Personal Backup Solutions?

[DonLorenzo]

Hi guys,

I\'ve got a huge buttload of photos I want to not lose. Basically every picture I ever took from age 15 and on, since the advent of cheap digital camera\'s really. The archive is about 45GB large. What I do now is to make sure it exists on at least two of the three physical hard drives in my PC, and a copy on my laptop. Hard drives fail on me though, so I was wondering if you guys know of other practical solutions. I think the size is somewhat prohibitive for (consumer) cloud services like DropBox?

Input appreciated

Cheers

[bandit4910]

Hi guys,

I\'ve got a huge buttload of photos I want to not lose. Basically every picture I ever took from age 15 and on, since the advent of cheap digital camera\'s really. The archive is about 45GB large. What I do now is to make sure it exists on at least two of the three physical hard drives in my PC, and a copy on my laptop. Hard drives fail on me though, so I was wondering if you guys know of other practical solutions. I think the size is somewhat prohibitive for (consumer) cloud services like DropBox?

Input appreciated

Cheers

Windows live mesh offers 25 GBs for free...

Backup using that.

[cteam]

its not ssd but it will do you fine 350gb big enuf http://www.ebuyer.com/232566-intenso-320gb-portable-hard-drive-usb-2-0-black-6002510

[cardgame]

The only thing I can think of would be an SSD or 64gb flash drive.

Or you could entrust it all to a service like Carbonite online backup and pay a subscription fee, or DropBox might be a single payment. I haven\'t looked into it.

[Capt'n Skunky]

That\'s 9 dual layer DVDs. I\'d burn a set and store offline in a non-magnetic format. Never know when we\'re gonna get hit with a massive EMP.

Arrr!

Capt\'n Skunky

[cardgame]

DVDs aren\'t foolproof either; they can easily get scratched if they aren\'t stored carefully.

However, that sounds like the most effective method so far.

[Capt'n Skunky]

DVDs aren\'t foolproof either; they can easily get scratched if they aren\'t stored carefully.

However, that sounds like the most effective method so far.

If all you are doing is making a backup and storing off-site, they shouldn\'t have any issues with being scratched. The kind of wear and tear that will take out a DVD is usually limited to people not using proper storage to begin with. Tossing your discs in to a drawer or in bulk on a spindle isn\'t exactly the way to keep them.

Arrr!

Capt\'n Skunky

[Ydoow]

You could just build another, really simple, PC and run linux on it, then make it do auto-backups using rsync. I had that setup a while ago

[Caesar15]

That\'s 9 dual layer DVDs. I\'d burn a set and store offline in a non-magnetic format. Never know when we\'re gonna get hit with a massive EMP by a guy named price who saves washington D.C from falling.

Arrr!

Capt\'n Skunky

added a little more detail to your post

[Randox]

The only thing to be aware of with CD\'s/DVD\'s is that they don\'t last forever. If their stored nicely, they should make it to a decade, at which point you will want a computer with 2 disc bays (or the original pictures still on a hard drive) to duplicate them. I have a few discs lying around that were not stored in cases and have visibly hit their best before date as a result. They still work, but I suspect they are filling in some gaps that the clouding has likely caused (they are also being used as play discs now, so only that small portion needs to be readable).

[Caesar15]

I dont have any thing storing ym files at all...i think i need to get soemthing

[DonLorenzo]

Thanks for your suggestions. A second PC that does periodic backups is a bit overkill. Fresh backup every year or two should suffice (especially nowadays that most stuff is online anyway). A portable HDD (SSD or otherwise) I don\'t get, surely that\'s just as risky as keeping it on the HDDs I already have? I think I\'ll go with the DVDs, need to get myself a disc drive for that so I\'ll compare those costs against those online deals you guys mentioned.

As for the DVDs, I\'m aware of the roughly decade lifespan and not scratching, not keeping it in the sun basics. Anything else that\'s maybe not as obvious to be aware of?

Thanks again

[RedDwarfIV]

I have a hard drive I took out of what used to be my stand-alone until the Power Supply Unit exploded. I got some SATA/USB cables from Maplins, and now I have a second hard drive to put things on in case my desktop\'s files are wiped.

Your right, having a second HDD does not decrease your chances of a HDD failing. But the point is, when one of the HDDs fails, you know to get another one and you will still have all your files.

And if your worried about EMPs... What exactly are you going to run your backup DVDs in afterward? Your computer? Nope. Your DVD player? Nope. Not unless you put them in a faraday cage.

[DonLorenzo]

Totally right, my point is i already have multiple HDDs. I hadn\'t considered the PSU blowing up and frying all of them simultaneously though.

[Ydoow]

Bah if you\'re this concerned, then go with a portable HD. Personally I just upload things to Photobucket that I really like and everything else goes to another HD in my computer.

Music goes to a server downstairs, though (mainly so everyone has access to it)

If you\'re really really concerned about PSU\'s blowing up and stuff, a portable HD that you keep in your closet or in a safe is the way to go.

And I really wouldn\'t worry about EMP\'s. If an EMP is capable of wiping out your HD, more than likely the majority of your region is going to be screwed over.

The only chance of an EMP killing your electronics that I can see would come from a reaaaaally large solar flare or some sort of deliberate military strike.

And I consider those incredibly low risk situations.

Which is why I think you shouldn\'t be afraid of EMP\'s.

Unless, of course, you have a magnet fetish.

[DayOne]

External USB HDD? usually pretty cheap and with lots of space (200GB +).

[DonLorenzo]

magnet fetish

there\'s just something about invisible fields, action at a distance mmm

no can\'t really make that work

[RedDwarfIV]

Totally right, my point is i already have multiple HDDs. I hadn\'t considered the PSU blowing up and frying all of them simultaneously though.

It didn\'t fry the HDDS. I have those plugged in by SATA/USB to my new desktop for backup purposes.

Only the motherboard was fried, I think. I don\'t know because I don\'t have an alternate PSU.