I want to hear everyone's ideas on this.

I have most all of them on an old desktop that is pretty much at time capsule from 2003-2009, many are backed up to an external HDD, but both could easily fail.

Is a solid state drive the best bet? Cloud storage?

1/31/2015 12:12:16 PM

Just do a cloud backup of some sort:

No intervention needed on your part.
No backup hard drives to fail.
No local backup software to break (I trust their client/SOP more than my own software config)
Off-site backup > on-site backup
Anytime/anywhere access
Automated


[Edited on January 31, 2015 at 12:33 PM. Reason : If you're going to do it local there's no need to spend the extra $ on solid state]

1/31/2015 12:32:35 PM

What is the best cloud solution? Dropbox? Google Drive?

I have paid storage on Google now because my inbox got too big I guess I can just use that.

I feel like I am playing with fire having virtually every photo I own only stored in one or two places which is in my basement.

1/31/2015 12:52:09 PM

Quote :

"I feel like I am playing with fire having virtually every photo I own only stored in one or two places which is in my basement."

Yeah that would sketch me out...get that shit up on the cloud ASAP! How many gigs are we talking?

Worst case it's $5/month for unlimited for Backblaze.

[Edited on January 31, 2015 at 1:40 PM. Reason : http://pcsupport.about.com/od/maintenance/tp/online_backup_services.htm]

1/31/2015 1:39:39 PM

I have a RAID 1 NAS device and my photos automatically upload from there to my Flickr account

1/31/2015 6:43:55 PM

I backup my FreeNAS server to rsync.net.

Whatever backup you choose, make sure it's compatible with how you use your computers and store your photos. An external hard drive isn't going to be backed up if it's only plugged in for ten minutes a month while you copy new pictures to it. Same thing for the basement desktop.

1/31/2015 6:55:52 PM

rsync seems expensive...how much space do you use?

^^ Flickr seems like a pretty cool idea. $25/year for unlimited photos. Manage them in the same place they're backed up. What do you use to sync?


[Edited on January 31, 2015 at 7:20 PM. Reason : ]

1/31/2015 7:17:00 PM

I was using a built-in tool that came with my NAS, however when Flickr updated their API it stopped working (i preferred this because it worked independent of any computers, hopefully it gets updated). Right now I'm using FlickrSync which requires having a computer on and mounting the drive as a local drive.

(and it's free for me, I have under 1TB)

I also use IFTTT to backup Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook



[Edited on January 31, 2015 at 7:36 PM. Reason : my NAS also comes with a cloud service, but i haven't tried it yet]

1/31/2015 7:35:23 PM

^^ I backup a few hundred GB.

Rsync is 10 cents per GB per month, which is definitely expensive compared to most of the alternatives aimed at consumers. It doesn't require any sort of custom client, so I can backup directly from the server without having to leave another computer on. I'll probably look at S3 or Glacier in the not too distant future.

1/31/2015 8:00:33 PM

I use backblaze. $5/month, set it and forget it, no space limit. If you've got a lot of data it'll take a long time for the initial upload (mine took something like two weeks) but it'll back up basically anything you'd want it to, and it scans the system rather than you having to designate certain folders etc. Doesn't do a full OS backup, so you can't restore the entire system from an image, but you can customize the file type exclusions. Files are available to download online, or if your entire system crashes, they can send you the files on an external HDD. (You pay the cost of the HDD of course.) It doesn't do versioning, but it keeps deleted files around for 30 days before removing them from the backup. Pretty nice product for $5/month.

I also do have a Flickr Pro account, which gives you unlimited photo storage for $25/year as mentioned. You can use the photo sharing features (which I do) or just leave them all set to private and use it solely as backup. Not a bad option either but it only handles photos rather than all documents.

1/31/2015 9:23:18 PM

I am using my Office 365 account as it comes with Unlimited OneDrive storage and sync about 2TB of photos. I have my local computer with a 3TB internal HDD just for photos and a 3TB external HDD on my desktop at work. Syncing uploads it to MS cloud servers but also gives me an offsite disaster backup even if Microsoft fucks up the cloud copy.

My only issue that keeps me up at night with this setup is not having a non-cloud synced backup. If something gets erased in one location, it is wiped on all locations. If I was super anal, I would have an additional external drive that was synced every few months and then put in a safe deposit box. But I have not done that. Yet.

1/31/2015 9:24:48 PM

^Does the cloud sync to your external drive at work sync both ways? If you have it to where it will add/overwrite but not delete, then you're solid unless a)the cloud backup eats itself and at the same time b)disaster simultaneously befalls both your home and work desktops.

I wish I could have that kind of setup by my workplace strictly prohibits personal storage to be attached to any workstation, which is honestly good security policy. But I do have dual cloud for photos at least since I have backblaze and flickr.

1/31/2015 9:55:07 PM

^Yes the sync works both ways, which I really like. Previously my photo setup was really disjointed as I would edit at home and sometimes clean up folders, but my work backup did not reflect my changes. I also do the uploads at work as our work connection has a 100MB upload versus 1.5MB at home. So this is how I do shit:

1) Unload cards on my home PC in the SSD scratch drive. Add geotags, metadata, etc in Lightroom.
2) Copy to USB stick and carry to work.
3) Put files on my external HDD. This syncs to cloud and then copies them back down to HDD at home.
4) Verify copy went correct at home and then delete USB drive and SSD drive.

I even have my Lightroom Catalog synced so my LR at work and at home both pull off the same file and both see the exact same thing. I rarely edit at work, but if I am bored on my lunch break I will occasionally do some editing. Once I get Google Fiber it will simplify my workflow even more, because then I can just copy my cards to the SSD drive, do the edits and then drop them into the OneDrive sync space, which will sync it up almost instantly. I can't wait.

