Photo storage

Shelflife

Hi

i have a lot of pictures on my computer, whats the easiest/safest way to store them. just in case the computer crashes.

Cheers

SinisterDexter

2 external hard drives (hard drives are just as likely to fail) Don't delete them off your laptop - if you can spare the space.

Shelflife

cheers , what about the online storage sites? flickr etc??

magicbastarder

depends on how many shots you have.

Heebie

Shelflife wrote: »

cheers , what about the online storage sites? flickr etc??

You also want to be careful there.. you won't be able to store your RAW files if you shoot in raw.. and some of those sites.. once you upload your photo to them.. they own the copyright on it, and can then sell it without any further say-so from yourself. Read all the fine print on any such site that you use.

there are other online backup solutions you can look at.. where you would just be sending FILES up.. and it wouldn't be photo-specific.. but you could send encrypted files if you don't want others to be able to access them etc.. (others being the company providing the storage.) then, as long as you keep copies of your private encryption keys, and/or you remember your pass-phrases well enough, you're doing well. Those would generally be stored in several locations... and might even include version histories.

AnCatDubh

Shelflife wrote: »

Hi

i have a lot of pictures on my computer, whats the easiest/safest way to store them. just in case the computer crashes.

Cheers

define lots? I mean are we talking about gigabytes or terabytes of images? raw, jpg, or both?

davmigil

Windows skydrive offers 25Gb free online storage. You could stick your most precious pictures there.

External hard drives seem to be the cheapest Gb/€ options at the moment. Consider having more than one and rotating it off-site (leave with relation etc.) so you have a back-up in case of flood/fire/theft etc.

Some good software to automate the process, which you can schedule is a must, as otherwise it is tedious and you won't do it as often as you should.

Shelflife

AnCatDubh wrote: »

define lots? I mean are we talking about gigabytes or terabytes of images? raw, jpg, or both?

I suppose what i mean is i have alot of holiday pics that are on my computer, in jpeg format , you would be looking at 300 pics at most but more to come.

just standard holiday /occasion picture that i wouldnt like to lose if the lap top ever gave up. no commercial value just sentimental.

AnCatDubh

Shelflife wrote: »

I suppose what i mean is i have alot of holiday pics that are on my computer, in jpeg format , you would be looking at 300 pics at most but more to come.

just standard holiday /occasion picture that i wouldnt like to lose if the lap top ever gave up. no commercial value just sentimental.

Aha, as a quick, and rather cheap way of keeping them backed up, I suggest to do as Dave suggests below (which is what I was getting to).

davmigil wrote: »

Windows skydrive offers 25Gb free online storage. You could stick your most precious pictures there.

It gives you 25GByte of space, and some inside information suggests that the good folk that run the service won't cap it at that - I guess at some stage they may charge but for now 25GByte+ is free.

If you use internet explorer then you get a neat drag and drop uploader.

Using this service also means you have access to your images from anywhere you are connected to the internet. Plus if you wanted to you could start sharing your images with family friends from here.

Just pay attention to the size options - and always go for original size.

As you don't have a particularly large collection, this is going to be something that could work quite nicely for you. You could buy external drives or back them up to DVD too as a secondary form of backup, but as a first port of call, I'd use the skydrive service.

Also, as another option - you could try uploading them to pix.ie for free or flickr for paid (maxes out at 100 files for free a/c and they have a max resolution they will give you your files back as on the free a/c too). Upload your images to either service and select private in the security options for them.

Shelflife

Cheers

DougL

I recommend http://www.jungledisk.com/ plus http://s3.amazonaws.com. Three different datacenters and file encryption if you're worried about your images being stolen.

I have 60+ Gigs of RAW files up there and it cost me 10-12 Euro a month. It's not free, but you get what you pay for.

-Doug

thebullkf

sorry to hi-jack the thread but can you recommend software that will do this autimatically?

i have thousands of pics.....prob over 10,000:eek:


also somewhere i could get em printed off.

i was gonna use Foto.com..but the the thought of uploading that many pics is daunting....


thanks

K_user

Speaking as someone who recently lost alot of photographs when one of my external drives failed...

I currently have two hard-drives connected to my machine and I regularly copy off my photographs onto DVD's as an added extra. Doubling up, always a good idea!

magicbastarder

Shelflife wrote: »

I suppose what i mean is i have alot of holiday pics that are on my computer, in jpeg format , you would be looking at 300 pics at most but more to come.

you could pick up a couple of USB keys for a tenner or so, too, that would be more than adequate for that.

DougL

K_user wrote: »

I currently have two hard-drives connected to my machine and I regularly copy off my photographs onto DVD's as an added extra. Doubling up, always a good idea!

