud deletes everything, I have journaled backups going back a couple of years and if even that goes, I have the NAS backup. If my house burns down, I have the offsite and cloud services etc etc……..
A local NAS with redundant drives is a backup system but because it’s local, you run the risk that a disaster at home destroys your data.
So you need a combination. Ideally a local NAS backup and an offsite copy. This can be a cloud system but that’s not the safest option. If you do go local plus cloud, it’s important that the two are kept separate to avoid that a loss of data in one is propagated to the other.
My (excessive?) solution is a cloud system (iCloud photos) combined with local storage (copies on my Mac Studio) which is backed up to a local time capsule and to an offsite system (backblaze). I also keep a totally separate copy on a Synology NAS.
So, if my Mac dies, I have copies locally and offsite. If the cloud deletes everything, I have journaled backups going back a couple of years and if even that goes, I have the NAS backup. If my house burns down, I have the offsite and cloud services etc etc……..
Although I'm not too familiar with the workings of Chromebooks, this would be my solution, taking into consideration your need to streamline what you have, keep it simple and the costs as low as possible....
1) An external portable USB hard drive.
2) A USB CD/DVD player which aren't too expensive.
3) Google cloud Photos
I'd then copy all of the photos from the CDs and old hard drives to thd shiny new external USB drive, and organise into the folders you want.
Once completed then upload them all to Google Cloud photos and pay the cloud cost if required with Google. Using Google cloud should make the interaction with your Chromebook as easy and seamless as possible.
Any new photos you take over time, copy them to the external drive and also upload to the Google Cloud.
That way you have a copy at your house for safe keeping, as well as the cloud access for painless ease of use.
Just check all of that would work with your Chromebook, but I suspect it will.
Hope that helps.
1) An external portable USB hard drive.
2) A USB CD/DVD player which aren't too expensive.
3) Google cloud Photos
I'd then copy all of the photos from the CDs and old hard drives to thd shiny new external USB drive, and organise into the folders you want.
Once completed then upload them all to Google Cloud photos and pay the cloud cost if required with Google. Using Google cloud should make the interaction with your Chromebook as easy and seamless as possible.
Any new photos you take over time, copy them to the external drive and also upload to the Google Cloud.
That way you have a copy at your house for safe keeping, as well as the cloud access for painless ease of use.
Just check all of that would work with your Chromebook, but I suspect it will.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for all the responses. I don't want to rely on something cloud based only and put that in my OP
There are USB DVD players that will work with Windows OS and and Chrome OS (I'm not sure if I can read a DVD that has been originally written using Windows, with a Chromebook) but my son has a Windows laptop if that's an issue. Same goes for the NAS I guess as well.
Started dragging years worth of pictures off an old phone today as well and will upload to Google Drive first.
Any suggestions for a NAS/USB Hard Drive, don't need loads of storage; photos will be in the very low thousands at the most (probably not much over 1000, maybe not even that!) but can add some other documents I could do with a copy of as well.
There are USB DVD players that will work with Windows OS and and Chrome OS (I'm not sure if I can read a DVD that has been originally written using Windows, with a Chromebook) but my son has a Windows laptop if that's an issue. Same goes for the NAS I guess as well.
Started dragging years worth of pictures off an old phone today as well and will upload to Google Drive first.
Any suggestions for a NAS/USB Hard Drive, don't need loads of storage; photos will be in the very low thousands at the most (probably not much over 1000, maybe not even that!) but can add some other documents I could do with a copy of as well.
The rule of thumb is that if data isn't at least in three locations, it isn't secure.
My solution would be to buy a couple of external HDD's - Currys are currently offering 2TB models at £74.
That gives three locations (including the main PC) and any cloud storage is an added bonus. Personally I'm not wildly keen on using the cloud as there's the problem of getting locked into a provider, who may or may not delete your account for perceived T&C breakages / go bankrupt / start charging a fortune / etc. And download speeds are slow, especially if large amounts of data (e.g. photos) are concerned. But it is, as said above, a useful addition.
This is a bit of a clunky solution. But it does have the advantage of being: simple; relatively cheap; and secure, especially if one or both of the HDD's are stored remotely.
Note that this is on the basis of the photo's, etc, being "static" - not being constantly added to. If that's the case (constant additions), some sort of backup software needs to be considered as if there's constant additions, it'll get clumsy trying to keep on top of the changes
My solution would be to buy a couple of external HDD's - Currys are currently offering 2TB models at £74.
