Preferred photo storage/backup method?

[BrentC]

Pairs of external 4TB drives; formerly used matched pairs of DVDs discs of the .NEFS. The DVD discs have become cumbersome as I moved from 2.7 to 6MP to 12Mp and then to 24MP captures...a 4.5 gigabyte DVD disc is fine for exported JPEGs from a shoot or two, but for raw, unprocessed NEFs, it's become too small at today's capture sizes. I back my iPhone images up to the Cloud, and periodically burn them to the drives.

I would not trust to DVD's. Life expectancy is about 20-25 years and can be damaged with heat, scratches, etc.

People should spend a bit of money and get proper storage with RAID. Todays USB keys and memory cards are great secondary backup solutions. Keep the RAID storage and backup memory cards in separate locations.

 

[Derrel]

I have a much higher opinion of CD and DVD media than 20 to 25 years...especially in dark storage on spindles. I think it's safer than huge archives on spinning hard drives where one failure can mean tens of thousands of lost images; I feel like DVD's offer fewer eggs to all be broken in one basket, so to speak. But hard drives make access and searching much,much easier.

 

[BrentC]

I have a much higher opinion of CD and DVD media than 20 to 25 years...especially in dark storage on spindles. I think it's safer than huge archives on spinning hard drives where one failure can mean tens of thousands of lost images; I feel like DVD's offer fewer eggs to all be broken in one basket, so to speak. But hard drives make access and searching much,much easier.

That is why you use RAID storage. A disk can fail without losing data. I also have a hot spare so if a disk does fail it will automatically bring the spare online. Just replace as needed.

I am a systems administrator and deal with storage all the time. I have horror stories of users who used DVD's as backup. Proper storage of DVD's does help though.

 

[smoke665]

There are plenty of fireproof and waterproof NAS boxes you can get such as this one:

So the $100,0000 question - Do you currently have your drives in a fireproof/waterproof storage box??? Even then I can tell you from experience on the scene of many house/business fires, tornadoes, floods, etc. that it is highly likely that even my big, heavy safe, is questionable as to keeping the contents safe. That's why there is always a drive in the briefcase along with other important papers that I can grab in hurry as I head out the door.

 

[smoke665]

I have a much higher opinion of CD and DVD media than 20 to 25 years...especially in dark storage on spindles.

That's the theoretical lifespan. Depending on things like you mentioned, in reality they could be half that. M-disc's or the (so called 1000 year disc) can supposedly last because of the process used to actually record the data. The reality though is they've only been around about 8 years, so it's to soon to really tell.

 

[BrentC]

There are plenty of fireproof and waterproof NAS boxes you can get such as this one:

So the $100,0000 question - Do you currently have your drives in a fireproof/waterproof storage box??? Even then I can tell you from experience on the scene of many house/business fires, tornadoes, floods, etc. that it is highly likely that even my big, heavy safe, is questionable as to keeping the contents safe. That's why there is always a drive in the briefcase along with other important papers that I can grab in hurry as I head out the door.

No I don't, my choice on how much I need to protect the data. But very important data are also backed up on memory cards and put in a safety deposit box. Here is what I do:

1. Laptop and external drives contains most of my data except very import sensitive data that I don't want to get stolen.

2. Cloud storage. Only used for non-sensitive data. Basically I only use it to put up photos that I like to access from anywhere and to post on forums, anything I don't care if it gets hacked. I do not rely on this as a backup and would never ever put sensitive data in the cloud.

3. NAS RAID for all my data. This assures me that baring a huge disaster that my data is reliably stored and won't lose anything do to hardware failure. I can also access my NAS through the internet but make sure you have the proper security setup. Encryption on the most sensitive data.

4. Memory cards in a safety deposit box. This is a copy of all my data that is highly sensitive and of utmost importance. This data also resides on my NAS.

 

[table1349]

There are plenty of fireproof and waterproof NAS boxes you can get such as this one:

So the $100,0000 question - Do you currently have your drives in a fireproof/waterproof storage box??? Even then I can tell you from experience on the scene of many house/business fires, tornadoes, floods, etc. that it is highly likely that even my big, heavy safe, is questionable as to keeping the contents safe. That's why there is always a drive in the briefcase along with other important papers that I can grab in hurry as I head out the door.

So what happens if the cloud storage site has a fire, hit by a tornado, a flood. Same difference. The cloud is a fools paradise in my opinion. Too many things could happen, even simple things like they go out of business.

If you want true secure off site storage you invest in true multi site, redundant backup, disaster proof backup solutions. The same ones that the financial institutions and big businesses use since they can't afford to have a data loss event.

 

[DaveAndHolly219]

There are plenty of fireproof and waterproof NAS boxes you can get such as this one:

So the $100,0000 question - Do you currently have your drives in a fireproof/waterproof storage box??? Even then I can tell you from experience on the scene of many house/business fires, tornadoes, floods, etc. that it is highly likely that even my big, heavy safe, is questionable as to keeping the contents safe. That's why there is always a drive in the briefcase along with other important papers that I can grab in hurry as I head out the door.

