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I currently have all our photos stored on a separate hard drive on our home pc. I've just replaced the main hard drive after it died so I'm thinking I need to do something about this before we lose everything.
I'm not sure between uploading them to flickr (which would take an age) or just take an image of the hard drive.
What do you good people do to backup your photos?
I keep a copy on the work PC as well as at home - off site backup kind of thing. Need to sync it actually, not done it for a month or so but then I've not taken many photos recently
I'm a bit paranoid about this, so!
1) Downloaded onto laptop.
2) Downloaded onto desktop.
3) Copied onto a 250GB external hard drive that is for general backup duties.
4) Copied onto a second 250GB external 'tough' hard drive that is only used for photos.
Most of the things on my computer I can download again, my photos can never be replaced.
I have external HDD, and every so often plug it in a do a save of everything. HDD is stored down stairs, not with lap top or computer upstairs (we have upside down hoose).
I also send all my good/valuable/enough images to my flickr account for a futher back up of images.
Write to HDD and DVDs (do two copies and send to a friend or relative for safe keeping).
Write to DVDs and bury in garden.
It's the only way to be sure.
(Actually, I think there's some good advice up there. Am going to do the same myself.)
DVDs and store them on the shelf. Second copy of some of the important ones resides on a server I've got at a relatives house.
x3 on hd's
home
studio
parents safe
online back-up of final select images.
back-up internally (2nd drive in laptop) when shooting and to external drive. after each shot, never leave it until the end of the day as have had a laptop HD die half way through a shoot.
drive and laptop are never kept together when away on location.
anyone who only backs up to one other drive is asking for trouble.
Just backed up my photo's to Windows Skydrive (25GB) as I wanted them off site.
I have a set on my desktop, then 2 external drives as back ups....its worth being cautious
Backing up to hard drives is a mistake to my mind, makes far more sense to back up to a solid object with no moving parts. Backing up to online is not an option for me as I would use all of my internetses bandwidth just uploading them each month.
Having at least 3 back ups is good practice IMO. That way if any one device fails, then you still have 2 working back ups.
I work in IT and I cant believe the amount of data that I have created over the years. My work stuff is in various locations.
My pictures are the important stuff that I could never lose.
As far as devices and services it depends on how much data you have, horses for courses etc.
Backing up to hard drives is a mistake to my mind, makes far more sense to back up to a solid object with no moving parts. Backing up to online is not an option for me as I would use all of my internetses bandwidth just uploading them each month.
Such as? DVDs / CDs degrade.... flash drives will loose their charge after a few years.
I think cd, dvd, usb sticks will all be redundant in years to come.
Such as? DVDs / CDs degrade.... flash drives will loose their charge after a few years.
IME DVD's and CDs don't degrade over the period of 15 years when kept in a cupboard. I was happily using a CD I wrote back in the mid 90's only last week. YMMV. However I've had hard drives kept in the same cupboard that have failed on power-on, I trust a bit of twisted material more than I trust a massively complex, finely balanced combination of electronics, mechanical parts and magnetic storage. CDs/DVDs may be obsolete in years to come but at least they'll still be accessible with old hardware and transferrable to new methods.
I think cd, dvd, usb sticks will all be redundant in years to come.
doesn't necessarily mean they are any less useful as a backup medium. CD/DVD are certainly more stable than most HDD and more secure than any cloud technology out there.
doesn't necessarily mean they are any less useful as a backup medium. CD/DVD are certainly more stable than most HDD and more secure than any cloud technology out there.
I didnt mean it in that way, more of a guess/prediction. All the various devices have their pros and cons, its horses for courses.
get a couple of these:
32Gb for 20 quid. Keep them offsite.
I have been ripping my CD collection and loads of my older CDs, whilst unscratched, will not rip successfully. Something to do with the labels apparently.
DVDs are too small and therefore too much hassle to divide your photo archive over.
I make two bootable images of the whole hard drive onto external HDs, one kept at work, one at home. I only do it every now and then but as an additional safety net with photos I'll leave them on the memory card until they've also made their way onto the backups.
I don't think it matters a great deal what media you use or even what method, there's such a huge variety of solutions of varying cost and ease of use and no single solution is right for everyone. The important thing is just to have at least two copies and to have them on at least two sites.