What will you do if your house burns down, or is broken into? Maybe that sounds paranoid to some, but I would be absolutely devastated if I lost my photographs. That's why I use redundant online storage.

-Doug

magicbastarder

i have (as of yesterday) 99.9GB of photos; i've two internal HDs, and there's a full copy on each, and in case of fire or theft, two external HDs - one currently in my brother's house, and one in my dad's house, also with a copy of my photos directory on each. most recent mirror was done about a month of go to these. i do a mirror to the internal backup copy every time i add more photos.

davmigil

thebullkf wrote: »

sorry to hi-jack the thread but can you recommend software that will do this autimatically?

i have thousands of pics.....prob over 10,000:eek:


also somewhere i could get em printed off.

i was gonna use Foto.com..but the the thought of uploading that many pics is daunting....


thanks

For Windows check out SyncBac. Freeware version is pretty good and will do everything you need (including scheduling and emailing a log file if there is a problem with the back-up running). They have paid for ones as well with extra features also.

thebullkf

davmigil wrote: »

For Windows check out SyncBac. Freeware version is pretty good and will do everything you need (including scheduling and emailing a log file if there is a problem with the back-up running). They have paid for ones as well with extra features also.

cheers. will check it out:)

The Snipe

I'm suprised no one thought of this, to be honest.

What I do is, get a good webhost who does regular backups (I'm with letshost.ie and they do one every 6), when you are putting your photos on your computer, FTP Them to your webhost - and you get an instant backup, that you can access and if anything ever happens them, they use offsite backup systems etc. to keep everything secure (They do all the hard work for you )

And it only costs about €8/m

Mister Gooey

Shelflife wrote: »

Hi

i have a lot of pictures on my computer, whats the easiest/safest way to store them. just in case the computer crashes.

Cheers

I use Mozy.com. It backs up my photos and family videos. I think I paid about €50 for 24months online storage. It is easy to set up and you can get it to upload whenever you want. The 99Gb you have will take a while to back-up (depends on your broadband connection). Once the main bulk is uploaded it is a lot easier to control.

http://www.onlinebackupsreview.com/mozy.php

Cameraman

XiledSniper wrote: »

I'm suprised no one thought of this, to be honest.

What I do is, get a good webhost who does regular backups (I'm with letshost.ie and they do one every 6), when you are putting your photos on your computer, FTP Them to your webhost - and you get an instant backup, that you can access and if anything ever happens them, they use offsite backup systems etc. to keep everything secure (They do all the hard work for you )

And it only costs about €8/m

Three possible reasons why people don't do this :

(1) Relatively low file storage limit, depending on your hosting package
(2) Backups may not be available to you, or taken frequently enough to be useful
(3) Many hosting services specifically forbid this in their TOS

I suspect all of these might apply to letshost - worth checking

The Snipe

Cameraman wrote: »

Three possible reasons why people don't do this :

(1) Relatively low file storage limit, depending on your hosting package
(2) Backups may not be available to you, or taken frequently enough to be useful
(3) Many hosting services specifically forbid this in their TOS

I suspect all of these might apply to letshost - worth checking

There is nothing like that in the TOS with letshost :O

Cameraman

XiledSniper wrote: »

There is nothing like that in the TOS with letshost :O

OK - but some or all do apply to other hosts.

I had a quick look at letshost TOS :

"Lets Host keeps backups of key server systems only and these backups are not available for customer use. Lets Host can accept no responsibility for any loss of data or consequences arising from this. Lets Host always advises clients to back up their site data regularly for their own protection. Other backup systems provided are given as a courtesy only, and should not be depended upon for ensuring your data is secure."

Hmmmmmmmm

the_monkey

Heebie wrote: »

and some of those sites.. once you upload your photo to them.. they own the copyright on it, and can then sell it without any further say-so from yourself. Read all the finestored in several locations... and might even include version histories.

Really ??? not flickr, which sites ?

K_user

Sagastipean wrote: »

What will you do if your house burns down, or is broken into? Maybe that sounds paranoid to some, but I would be absolutely devastated if I lost my photographs. That's why I use redundant online storage.

-Doug

Way to depress a guy

If someone breaks into my house chances are they will make off with my TV's, computer stuff, my camera stuff, the stuff belong to my wife, my DVD collection...unlikely to care about a small bunch of DVD-R's sitting by themselves - least I hope not!

As for the burning down thing - surely the total loss of everything I own won't be made any better by having held onto a few random landscape shots?

And on the other point, devastation isn't the word. I lost an entire years worth of photographs, including the first year of my second child.

Backup please people!