Backup of your photos

DennyCrane · Nov 22, 2009

Hopefully Buckster will pop in and mention his setup. He has the setup that everyone should work towards emulating. Multiple striped RAID arrays, etc.

Me, I just backup across my tower, my notebook, USB drives and a little cloud storage for the good schtuff.

Buckster · Nov 22, 2009

DennyCrane said:
Hopefully Buckster will pop in and mention his setup. He has the setup that everyone should work towards emulating. Multiple striped RAID arrays, etc.

Me, I just backup across my tower, my notebook, USB drives and a little cloud storage for the good schtuff.

Here's the original post:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ng-file-storage-alternatives.html#post1726258

DennyCrane · Nov 22, 2009

Garbz · Nov 23, 2009

Very nice.

Tick - Redundant Array of Independent Discs to combat hardware failure.
Tick - Complete backup of redundant array to combat user error / virus or other corruption.
???? - Offsite backup?

I may have missed that because I was too busy staring at the awesomeness of the storage arrays, so forgive me if you do this. One important part about backups is the physical security of your backup.

If someone can break in and steal your computer along with the backup then it's not a good backup. If a fire or flood can wipe out your computer along with the backup then it's not a good backup.

The last step is always physical separation between the backup and the primary. JLEphoto's idea of a safety deposit box is good. I take my backups to work and they sit in the bottom desk drawer.

Buckster · Nov 23, 2009

Garbz said:
Very nice.

Tick - Redundant Array of Independent Discs to combat hardware failure.
Tick - Complete backup of redundant array to combat user error / virus or other corruption.
???? - Offsite backup?

I may have missed that because I was too busy staring at the awesomeness of the storage arrays, so forgive me if you do this. One important part about backups is the physical security of your backup.

If someone can break in and steal your computer along with the backup then it's not a good backup. If a fire or flood can wipe out your computer along with the backup then it's not a good backup.

The last step is always physical separation between the backup and the primary. JLEphoto's idea of a safety deposit box is good. I take my backups to work and they sit in the bottom desk drawer.

Yeah, I use an online server backup storage solution as well that also hosts my web site. I also make 2 backups on DVD of the newest photos/files at the end of each month, stick one in a fire proof safe here, and store the other at my sister's house a couple miles away.

Garbz · Nov 23, 2009

Yep now that's a backup solution

I don't like the idea of online backup though. It sounds great having your data in the cloud till you need to actually recover it at 100kb/s :lmao:

Buckster · Nov 23, 2009

Garbz said:
Yep now that's a backup solution

I don't like the idea of online backup though. It sounds great having your data in the cloud till you need to actually recover it at 100kb/s :lmao:

I hear ya. That's really my very last line of defense, and if I'm there, I'm desperate because ALL the rest of my backup planning got killed somehow. Like if a tornado picked up both houses and dumped the entire contents into Lake Michigan, or something along those lines. :gah:

zapman29 · Nov 23, 2009

Thanks for all the responses.

Drake · Nov 24, 2009

I backup my photos on an external 80gig drive and burn a dvd once or twice a month. Every year I burn new dvds just in case the old one would not work anymore. Not a very sophisticated strategy, but I don't shoot more than 1gb/month, so I don't need massive hard discs for backup storage.

nickisonfire · Nov 24, 2009

Once the month is over I burn that onto a DVD, usually make 3 copies, keeping 2 at home and 1 and a friends house for safety.

Weekly back-ups to 2 different external hard drives.

Back-up everything on the small hard drives to a MyBook 2TB (1TB for storage the other one as a redundancy)

Then one additional backup on the network

itznfb · Nov 24, 2009

Garbz said:
I take my backups to work and they sit in the bottom desk drawer.

You know.... it's always the simplest solution that you over look. Good idea on taking it to work.

Garbz · Nov 25, 2009

I happen to also work in a blast proof building so I have the nuclear situation covered too

thebeatles · Nov 25, 2009

I use a Seagate 320GB external hard drive. I think I will upgrade soon though.

spudgunr · Dec 6, 2009

For those that swap out drives somewhat, how about something like this?

3 Drive (2 x 5.25") Hot-Swappable SATA Internal Drive Case SNT-2131-SATA

Takes up two 5.25" bays and lets you hot swap 3 sata drives. More convenient to switch HDD's than opening up your external enclosure.

flightless_beaker · Dec 6, 2009

I have one external hard drive. I'm already filling it up though

My plan is to just start putting shoots on DVDs and then deleting the files off my hard drive (at least the ones I don't use). I don't like that idea because I'll have everything in one medium and if a DVD gets scratched, I'm SOL. But I do have a lot of photos I don't need or have shot at different exposures. Shooting in RAW is great but uses space up like hell. Eventually as I earn more money, I'm gonna get a drobo and back things on there.