So what happens if the cloud storage site has a fire, hit by a tornado, a flood. Same difference. The cloud is a fools paradise in my opinion. Too many things could happen, even simple things like they go out of business.

If you want true secure off site storage you invest in true multi site, redundant backup, disaster proof backup solutions. The same ones that the financial institutions and big businesses use since they can't afford to have a data loss event.

Google isn't going out of business. Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BrentC]

There are plenty of fireproof and waterproof NAS boxes you can get such as this one:

So the $100,0000 question - Do you currently have your drives in a fireproof/waterproof storage box??? Even then I can tell you from experience on the scene of many house/business fires, tornadoes, floods, etc. that it is highly likely that even my big, heavy safe, is questionable as to keeping the contents safe. That's why there is always a drive in the briefcase along with other important papers that I can grab in hurry as I head out the door.

So what happens if the cloud storage site has a fire, hit by a tornado, a flood. Same difference. The cloud is a fools paradise in my opinion. Too many things could happen, even simple things like they go out of business.

If you want true secure off site storage you invest in true multi site, redundant backup, disaster proof backup solutions. The same ones that the financial institutions and big businesses use since they can't afford to have a data loss event.

Companies that deal in cloud storage have multiple storage sites and redundancies. Them losing data is not an issue. The issue is hacking. No company no matter how big or who they are can get hacked. Look at Yahoo many years ago and never mind all the companies that get hacked but never make it to the public's ears. Cloud storage is not bad if used correctly but I would never put anything that you wouldn't want stolen on there.

 

[smoke665]

So what happens if the cloud storage site has a fire, hit by a tornado, a flood

The "cloud" isn't a physical location, in the sense we know it. It resides in that magical, mysterious place where it never storms and all is well everyday. At least that's how Thomas Edison explained it to me when I asked Google.

 

[smoke665]

No I don't, my choice on how much I need to protect the data.

So basically you are one lightning strike away from losing most of you data. Not sure why as an individual you'd actually need a storage array anyhow. Most people including professional photographers could operate with a much simpler setup as long as they maintained the data base and moved old images to an archive solution.

 

[BrentC]

No I don't, my choice on how much I need to protect the data.

So basically you are one lightning strike away from losing most of you data. Not sure why as an individual you'd actually need a storage array anyhow. Most people including professional photographers could operate with a much simpler setup as long as they maintained the data base and moved old images to an archive solution.

I have a UPS, lightning can strike as much as it wants. And as I stated earlier I don't keep all my eggs in one basket. Also this is not just to store photos but I store all data on my NAS. With using a NAS, which by the way can be used on the cheap and doesn't need to be expensive, is for reliability. Get an old PC, put linux on it with free RAID and plop in some disks, a $500 solution if you don't want to spend money on a commercial NAS. Can't get any simpler than that. Even the commercial NAS's can be setup and running in a few minutes. Hell most PC's you by these days has RAID built-in that you can enable if you have more thean one drive. The NAS becomes your archive and you won't have to worry about losing it if any of the hardware fails.

 

[smoke665]

@BrentC even simpler is to buy a docking Station for an internal hard drive (less than $50) then buy sata drives (less than than $75 for 2 TB), or SSD for a few dollars more.

 

[BrentC]

@BrentC even simpler is to buy a docking Station for an internal hard drive (less than $50) then buy sata drives (less than than $75 for 2 TB), or SSD for a few dollars more.

Once again it comes down to reliability, redundancy and accessability. Drives can fail and you will need to replace the data from other sources which is a pain in the ass. With a RAID there is no need to worry about that. Also I run everything from my NAS. I stream my blu-ray movies, view my pictures and store my documents. My laptop, my wifes, our phones and all other devices including TV and media devices access my NAS. Also all our devices automatically back-up to the NAS. No need to plug in an external drive or anything removable media. Access anytime anywhere.

Lightroom automatically backs yup the catalog and everything I import there as well.

 

[table1349]

There are plenty of fireproof and waterproof NAS boxes you can get such as this one:

So the $100,0000 question - Do you currently have your drives in a fireproof/waterproof storage box??? Even then I can tell you from experience on the scene of many house/business fires, tornadoes, floods, etc. that it is highly likely that even my big, heavy safe, is questionable as to keeping the contents safe. That's why there is always a drive in the briefcase along with other important papers that I can grab in hurry as I head out the door.

So what happens if the cloud storage site has a fire, hit by a tornado, a flood. Same difference. The cloud is a fools paradise in my opinion. Too many things could happen, even simple things like they go out of business.

If you want true secure off site storage you invest in true multi site, redundant backup, disaster proof backup solutions. The same ones that the financial institutions and big businesses use since they can't afford to have a data loss event.

Google isn't going out of business. Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

E.F. Hutton? General Foods? RCA? A&P? PaineWebber? Enron? Pan Am? Standard Oil? Arthur Andersen? TWA?

Westinghouse now in Bankruptcy.

Anyone and everyone can go out of business at any time.