2/1/2015 11:45:36 AM

K

[Edited on February 1, 2015 at 7:00 PM. Reason : jjjjj]

2/1/2015 6:59:36 PM

^^What are the specs on your PC at home that you use to edit in LR? Mine is i5-750 with 8 GB RAM, and it's sooo slow compared to iPhoto on my MBA. Admittedly, the PC is a bit old, but so is the Mac (2012). I switched from iPhoto because I was running out of SSD space and didn't want to buy a Mac desktop.

Wondering whether an upgrade would improve performance significantly, or maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy a Mac desktop.

Also, OP, I'd go with Backblaze for backup if you could conceivably every have more than 1-5 TB. I've used it for several years and it's great, apart from the inabiity to select exactly what you want to back up (it does everything). You can unselect things, but it's a pain.

Otherwise, I'd go with OneDrive if you want to get Office 365 included, or Dropbox if you care most about the interface and usability. If you only want to store up to 100 GB, stay with Drive. No one else competes under 1 TB.

I've looked into Flickr, but afaik, it doesn't allow RAW files, if that's important.

2/9/2015 9:51:29 AM

I have an i7-860 with 12GB of RAM and a MSI R9 270 2GB video card.

2/10/2015 1:41:41 PM

Take pictures of your pictures.

2/10/2015 6:07:28 PM

are these phone pics, camera pics, or both?

2/11/2015 1:56:53 PM

^Me? Camera pics. 24 MP RAW. But even the jpegs are pretty slow to work with in Lightroom.

I've been thinking of buying a Mac Mini or building a hackintosh. With the new Mac Photos app, I think even running in a VM might be faster than LR is on my PC

2/11/2015 5:27:37 PM

for extremely durable, super cheap storage, try out amazon glacier with a tool like duplicati. 1 cent per gig and 11 9's of durability. just backup to s3 and set a 30 day bucket policy to age old data to glacier.

I'd be weary of a service like backblaze because even though they have neat storage racks, they're only in 1 DC and that 1 DC is in the damn bay. I read they were moving some place else, but i'm pretty sure it's still in CA. No DR, no thanks.

grab a 6TB external, back up to it and drop it off in a safe deposit box each month, for max data privacy and operating cost savings.

2/16/2015 7:36:50 AM

^I am going to add this to my OneDrive backup sync setup probably later this year. In fact I might get a pair and keep one synced on a third machine at all times and then do monthly swaps of that device to the one in safe deposit box.

2/16/2015 11:49:47 AM

I will second smoothcrim (even though he's a paid shill for AWS). Amazon Glacier is awesome for backing up your photos. You get pterabytes of data storage for a literally hundredth the cost of Dropbox or Drive.

The only catch is if you want to retrieve your data, you issue the request then wait like 4 hours before you get anything back.

3/2/2015 1:53:45 AM

So I got an IDE data transfer cable pulled the HDDs (all 3), transferred to a laptop, transferred to a USB 3 external HDD, hooked that to my desktop which is fast as fuck.

Installed Picasa 3, now I realize there is a huge problem with duplicate pics and folders, it would take forever to straighten out manually.

If I can get them organized I can actually back them up to google storage via Picasa.

3/4/2015 10:45:13 PM

^ use Lightroom to organize your photos. It'll only import 1 copy of any photo, and you can organize them in any kind of Collection you want

3/5/2015 12:28:52 AM

I'd just scan with Duplicate Cleaner to clear out exact file duplicates, and then Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder for image duplicates (both are free).

3/5/2015 12:44:34 AM

[Edited on March 5, 2015 at 1:59 AM. Reason : nvm]

3/5/2015 1:56:31 AM

So with Flickr, can you upload RAW files? Or just jpgs? And is there a limit to file sizes? Do they has the data somehow to where you lose quality?

3/6/2015 3:20:48 PM

FYI. Amazon is now offering unlimited photo backup for $11 per year.

3/26/2015 12:49:49 PM

What?? My prime account says it is free. Is it 11/year if you are not a member?

3/26/2015 3:06:23 PM

Quote :

"FYI. Amazon is now offering unlimited photo backup for $11 per year."

What software maintain the library?

3/26/2015 3:43:08 PM

Quote :

"Desktop Install the Cloud Drive application for PC and Mac to add photos from your computer. "

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/primephotos

^^ prime membership gets you 5GB, unlimited is $59.99/year


[Edited on March 26, 2015 at 6:39 PM. Reason : i'll probably stick with onedrive until i need more than 1TB]

3/26/2015 6:35:32 PM

^

Quote :

"Amazon has confirmed to WIRED that Amazon Prime members will continue to receive unlimited photo sharing and 5GB [of other storage] for free, while non-Prime members will need to choose one of the two new paid plans"

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/amazon-unlimited-everything-cloud-storage/

3/26/2015 7:04:52 PM

Thanks. I haven't uploaded anything yet. The majority of my pictures are of family, and I would like some offsite storage. Haha. I'm a backup/recovery engineer by trade, and I only have a few external hard drives laying around the house. Shame on me.

3/26/2015 8:05:26 PM

Definitely will be using this instead of glacier if they accept nef, cr2, and psd files as photos.

3/26/2015 8:34:54 PM

I uploaded an nef from my d5200 and it accepted it as a photo.

3/28/2015 1:39:38 PM

^I was wondering what file formats it accepted as "photos". That said, now that I am also making movies with my GoPro and D7000 I would be properly fucked. So I'm sticking with unlimited on OneDrive for $120/year and access to Office 365. That said, if somebody goes with a $60/year unlimited everything solution that is instantly available and not fucking Glacier I would consider a swap. Still waiting on work to give me Office 365 so I can transition to a free personal account.

3/28/2015 7:12:15 PM