Hard drive or cloud Backup: Which one is best?

[jessen272]

Any advice where to stores family pics/movie clips from mobiles, camera and video camera?

Thanks in Advance

 

[The_Traveler]

This topic has been discussed extensively many times.
I suggest you so a search for topics using key words like 'cloud '

 

[Buckster]

Both.

Local hard drive gives fast and easy access to them.

A second hard drive redundant with them makes a good local backup. If one crashes, replace it and back them up again from the drive that's still good.

Cloud makes a great backup just in case anything really bad happens to your local drives, including virus, fire, flood, theft, etc., where you lose all.

 

[The_Traveler]

The main, and very important, problems with cloud are upload and recovery time.
Unless you pay a high fee, uploads are quite slow.
Since photo files are quite large, initial publish to cloud and daily changes to image files may take, essentially forever.

This test was performed on a 300 Megabyte folder

I have a few single files that approach that size and have a total of 700 GB that I would want to keep backed up - about 2300 times that or about 90 hours of full speed uploading for an initial backup. (No guarantee that my upload speed will stay that consistent over the 3-4 days needed.)
If I lose my files and want to download a full backup - hmmmmmmm

Costs are all over the place from $29/year for a terabyte up to $500 for the same service but service quality is unknown (Cloud storage price check | ZDNet

Low costs is 29/year for one terabyte (of unknown quality and speed and features) up to $500/year from Amazon for the same.

If you are just starting with a few gigs and not a lot of shooting and editing in your future, then the cloud may make sense from speed and costs but I could buy a lot of hard disk storage and speed for that $.
(I have a neighbor who is in IT and we each hold a hard drive (swapped every week or so) for the other to get them off site.)

 

[tirediron]

Primary back-up is to alternate hard-drive. Secondary (off-site) back-up to DVD-ROM.

 

[Buckster]

Regarding Cloud storage, the length of time it takes to initially upload is insignificant, as it happens in the background anyway. Eventually, it's done, and then it just adds new files as you create them. I have 1.9 TERABYTES uploaded to CrashPlan, and it increases daily. Yes, it took a long time for the initial upload, but now that it's done, it's just a matter of it uploading new files I make, which is not a big deal. It happens automatically in the background without requiring any input or initialization from me, so it's no fuss at all on my part.

I'm also an Amazon Prime member, for other reasons, and now that they're offering unlimited cloud storage of photos to Prime members for no additional cost, I'm now uploading all my photos to them as well. There are limitations on types of files though, so be aware of that if you consider it. PSD files, for example, are not allowed as part of the free service, but all RAW types, JPGs, TIFs, GIFs, PNGs and more, plus a lot of video formats are.

If you have VERY slow or per-month-amount-capped uploads from your provider, it could be a bigger issue for you than it is for me, depending on how many new files you make in relevant periods. I have my local cable TV provider's typical internet service, which is unlimited in downloads and uploads amounts, with upload speeds in the 2-4 Mbps range, depending on time of day (nights when not a lot of people are on are best) according to SpeedTest.net. From my understanding, that's not terribly fast, but it does the trick.

Yes, the download for the full backup would also take a long time. Nonetheless, if that's all you have left because of some terrible disaster, you'll be glad you do have that to fall back on, and it will be worth whatever time it takes to fully recover them.

Costs for Cloud storage ARE all over the place, so if you're interested in Cloud storage, shop around to see what works best for you on price and features. When I did that, CrashPlan stood out for me as the best for MY needs. Yours may be different. With CrashPlan, I bought a 4 year subscription for $189. That's $47.25 per year, or $3.94 per month or $.91 per week, depending on how you look at it, for peace of mind. The amount and types and sizes I can store there is unlimited.

By the way, folks who stored their backups on CDs and DVDs for many years are now finding that many of the older disks are failing, even though they took great care to store them properly and even to use the so-called "archival quality" disks that were supposed to last 50 years.

I've experienced the same thing myself on more than one occasion. I'm reminded of the problem because just last week, I pulled out a CD of home videos I burned back in 2000 and then stored in a sleeve and up on a shelf, to give to my sister. We popped it in, and it failed to read. Luckily, I have everything that was on it on my hard drives (and cloud) backups, so I was able to recreate it for her.

I would no longer put my trust in disks for backups, because there's no way to determine if they're deteriorating in storage or not. All you can do is cross your fingers when you go to use them on the day you NEED what's on them.

 

[Tabe]

My backup plan is this:

1) Locally, I have a job that runs once a week and backs up my photos folder to another hard drive that is also on-site
2) I have an off-site hard drive in my office at work that I keep up-to-date
3) I have 50 gigs of free storage from box.com (which I have basically outgrown) for cloud backup. I installed their little app and any changes to my photos folder on my hard drive are automatically backed up to the cloud. I need to sign up for another service to give myself space.

Speaking of "another service", Amazon has just updated their Prime service to give unlimited storage space for photos. $99 a year and you get all the other benefits too (free 2-day shipping on all orders and Amazon Video service).

 

[bribrius]

use backup drive and cloud. The cloud pretty much runs, like all the time. Biggest thing with auto backup on cloud is you don't want to save everything. so I try to catch things and delete them out before it gets uploaded. sometimes I have to pause it, to stop it from sucking up photos I don't want it to. I have since smartened up and restricted it to a single file on my computer instead of it sucking up every single image I put on it and each edit.

