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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> How or where do you store your photos?
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05/08/2018 04:27:04 PM · #1
I thinking if using Google's cloud or maybe just a 1 tb HD.

What's everyone else using?
05/08/2018 04:41:08 PM · #2
If you don't have a ton of stuff to upload, and can do it as you go, cloud is not a bad way to go. Two big advantages:
1.) Can lower your risk of data loss, essentially is your off-site back-up
2.) Accessible from anywhere
That said, I'm a little old school and I really don't fully trust cloud-only storage. I will continue to have my main library on local devices, and have an off-site backup as a disaster recovery solution. For archiving, there's no need for ultra-fast storage, so inexpensive rotating hard drives are a good solution. I have a 2TB portable that serves as my in-house archive, and that can be duplicated off-site as I see fit. The downside of this is that you have to remember to do it, and be diligent with it.
05/08/2018 05:11:34 PM · #3
Originally posted by kirbic:

If you don't have a ton of stuff to upload, and can do it as you go, cloud is not a bad way to go. Two big advantages:
1.) Can lower your risk of data loss, essentially is your off-site back-up
2.) Accessible from anywhere
That said, I'm a little old school and I really don't fully trust cloud-only storage. I will continue to have my main library on local devices ...

I feel much the same, and still use a hard drive and optical discs (CDR/DVD-R) as backups. I don't erase photos from the camera card until they've been copied to both -- I think you should always have two copies of the files, preferably on different media.

Disadvantages of cloud backup:
1. Slow in both directions and may tie up your internet for a while
2. Hackable from anywhere
3. Company may raise fees, change TOS, sell itself or go bankrupt

An alternative: website hosting and domain registration are about as cheap as cloud storage -- for about $10-15/month you can probably find a hosting plan with about 200GB of space and your own domain; upload/retrieve your files with FTP. You give up automation, gain control ...
05/08/2018 08:11:01 PM · #4
i do a bit of both
Originally posted by kirbic:

my main library on local devices, and have an off-site backup as a disaster recovery solution.


except i'm in the 4TB range ;-)

Originally posted by GeneralE:

An alternative: website hosting and domain registration are about as cheap as cloud storage -- for about $10-15/month you can probably find a hosting plan with about 200GB of space and your own domain; upload/retrieve your files with FTP. You give up automation, gain control .


actually, there are automated options for backing up files to your own domain. one thing you do have to keep in mind with this type of set up is that many hosting companies put language in the TOS that all uploaded files have to be associated with the domain's web site. if you are looking for a hosted domain to act as your personal cloud backup, read their TOS carefully to make sure you don't put yourself in a violation.
05/08/2018 08:11:19 PM · #5
Start with knowing that all hard drives will fail, it is just a question of when that will happen. Best practice is to have an original, a first backup copy, and an offsite backup copy for every file. Take a look at dpbestflow for a good overview of the issues. Google "digital asset management" for loads of sources of best practices (although many sites aim at corporate systems). Back in 2007 my first hard drive failure taught me the lesson of what happens when backups are not in place. Good for you for being proactive.

I start with "ingestion" of images using a card reader to get files from camera to computer. Some software allows simultaneous copying an unmodified original to a separate drive. Useful to have a fall-back option if editing gets messed up. I put the files into a folder structure with a year folder that contains quarterly folders that each contain folders for each shoot. High volume shooters could use monthly folders instead of quarterly. I automate renaming the files to yyyymmdd_####_camera where yyyy is year, mm is month, dd is date, #### is the original file sequence number and "camera" is abbreviated camera name. This allows computer systems to sort the files in a useful way and helps keep a unique name for every separate file. Edited versions get their name appended with version information. Files get basic metadata and keywording (stored in sidecar files that travel with the image files). The files get backed up (incremental, so only new files or changed files get copied to the external drive) to an external hard drive at least every night (automated) along with all other incrementally changed data files and document files. You DO want backups of such things as well as of your pictures. The external hard drive gets swapped with an offsite external hard drive every week (or two). Offsite can be at a friend or relative's place, a secure place at work, or a safe deposit box (my current choice).

Cloud storage may be useful for images captured during travel. But the slowness for large volumes of files (considering all data/documents/images/music/etc. needing backup) make me not use it for general backup. I also share the concerns about cloud risks well summarized by GeneralE.

Final thought about a different but related issue: backup software generally is not useful for system files that may need to be restored after a main drive failure. For that, disk cloning software can provide a way to recover from such catastrophic events. But only if implemented before the crash. (Which WILL happen, sometime, and almost never when convenient).
05/08/2018 08:47:08 PM · #6
I backup every shoot to a CD/DVD/Blu-ray as needed.

Then I have them on my hard drive.

Then I have daily backups for anything that changed to another hard drive, using Macrium Reflect.

Finally, I have a subscription to BackBlaze, for $60 per year, which is unlimited backup and all my hard drive data goes there. I have over 12TB of data stored there for that little money!

05/09/2018 09:33:03 AM · #7
Originally posted by Neil:

...Then I have daily backups for anything that changed to another hard drive, using Macrium Reflect.


