How do you backup your images?

shepthedog

My laptop had an unexpected meeting with the floor last night.. Luckily for me no lasting damage apart from to the charger but managed to fix that..

It gave me the wake up call I need to get my back up plan in order once and for all..
I have a 500 gig external hard drive which I backup to when the mood takes me on a boring Sunday usually..
So I decided to go for something a bit easier for the unorganised types like me. I went for an online data backup plan with these guys, http://www.irishdatabackup.com/

I created a master image folder on my hard drive and selected that to be backed up twice a week. So as long as I'm online it will backup the images without me having to do anything..
They are also offering a free trial of a month.
What plans do you have in place to backup images?

I have four external drives, a laptop and obviously the HDD within my desktop.

Each has a copy of my Pictures folder.

monument

I upload most of my photographs onto flickr. Keep a copy of them on my hard drive, and memory card for some time too, and then later on an external hard drive too.

kjt

I have two 1Tb external WD Mybook drives that I sync every evening. I then have another external drive that I sync to those every 3/4weeks and keep that in a friends house just in case of a fire or my drives/computer gets it's ass kicked.

All these drives now have about 10gb of free space so I've ordered another 2 1.5Tb drives to start the whole process again.

It's a bit pricey having all those extra drives that aren't really being used but when the day comes I need a backup I think I'll be glad of it

Glad to hear you didn't loose anything by the by!!

Borderfox

Back-up original RAW files to DVD, after processing then upload full size JPEGs to Flickr and save onto two external 1.5tb USB drives. I have around 8tb of storage at the moment and I am planning a large clear out of any jobs in RAW that dont need to have the raw files stored

Fenster

Hapazardly, and with a lot of swearing.

AnCatDubh

I love the idea of online backup and had been recommended carbonite previously. They have a regime of a flat fee unlimited usage for about $50 per year iirc.

At a casual glance the irish data backup appears wicked expensive 5 - 30GB at €1 / GB per month - say 10GB requirement = €10 / month = €120 / year (unless i've missed something). The problem here is that 10GB would only last me a little more than 1 emptying of my SD Card and feic if i'd downloaded 2 of them.

However i guess if you are organised and only download what you process / final prints then it wouldn't be too onerous.

I'm wondering if i'd missed something with the irishdataback crew considering google for example give 20GB for $5/year (not exactly a backup solution mind you which has to be considered).

Great that you didn't lose anything and even better that you now have a plan.

Me? I'm with Fenster at the moment (haphazard and swearing) I *really* need to sort it out as i've too many single points of failure involved in my setup and even though its just personal enjoyment at present i'd hate to lose anything in block.

TinyExplosions

Whenever I think to, and a combination of 2 External HDDs that have the same content on them, DVD for all the RAW files, and Dropbox for the essentials.

I really should backup more, but I need to get my rear in gear and sort out some scripts to do it all automagically

stcstc

i backup to an lto drive in my server twice a day

then once a week the friday tape gets rotated between 4 of them, giving me 4 weeks worth of backups

now although this costs a bunch of money, it does give me huge redundancy in my backups

and all i have to do is stick a tape in everytime one pops out

the issue with using HD's for backup is the spin up spin down cycle is what generally kills drives and so you have to be careful about the redundancy. ie if you buy 2 drives at the same time, they are both generally gonna fail around the same time, having basically done the same ammount of work

paulusdu

1 copy on PC drive (mirrored)
backed up to external Hard drive kept in work once a week
and a DVD copy taken weekly of anything done that week

I've been telling my other half to backup all her photo's (mostly of the kids and nights out) for ages. I even got her an external drive and showed her how to do it
She cried for nearly a day when water spilt on her laptop
luckily i was able to pull the photo's off the drive

but i still don;t think she does backups with her new laptop

enda1

I've been looking at CrashPlan+ as a solution.

Anyone got any feedback about it? Seems to have everything I want in a software:
-Multi Platform
-Unlimited
-High encryption standard
-Family plan (for as many computers as you own)

Paulw

I backup my images to pairs of external hard disks. Each disk (500gb) takes about 1 year of images. I then buy more disks. I try to keep them in different locations (1 disk in work and 1 at home), so I'll have offsite storage, in case of fire, etc.

davmigil

Good thread, meaning to get a bit more organised again on the backing up. My library has got so big my previous work flow just isn't working.

Main back-up is an external drive (using the excellent free SyncBac software ). This is great because it is set up and forget.

