and the site receives a small commission
On line storage
- Thread starter kriss5154
- Start date
- Messages
- 30,364
- Name
- Neil
- Edit My Images
- No
flickr is not really a backup solution. there is no real way of getting the images back in a batch if you need to restore your data. youd have to go into each individual photo and save it.
best bet is multiple copies of your data on multiple hard drives. preferably taking one of which off site (parents, work, parners place etc).
best bet is multiple copies of your data on multiple hard drives. preferably taking one of which off site (parents, work, parners place etc).
- Messages
- 1,310
- Name
- Amir
- Edit My Images
- Yes
I am using Mozy Home. You get unlimited data backup from your pc's internal hard drives for just a few quid a month. The peace of mind is brilliant. The first backup takes AGES! I think mine took two or three weeks. However, after that it just backs up files you have added or changed on a regular basis in the background. I have never had to get my data back so I can not tell you how that experience is. I can only hope it is good. As well as downloading data i think you can pay to have it sent back to you on a dvd. Read up on their web site and make your own mind up.
My backup plans are as follows:
Data stored on internal hard drive.
Offsite backup via Mozy Home
Onsite backup via a USB hard drive synched up with my internal hard drive via free software called synctoy (i have not done this bit yet)
Originally I bought a NAS device with two hard drives mirrored to store all my data on. However, I realised that if my house was burgled or burnt down etc my data would be lost. That is why i got mozy home. In an ideal world I would not bother with the internal hard drive for data and the usb hard drive. I would simply use my NAS device with it's mirrored disk as onsite backup and then offsite backup using Mozy or whatever. However the problem is that Mozy Home does not backup NAS drives. It only backs up internal drives. If you want to backup NAS drives with Mozy you have to buy the Mozy Pro service and then you have to pay per GB of data and it becomes expensive.
I have not yet worked out what the best way to ARCHIVE data is
I thought about storing all my pics on hard drives and when they fill up just stick them in a cupboard. However, I have read that this is a bad idea as the lubricants in the hard drive dry up and it will stop working. I am wondering if blu-ray is the way forward. Problem is my hi-def video camera produces large files so it will still be a lot of disks.
Hope that helps a little,
Dub
My backup plans are as follows:
Data stored on internal hard drive.
Offsite backup via Mozy Home
Onsite backup via a USB hard drive synched up with my internal hard drive via free software called synctoy (i have not done this bit yet)
Originally I bought a NAS device with two hard drives mirrored to store all my data on. However, I realised that if my house was burgled or burnt down etc my data would be lost. That is why i got mozy home. In an ideal world I would not bother with the internal hard drive for data and the usb hard drive. I would simply use my NAS device with it's mirrored disk as onsite backup and then offsite backup using Mozy or whatever. However the problem is that Mozy Home does not backup NAS drives. It only backs up internal drives. If you want to backup NAS drives with Mozy you have to buy the Mozy Pro service and then you have to pay per GB of data and it becomes expensive.
I have not yet worked out what the best way to ARCHIVE data is
I thought about storing all my pics on hard drives and when they fill up just stick them in a cupboard. However, I have read that this is a bad idea as the lubricants in the hard drive dry up and it will stop working. I am wondering if blu-ray is the way forward. Problem is my hi-def video camera produces large files so it will still be a lot of disks.Hope that helps a little,
Dub
- Messages
- 70
- Name
- Andy
- Edit My Images
- Yes
I use phanfare.com. Dedicated picture storage site. Takes full def photos (and videos) which you can re-download at any time or you can order DVDs. Also works very well for sharing your photos online.
Client to upload photos is very good, will keep going for weeks and deals well with interruptions - ie continues from where it left off.
Plans aren't as good as when I signed up (I have unlimited storage) but still attractive.
Also had good feedback on Mozy which takes any file types. Google docs is a more basic option but I'm not sure how you'd restore all your data if you needed it.
If you don't go online then make sure you take discs offsite, otherwise it's not really a backup.
Client to upload photos is very good, will keep going for weeks and deals well with interruptions - ie continues from where it left off.
Plans aren't as good as when I signed up (I have unlimited storage) but still attractive.
Also had good feedback on Mozy which takes any file types. Google docs is a more basic option but I'm not sure how you'd restore all your data if you needed it.
If you don't go online then make sure you take discs offsite, otherwise it's not really a backup.
- Messages
- 663
- Name
- Cathy
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Can I just jump in and add a question with regards online storage?
How safe is it? What I mean is...what happens if the website ever shuts down, or goes bust? Have you then lost your photos? I know the chances of it happening are probably next to zero...but it is a concern of mine!
How safe is it? What I mean is...what happens if the website ever shuts down, or goes bust? Have you then lost your photos? I know the chances of it happening are probably next to zero...but it is a concern of mine!
- Messages
- 1,310
- Name
- Amir
- Edit My Images
- Yes
The chance of one of these companies going bust is NOT next to zero. It is a very real possibility. My first consideration for which company to use was whether i thought that company could survive. I looked at this before I looked at the cost and the type of service.