Neil,
Which version of Macrium Reflect are you using? I have a little experience with the free version, and have been impressed with it. I'm considering buying the 4-license pack for our home systems.
05/09/2018 09:47:30 PM · #8
Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by Neil:

...Then I have daily backups for anything that changed to another hard drive, using Macrium Reflect.


Neil,
Which version of Macrium Reflect are you using? I have a little experience with the free version, and have been impressed with it. I'm considering buying the 4-license pack for our home systems.


I have the 64 bit Home Edition v. 6.3

There's a newer version, but I didn't see a reason to upgrade.

05/09/2018 11:06:35 PM · #9
Thanks Neil!
05/10/2018 05:46:18 AM · #10
Here’s my non-techie cents.

After doing 3 backups to 3 different cloud storage companies (now approximate 10 TB’s) and spending 6-9 months each to do the backups to the cloud...every cloud pkg I’ve been part of has changed their terms of service...personally I find them to be useless. I have been only using my EHD’s now for sometime. And I’m not comfortable with that... Neil...I’m going to look into your storage/cloud service...Thank you
05/10/2018 07:12:22 AM · #11
Originally posted by Neil:

I backup every shoot to a CD/DVD/Blu-ray as needed.

Then I have them on my hard drive.

Then I have daily backups for anything that changed to another hard drive, using Macrium Reflect.

Finally, I have a subscription to BackBlaze, for $60 per year, which is unlimited backup and all my hard drive data goes there. I have over 12TB of data stored there for that little money!


Neil, how long did it take for the initial backup/upload to the cloud? I have toughly 10TB’s...it usually takes about 6-9 months to complete the initial upload...sigh

And do you get a referral credit if I sign up?
05/10/2018 09:37:01 AM · #12
I also use Backblaze. Been with them for about 4 yrs. it’s true the initial backup of your external hard drives does take a long time (depending on the speed of your internet connection - we have really slow internet where I am) However having lost 4 hard drives in the last year I’m very happy I have the cloud solution as I was able to recover some files I needed with minimum effort.

And the price of Backblaze is very reasonable.
05/10/2018 11:24:14 AM · #13
Dumb question.... Am I just lucky, or what? I've never had an EHD fail. I've had a half dozen at most and am now using a WD MyBook Duo that's 8TB that is a RAID setup. What happens? Do they just pitch a fit and quit?
05/10/2018 11:30:24 AM · #14
Originally posted by NikonJeb:

What happens? Do they just pitch a fit and quit?

Sometimes they experience "sticktion" and the disc doesn't spin up, sometimes you'll hear a horrible shrieking noise as the heads scrape along the platter surface, but most often they just power-up but don't ever show up on the desktop.

One problem with drives getting so large is that if they do fail you've lost "everything" and if they don't it takes a really long time to transfer the data to a newer drive. FWIW I've had the (relatively) best success with Seagate drives.
05/10/2018 11:45:12 AM · #15
Originally posted by shoff:

What's everyone else using?


I am, admittedly, paranoid when it comes to backups. All my work is in my Dropbox folder residing on a Drobo 5 disk RAID array. It is backed up to the cloud in realtime, and on the RAID array. Twice a week, Acronis backus up the photo directories to a Netgear NAS. Having everything on Dropbox means that I can access my work wherever I have an internet connection.
05/10/2018 06:20:49 PM · #16
Originally posted by NikonJeb:

.... What happens? Do they just pitch a fit and quit?


While disks can abruptly fail (getting stuck mid-transfer of files, failing to turn on, etc.), many times they produce earlier indications of issues (various minor errors, increased running temperature, etc.) that can be detected by disk monitoring software. I've been using Hard Disk Sentinel, which more than once has discovered problems with drives in time for me to switch to healthier ones proactively. Their web site has good explanations of the indicators they can detect.
05/10/2018 07:12:25 PM · #17
Originally posted by Ja-9:

Here’s my non-techie cents.

After doing 3 backups to 3 different cloud storage companies (now approximate 10 TB’s) and spending 6-9 months each to do the backups to the cloud...every cloud pkg I’ve been part of has changed their terms of service...personally I find them to be useless. I have been only using my EHD’s now for sometime. And I’m not comfortable with that... Neil...I’m going to look into your storage/cloud service...Thank you


It takes a while, it took me 3-5 months I would guess, offhand. But I had slower internet then. The settings let you throttle...right now I'm on automatic throttle and it says it will backup approximately 50GB per day at my current speed of 4.72Mbits per sec. So a Terabyte = 1000GB = 20 days. 10 terabytes could take 200 days.

You can manually adjust the speed...I just changed it to 2 threads so now it's running 9.44Mbits per second, it took a while but that changed it to 99GB a day.

The throttling is so your network speed isn't affected while you surf.

I checked and yes, they have referral program good for a free month (for both of us)...never used that yet. If you want to use it, the referral is https://secure.backblaze.com/r/014px5

But don't worry either way...the service is already very cheap if you ask me!

Message edited by author 2018-05-10 19:14:13.
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