That gives three locations (including the main PC) and any cloud storage is an added bonus. Personally I'm not wildly keen on using the cloud as there's the problem of getting locked into a provider, who may or may not delete your account for perceived T&C breakages / go bankrupt / start charging a fortune / etc. And download speeds are slow, especially if large amounts of data (e.g. photos) are concerned. But it is, as said above, a useful addition.
This is a bit of a clunky solution. But it does have the advantage of being: simple; relatively cheap; and secure, especially if one or both of the HDD's are stored remotely.
Note that this is on the basis of the photo's, etc, being "static" - not being constantly added to. If that's the case (constant additions), some sort of backup software needs to be considered as if there's constant additions, it'll get clumsy trying to keep on top of the changes
LastPoster said:
Thanks for all the responses. I don't want to rely on something cloud based only and put that in my OP
There are USB DVD players that will work with Windows OS and and Chrome OS (I'm not sure if I can read a DVD that has been originally written using Windows, with a Chromebook) but my son has a Windows laptop if that's an issue. Same goes for the NAS I guess as well.
Started dragging years worth of pictures off an old phone today as well and will upload to Google Drive first.
Any suggestions for a NAS/USB Hard Drive, don't need loads of storage; photos will be in the very low thousands at the most (probably not much over 1000, maybe not even that!) but can add some other documents I could do with a copy of as well.
Storage formats are very standardised, so it doesnt matter what machine you use it will be able to read it. There are USB DVD players that will work with Windows OS and and Chrome OS (I'm not sure if I can read a DVD that has been originally written using Windows, with a Chromebook) but my son has a Windows laptop if that's an issue. Same goes for the NAS I guess as well.
Started dragging years worth of pictures off an old phone today as well and will upload to Google Drive first.
Any suggestions for a NAS/USB Hard Drive, don't need loads of storage; photos will be in the very low thousands at the most (probably not much over 1000, maybe not even that!) but can add some other documents I could do with a copy of as well.
The NAS is just a big HD connected to a small PC - you can either use drag and drop, or most companies have their own software which helps or does auto backup etc. Not sure what operating system Chromebook uses (Linux, Android?), but likely the big providers will have software for that.
The cheapest Synology and a 1TB HD sounds the most economic way for you. Other people will say it's not got enough redundancy, but for casual storage it's fine, especially if backed up elsewhere. You can put whatever documents you want on there - videos, Word/Excel docs, anything really.
This is the cheapest NAS from Synology https://www.ebuyer.com/921063-synology-ds120j-1-ba...
And you need a HD https://www.ebuyer.com/726222-toshiba-p300-1tb-3-5...
There are other makes, but other people are maybe better to advise.
LastPoster said:
Any suggestions for a NAS/USB Hard Drive, don't need loads of storage; photos will be in the very low thousands at the most (probably not much over 1000, maybe not even that!) but can add some other documents I could do with a copy of as well.
External (USB) Hard Drives - Anything from your local Currys by Seagate or Western Digital would get my vote. Just pick the size you want that is in stock and go for that.As for NAS, I've got a Synology, but to be honest for your use case I wouldn't bother. If you aren't tech-savvy, or tech-interested, you'll find them to be a pain in the arse. As you are putting your photos onto Cloud as well, your hard drive really is just for your backup, rather than day to day use, so the extra 'convenience' of an always on NAS wouldn't be worth the frustration of setting one up.
USB Hard drive is plug-and-play. Plug it in, copy your photos to it, then put it safely in a cupboard somewhere when you are done and use your cloud storage to look at your photos day-to-day. Easy.
LastPoster said:
There are USB DVD players that will work with Windows OS and and Chrome OS (I'm not sure if I can read a DVD that has been originally written using Windows, with a Chromebook) but my son has a Windows laptop if that's an issue.
Yes a Chromebook will be able to read a Windows DVD if the DVD players are compatible with Chrome as you suggest. The format of the discs is a standardised format. But if your get a usb hard drive, you could just get your son to copy all the files from the CDs/DVDs for you onto your drive if you wanted to save buying one.Edited by Cloudy147 on Sunday 3rd December 22:28
I have about 18,000 photos. They are stored:
1) local PC, on a dedicated spinny HD
2) USB HD, with an app to synchronise to the local HD
3) Amazon Photos (effectively free, as I already subscribe to Prime for the other benefits)
4) All my good photos (about 800?) on a Flickr Pro account
I feel that I’ve got the bases covered
1) local PC, on a dedicated spinny HD
2) USB HD, with an app to synchronise to the local HD
3) Amazon Photos (effectively free, as I already subscribe to Prime for the other benefits)
4) All my good photos (about 800?) on a Flickr Pro account
I feel that I’ve got the bases covered
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff