Image Backup Options

[zincprincess]

It occurred to me that I have the first 5 years of my child’s life plus wedding photographs, and travel photography all stored on my laptop and backed up on an external hard drive. I’m in “what if” scenario mode right now.

How do you back up your photos in the event of internal or external hard drive crash? I’m debating signing up for Carbonite but it only protects one machine. Right now we have two laptops and a desktop. It would be nice to back up everything although the pictures on my machine are the most precious to me. My husband’s laptop with its collection of GIFs, lolcats and scantily clad women are at the bottom of my priority list.

Thoughts and opinions?

[ravnostic]

Depending on your file size requirements, buy a domain from godaddy for twelve bucks a year (or one of the cheaper ones–.us is $5) Comes with free hosting, but you don’t have to use to build a website–use it as a backup. Filezilla makes it easy to use. Godaddy gives you 10 Gigs of storage for nothing more than the domain charge. Though due to my multi-domain needs I pay for deluxe hosting, I post all my pictures in farktography from there–I’m up to 5.6 gigs of data after 6 or 7 years now (there’s other stuff, of course as well, family pictures, documents, etc.). If you want to pony up for deluxe, sign on for a year, then wait for an e-mail for 30 to 40 percent off, and extend it out when you get it.

If you build a webpage with ‘free hosting’, however, it will have google-ads on it–gotta pay to get rid of those. But as a place to store your ‘stuff’–it’s the bomb. Has unlimited bandwidth, too.

//just make sure a family member knows the password to access it, or include it in your will (God forbid, of course, but should you pass on, someone needs to know how to get in–godaddy is a pain in the ass to get into in survivorship situations (I know–I worked there for a time)–it’s easier if someone just knows what they need.)

Works from any computer; backed up in Chandler Az and Dallas, Tx–short of a nu-keu-lar war, your data is saved. Good for wills, marriage certs, etc. as well.

//ironically, my most viewed data are pictures not from farktography, but from the photoshop contests (8 of 10). Go figure. 🙁

[Kestrana]

We are planning on buying a terabyte server for our house that will be connected to our network at home and periodically putting our files there. You can get a terabyte hard drive for $80-$100. This is great if you have multiple people who are using your storage space. If you’re anything like me and orionid you’ll eat through 10 gigs too quickly with multiple people wanting to use the file space. On my laptop alone I have over 100GB of photo data, and that’s just from last Christmas to now.

Granted I keep all my RAW images and I should go through each upload and trash the blurry, blank and black ones but I’ll probably just do that once we get our new house and set up the network.

If you’re already a Flickr Pro, you can set up private sets to keep your personal photos backed up on Flickr but not viewable to anyone but you or anyone marked family in your contacts. There’s no upload limit for paid Flickr accounts. Using personal website file space is a good idea but the bottom line with any storage or back up is that bad things can happen. Like you noted, external or internal errors happen (I am still toting around an old external HD that went belly up and I hope to get recovered some day) and websites can crash or have their servers have errors too. Redundancy -having more than one backup location- is the only way to really protect your files entirely.

[ravnostic]

Redundancy -having more than one backup location- is the only way to really protect your files entirely.

Ayep. The more, the merrier.

When my parents had the house fire, and lost pretty much everything in the garage (read that, the family letters dating to the late 1700’s, the pictures to the 1800’s, the keepsakes, etc), the “I’ll get to doing that someday” attitude got dropped rather quickly. The few letters I salvaged are now on CD-ROMs among multiple family members, as well as on my lappytop, backup drive, and godaddy acct.

//I totally feel ya, kes on the 10 gig limit. I haven’t exceeded it (I back up only my VERY favorite raw images plus personal things), but I’m SO glad I have the additional storage with the extra space when I need it (150Gb with deluxe).

I know if I didn’t treat the space as a valued property and just uploaded to my heart’s content, I’d be out of space already (there’s 272 Gigs on my TB backup). I keep saying I’ll get around to cleaning up the blurries, duplicates (or nearly so’s), etc; but then–that’s what my mom said about copying the family documents before the fire. It’s an easy attitude to re-adopt, unfortunately. 🙄 {–guilty as charged–}ravnostic

[CauseISaidSo]

I’ve got a good bit more than just my photos to worry about, so I have two separate external backups that I rotate through. Although I haven’t done so yet (and desparately need to), the idea is to rotate those externals through a safety deposit box every couple of weeks or so. I’ve got 2TB of RAID 10 on my development PC and with the two externals, I’m fairly well protected against a hardware failure, but I still need to get it offsite at some point. I do always take one of the externals with me whenever I travel.

If you watch CompUSA/Tiger Direct/etc, you’ll see 1-2TB externals come through for less than $90 pretty frequently. For backup software itself, I use SyncBack. There’s both a free and paid version of it, but the free version should suit most everyone’s needs.

[sleeping]

I don’t know how much most providers care, but using a web hosting account as file storage for backup purposes (unconnected to a web site) is, at least in many cases, a violation of their TOS, so I would be extremely wary of relying on it.

[Yugoboy]

Just a plug for some (somewhat) old school technology, as well as a local company that’s been struggling lately.

All those external HDs and domains and stuff sounds neat and all, but Kodak makes archive quality CD-ROMs (and I’m assuming DVD-ROMS as well, but I don’t know about those). They’re more stable and reliable than regular CDs and have a shelf life of like 75 years or so (unlike regular CDs which are only designed for 5-7, despite how good your Nine Inch Nails CD you bought senior year sounds).

They cost more, but they’re worth it, if you’re saving precious memories. Also, they fit in the safe deposit box easier, if you really wanna keep ’em safe.

[orionid]

despite how good your Nine Inch Nails CD you bought senior year sounds

Just as great as the day I bought it. Along with the Nin CD’s I bought junior year, sophomore year, freshman year. Oh, and in college, and pretty much every album that came out while I was in the navy.

/Yeah, Trent’s pretty badass.

[ravnostic]

I don’t know how much most providers care, but using a web hosting account as file storage for backup purposes (unconnected to a web site) is, at least in many cases, a violation of their TOS, so I would be extremely wary of relying on it.

It’s not in Godaddy’s TOS (they’re probably big enough that they just don’t care.)

Thanks, Yugoboy for the Kodak tip! The more backups, the better.

[kashari]

I don’t know how much most providers care, but using a web hosting account as file storage for backup purposes (unconnected to a web site) is, at least in many cases, a violation of their TOS, so I would be extremely wary of relying on it.

Yeah, I found this out after I paid for a domain through Arvixe. I called with a question I was told that I was NOT allowed to use it for storage.

I currently have a raided 1 tb x 2 Western Digital My Book, which I backup to Mozy (I got in while it was unlimited storage for 2 yrs for a little over $100 when I signed up) and that process also backs up to a local external 1 tb drive that I then put in my safe. Duplicated that to a 1tb drive which will go into my safe deposit box as soon as my old ass remembers to take it there.

I’m almost out of space on the raided drive and those are now running about $135 on Amazon, so I see another one in my near future.

[sleeping]

It’s not in Godaddy’s TOS (they’re probably big enough that they just don’t care.)

I can’t say if they really care, but: “You shall at all times use the Services as a conventional and/or traditional website. […] Specifically by way of example and not as a limitation, you shall not use the Services as: (i) a repository or instrument for placing or storing archived files; and/or (ii) placing or storing material that can be downloaded through other websites. “

http://www.godaddy.com/agreements/showdoc.aspx?pageid=HOSTING_SA

[ravnostic]

It’s not in Godaddy’s TOS (they’re probably big enough that they just don’t care.)

I can’t say if they really care, but: “You shall at all times use the Services as a conventional and/or traditional website. […] Specifically by way of example and not as a limitation, you shall not use the Services as: (i) a repository or instrument for placing or storing archived files; and/or (ii) placing or storing material that can be downloaded through other websites. “

http://www.godaddy.com/agreements/showdoc.aspx?pageid=HOSTING_SA

In context with the rest of the paragraph (below), Godaddy is saying it’s not designed as a back up service, and it assumes no liability as such. So long as I don’t impair them, they don’t care–they told me I wasn’t supposed to use them for that service; and if I’ve been hacked or abused or otherwise wronged, it’s not their fault. Typical lawyerese for ‘look, if you have a problem, it’s not our fault, and we’ll use this TOS agreement to show in court that we’re not responsible.’