I takes a lot though. Last time I did a full backup it quoted me something like two weeks to reupload everything or like 193 discs or some crazy thing. Not everything has to be backed up at full raw either. if you don't need the jpg or especially the raw file delete them, delete delete delete. no point backing up what you don't need to begin with. I went on a deletion spree and skipped a lot of raw files that really were just taking unnecessary space and it did a full backup in a day.

 

[fotomonkey]

What are backups?

 

[bratkinson]

I would no longer put my trust in disks for backups, because there's no way to determine if they're deteriorating in storage or not. All you can do is cross your fingers when you go to use them on the day you NEED what's on them.

Unfortunately, there's no way to determine if your cloud storage hasn't been corrupted, either. Do you actually believe they will periodically check and validate the accuracy of your files? OK, they may have RAID and other safety nets, but like any company, stuff falls through the cracks.

I simply keep 2 backups...one on site (10 feet from my computer), and one off site (2 mi away). That was a one-time cash outlay to Amazon.com, or wherever I bought the gear.

Needless to say, I neither 'trust' cloud storage to not only retain my data unaltered, nor prevent access by unauthorized individuals. Suppose the a government agency 'demands' access to their files as they have other corporate information. Or, perhaps they get hacked by someone who then copies your files and sells the photos as their own? Or, worse yet, your 'auto charge every month credit card' information gets hacked and bogus charges suddenly appear on your credit card? Or, maybe long after you are able to take photos and store them in the cloud, you no longer use the cloud, but your credit card charges keep right on coming, until you or your heirs stop it.

Simply put, I don't share any information in any form unless I specifically do so. My bank account, credit card numbers, Social Security number, insurance policy numbers, and tax information are only disclosed to those who require that information (those same providers). Other than that, you'll have to break into my house (or church) to obtain that information. In the cloud, it's wide open to ALL hackers!

edit: $10/mo for cloud storage is $120 per year...year after year. $60 or so, one time charge, gets more hard drive space...a one time charge.

 

[Buckster]

I would no longer put my trust in disks for backups, because there's no way to determine if they're deteriorating in storage or not. All you can do is cross your fingers when you go to use them on the day you NEED what's on them.

Unfortunately, there's no way to determine if your cloud storage hasn't been corrupted, either. Do you actually believe they will periodically check and validate the accuracy of your files? OK, they may have RAID and other safety nets, but like any company, stuff falls through the cracks.

I'm willing to take that chance, especially when I already KNOW for SURE that CDs and DVDs fail over time, and haven't seen yet where the cloud resources have had that problem.

Needless to say, I neither 'trust' cloud storage to not only retain my data unaltered, nor prevent access by unauthorized individuals. Suppose... (list of "what-ifs")

The risk of hacking is just a fact of life, but that's true no matter what you do. Many, many years ago, before I ever did any banking online or purchased stuff online or any of that stuff, my bank got hacked and my account was cleaned out, just before Christmas, along with untold numbers of other banking customers. Keeping my digital information safe under my mattress didn't save me or the many other customers at that bank from that attack. Eventually, it all got straightened out and we all got our money back, but it was not a fun Christmas that year, thanks to hackers.

If you purchase ANYTHING online, on ebay or amazon or Adobe or Virus Protection or ANYWHERE else, you run the risks of hacking. That goes for one-time purchases, or regular monthly payments to ANY person or company you've EVER done business with.

If you hand your debit or credit card to a waiter, you run the risk. If you swipe it at a fast food counter or Walmart or the grocery store or anywhere else, you run the risk. If you give the info over the phone when ordering a pizza, you run the risk. If you use an ATM, you run the risk. In fact, if you have and use a debit or credit card at all, in any way, anywhere, you run the risk.

Just having a computer connected to the internet means you run the risk, because hackers don't just stop with institutions, they get into personal computers as well. They also get into cell phones and tablets and anything else that has ANY WAY to connect remotely to the device.

If the government wants your info, including your entire digital life and the entire contents of your computer, they're going to get it, and not using cloud service isn't going to deter them from that one iota.

I could never personally live with such paranoid fears, but to each his own, and more power to ya!

 

[greybeard34 7]

I look at cloud storage as a pretty much unknown factor. It just hasn't been around long enough for me to determine just reliable it really is.

 

[Buckster]

I look at cloud storage as a pretty much unknown factor. It just hasn't been around long enough for me to determine just reliable it really is.

The entire internet has essentially been running on cloud storage for its entire existence. There's nothing mysterious about it. It's just files on servers with redundant backup systems so that when one crashes, another takes its place.

The only thing different from individuals and companies using it for web sites is that it's now a lot easier for anyone to access that server space for automatic backups, and it's not set up to serve out web pages.

 

[dennybeall]

If hackers can hack the Home Depot and the US government they certainly can hack The Cloud and browse around all they want.
Not that I have anything that couldn't be posted on a billboard in Times Square but I just don't like it that MY STUFF could be available.
Vote for the two multi-terabyte drives on hand and off site.

 

[Tailgunner]

I don't have a big issue with the cloud but I would never use it as my sole backup system. Servers crash, systems glitch, and hackers hack. There is just too many risk for me to put all my eggs into one invisible basket.

My current new storage setup uses a G-Drive Studio with 2 removable 3T HDs. This along with my iMac and modem is plugged into an APC battery back up. I'm still in the deciding phase for my third back up, maybe CD-Rom or maybe an additional external HD. What ever i decide, the third back up will be stored in a fire resistant safe, not some cheap office depo safe either but a good quality safe.