I chose Mozy because their marketing seems to be going very well and they are making partnerships with vendors which then bundle their solution in to the sales of that vendors product. I figured this MIGHT help to keep them alive.
Some of the online backup services that have shut down have been from big name companies too. You just never know. That's why i plan to have USB attached in the home backup too.
My view is that the more backups you have the better. I plan to have local usb backup and then off site backup too.
By the way - in case anyone is wondering what data is so important to me, it's the unedited movie footage and pictures I have been taking of my twins. As before I still have not found the best archive media.
Dub
I chose Mozy because their marketing seems to be going very well and they are making partnerships with vendors which then bundle their solution in to the sales of that vendors product. I figured this MIGHT help to keep them alive.
Some of the online backup services that have shut down have been from big name companies too. You just never know. That's why i plan to have USB attached in the home backup too.
My view is that the more backups you have the better. I plan to have local usb backup and then off site backup too.
By the way - in case anyone is wondering what data is so important to me, it's the unedited movie footage and pictures I have been taking of my twins. As before I still have not found the best archive media.
Dub
- Messages
- 5,864
- Edit My Images
- No
Minimum should be:
Two local copies (ie back up to external hard drive or something with a one way sync) and use Mozy or backblaze online backup. First sync does take ages (mine's gonna take about 6 weeks I think - 300gb or so of photos...), but then then it just continues updating.
Yes there is a risk of them going bust... but the probability of it happening at the same time as both of your hard drives dying, or your house getting robbed of everything (keep your external hard drive hidden) is low.
either way.... yes, online backup is good, works and should be reliable, but 2 forms of backup is where it's at.
Two local copies (ie back up to external hard drive or something with a one way sync) and use Mozy or backblaze online backup. First sync does take ages (mine's gonna take about 6 weeks I think - 300gb or so of photos...), but then then it just continues updating.
Yes there is a risk of them going bust... but the probability of it happening at the same time as both of your hard drives dying, or your house getting robbed of everything (keep your external hard drive hidden) is low.
either way.... yes, online backup is good, works and should be reliable, but 2 forms of backup is where it's at.
- Messages
- 1,120
- Name
- Steffan
- Edit My Images
- No
I'm not going to get into the debate of back up methods. But with regards to online back up options (because that's what the OP asked for) have you heard of www.dropbox.com
- Messages
- 32
- Name
- Richard
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Why go online storage? Most pc's and laptops allow you to write CD's and DVD's which can store your photo's, media for which are pence rather than pounds. If you need portabilty my suggestion would be an external hard drive, if you dont need portability my suggestion is the same. 1TB drives are available from about £65 and although there's the possibility that both drives fail at the same time, the risk of data loss is significantly reduced. The issue with any backup is - you must backup.
On line backup can be useful but up and download speeds cannot be guaranteed.
If the information is critical, you should consider RAID'ed hard drives.
Regards
On line backup can be useful but up and download speeds cannot be guaranteed.
If the information is critical, you should consider RAID'ed hard drives.
Regards
- Messages
- 30,364
- Name
- Neil
- Edit My Images
- No
re online storage it will depend how much data your throwing at it.
upload times will be extrememly long winded, most ISPs are limited to 2mb upload tops. if like me youre taking 8gb per event thats just too long.
also concider your internet download limits when needing to pull your data back down in the event of total failure. if youre capped to 10gb a month and youve put 120gb images on there then thats a years worth of download.
if the data is important i'll always favour multiple devices stored at different sites.
no if redundancy is critical concider RAID. do not use it as a backup method.
upload times will be extrememly long winded, most ISPs are limited to 2mb upload tops. if like me youre taking 8gb per event thats just too long.
also concider your internet download limits when needing to pull your data back down in the event of total failure. if youre capped to 10gb a month and youve put 120gb images on there then thats a years worth of download.
if the data is important i'll always favour multiple devices stored at different sites.
no if redundancy is critical concider RAID. do not use it as a backup method.
- Messages
- 589
- Name
- Paul
- Edit My Images
- No
I use Time Machine on my Mac to a 1tb(I think it means tigger bite because of all the springs) and about every other week I backup to a 1tb which is not kept in the same place as my computer, so I have 3 copies of every file, also I copy jobs I am working on to my laptop and it has it's own backup disk so for some files I may have 5 copies.3 backup hard disks cost me just over £300 or on average about half a pint of beer a day.
- Messages
- 32
- Name
- Richard
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Sorry I did not make it clear. 'The issue with any back up is, you must back up' raid array or not
Regards
Sorry again, that sounds rude on re-reading, wasn't my intention. An array will offer protection against eqiupment failure but backup is required to prevent loss from, say, fire or theft of your pc.
Regards
Regards
Sorry again, that sounds rude on re-reading, wasn't my intention. An array will offer protection against eqiupment failure but backup is required to prevent loss from, say, fire or theft of your pc.
Regards
- Messages
- 1,310
- Name
- Amir
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Basically you should have on-site backup AND off-site backup. The odds of BOTH of your backups not being available is quite low.