I used to back up the photos over network to xbmc in sitting room(xbox media centre), but have run out of space. Once again using SyncBack. XBMC does funny things to file names though (old file system). Might set it up for a best of folder or some such. Problem is when it is not automated I tend not to do it often.

My plan was to back up my most precious photos to the 25Gb free space microsoft live offers (microsoft live drive, but haven't got around to it. Thinking of making an album or selecting all 5 star photos and exporting them.

Also I want to get back into the habit of backing up to DVD and archiving off site.

Finally half-thinking of paying for a flikr or other such account, though my internet connection at home isn't up to speed.

Also forgot to add in, because forgot I have it: have raid 1 (mirror) set for hard drives in PC.

DK32

I backup to multiple external drives from a raid 10 config. This normally happens daily. The external drives are then backed up to Bluray disc and archived. I burn a new disc at the end of every a month.

homerun_homer

I have a 90GB laptop which is no use for keeping my Raw files as well as running everything else so I got a 500Gb media drive to back everything on to.
I got a scare when a friend's hard drive died a death so I got a second one that is 1TB and backed things up again. Also, I now have an iMac so keep a copy of photos there too.

unnameduser

AnCatDubh wrote: »

I love the idea of online backup and had been recommended carbonite previously. They have a regime of a flat fee unlimited usage for about $50 per year iirc.

At a casual glance the irish data backup appears wicked expensive 5 - 30GB at €1 / GB per month - say 10GB requirement = €10 / month = €120 / year (unless i've missed something). The problem here is that 10GB would only last me a little more than 1 emptying of my SD Card and feic if i'd downloaded 2 of them.

We run the backup company mentioned and I'm delighted that shepthedog gave us a plug! I'd just like to respond to AnCatDubh's comment.

The idea of online data backup is that it provides a perfect fail-free automated backup solution method. This includes encryption, automated schedules, and multiple backup copies and easy, fast restoration in the event of data loss data.

Online data backup comes with a price. You calculations are correct. I believe we are cheaper than most Irish companies but still at €1 per GB, those backing up lots of data will end up spending a bit of €€€. At the end of the day it is a service that provides 100% peace of mind once you set the software up. No user intervention is ever needed again. 24/7 support is available to the user.

Online data backup is not typically aimed at the home user but more-so at a business user that simply cannot lose their data. Carbonite offer excellent prices but in the event of data loss how long would a 50GB download take in order to restore all a business's data. All the Irish data backup companies I know offer to take the data from the backup servers to a business location via hard disk in the event of a total failure.

I guess my point is that in order to have a good backup system you will have to spend €€€ whether this be on an online data backup company or on large hard drives with the various RAID setups. And if you are going to go with an Online backup crowd it can sometimes be better to go with a local source rather than an overseas company. My 2c anyway.

In the interest of not looking like I'm plugging our business I've removed my usual signature and below are some other Irish Data Backup companies that offer the same service and I've heard good things about.

www.Keepitsafe.ie
www.Databackup.ie
www.cinfinity.ie

the_monkey

I think Flickr + external HDD is sufficient....

melekalikimaka

the_monkey wrote: »

I think Flickr + external HDD is sufficient....

cept flickr doesnt allow raw uploads

eas

I currently use a dual 500GB external drive system and remove & replace drives out as they fill up.

I've been considering getting a Drobo....anyone use one?

bren2002

Photos are on the local HD, although this is basically full now.

I've got them snyc'ed to a 500 GB external device and have begun uploading to Backblaze, although this is taking a long time. Upload speeds on the home bb isn't great.

Just took delivery today of a 1TB NAS so will figure out a new solution around it over the next few days.

the_monkey

melekalikimaka wrote: »

cept flickr doesnt allow raw uploads

ah good point, well I do the work and the finished JPEG or JPEG'S
i upload to flickr....

works for me ...I never need to do more work on a RAW file ....
then again this is not my career ...

i actually need to clear a load of .CR2 files for space !!

Cameraman

I use DVD's, external hard disks and Jungle Disk/Amazon S3 (for online backups).

eas wrote: »

I've been considering getting a Drobo....anyone use one?

Don't have one, and won't be getting one. I think there are better, cheaper ways of doing anything a Drobo can do. It's a nicely packaged, proprietary, premium RAID device. Often sold to people who mistakenly think it backs itself up :-)

cian1500ww

I backup everything onto my home server.