The bit about ‘placing or storing material that can be downloaded through other websites’? If it’s on the interweb, and has an extension that starts with ‘http’, it’s downloadable via other websites, less a whole bunch of security measures, of which isn’t provided through flickr or picasa or any number of other such type sites (witness Trudy’s “Barbie” shot, for example) that most everybody never even thinks about, lest consider.

It’s protection for them against liability–after some 7 years of my use, through the popularity of “Myspace” and well along thereafter, I think if they had a problem, I’d know by now. They don’t want to mess with small-fish players–they want to protect against big-fish culprits, or the truly corrupted abusers that might exist (pedo’s, etc).

I, for one, am not overly worried about it.

Same with the whole ‘i-google’ thing; it’s not in their best interest to steal, copy, or use commercially the images anyone posts there. But they’ve got a nice portion of their TOS describing all sorts of situations where 1)they aren’t liable and 2)if you use them, and get abused in any way/sort/fashion–it’s not their bad–it’s yours. There’s another thread regarding that here, and elsewhere on the web as well.

CYA–welcome to corporate America. It’s the damned lawyers, I tell ya, that make all this legalese necessary.

Go Daddy?s shared hosting servers are not an archive and Go Daddy shall have no liability to you or any other person for loss, damage or destruction of any of your content. The Services are not intended to provide a PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant environment and therefore should not be considered as one. Go Daddy shall have no liability to you or any other person for your use of the Services in violation of these terms. You shall at all times use the Services as a conventional and/or traditional website. You shall not use the Service in any way, in Go Daddy?s sole discretion, that shall impair the functioning or operation of Go Daddy?s services or equipment. Specifically by way of example and not as a limitation, you shall not use the Services as: (i) a repository or instrument for placing or storing archived files; and/or (ii) placing or storing material that can be downloaded through other websites. You acknowledge and agree that Go Daddy has the right to carry out a forensic examination in the event of a compromise to your server or account

My translation: “We’re a website provider, not an archival repository. We’re not set up for legal archival data, so use at your own risk. If you lose your stuff, it’s not our fault. If your stuff gets seen, it’s not our fault. If your stuff gets hacked, it’s not our fault.

Usage shall be considered as a website only. If you screw us or our web operations, we’ll nix you, and back up our doing so with hard data. Especially if you’ve put up stuff that someone saw somewhere else, that was [potentially] illegal and of which we could be considered complicit in providing–in which case, we’ll use technology to show we’re only the repository, and hold no blame in the matter, so don’t blame us if you screw up and have a problem.”

//much ado about nothing IYAM and/or IMHO and YMMV. I still recommend it as another way to back up data. Been working for me for many years now.

NO offense intended, sleeping (or anyone else, FTM), these are just my thoughts on the matter.

[zincprincess]

I think that some combination of a terrabyte hard drive (probably internal on the desktop) with an online back up service is probably the way to go for us. Carbonite does not back up an external hard drive. So I’ll keep looking around at online back up services – perhaps CISS‘s suggestion. I have about 100 GB of photos and other stuff so mozy is out with its 125 GB limit.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I knew you guys (and gals) would not disappoint.

[sleeping]

NO offense intended, sleeping (or anyone else, FTM), these are just my thoughts on the matter.

Hey, they aren’t my files ;-). All I’m really saying is that you might want to consider this:

So long as I don’t impair them, they don’t care

In the context of them likely having oversold their actual storage capacity by several orders of magnitude.

[ravnostic]

I’m pretty sure the limits on uploading wouldn’t have increased to unlimited nor would the ‘economy’ space been increased from 5G to 10G (some year or two ago) and the upload/download limits be lifted entirely if they didn’t have the capacity to deal with the traffic. It’s not the only option, nor should it be to the exclusion of other forms of backup, but it serves my needs quite well.

In re to orders of magnitude, depends whether it’s binary or decimal based; I presume they have the raw data to have determined relinquishing the limits posed no threats, since they haven’t rescinded on those limits since then. But as I said–YMMV, and I’ll add no backup system is 100% guaranteed. If any were, they’d have a cornered market, and that would probably have led to being dismantled by the government for being ‘monopolistic.’

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