I would like to hear anyone's recommendations or experience with on-line backup services. Every time I hear my current external hard drives click on, I always hope it isn't the last time.
Thanks,
Larry
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I would like to hear anyone's recommendations or experience with on-line backup services. Every time I hear my current external hard drives click on, I always hope it isn't the last time.
Thanks,
Larry
I guess it depends on how much you want to back up....
Honestly, I use a Flickr Pro account to back up the images I really want to keep. Otherwise, I have a CD storage case that can hold 200 DVDs. I started burning a backup copy of every paid session I did to a DVD. I figured they were safest that way...
I haven't used any backup services online so I can't really reccomend any, but why not just get a second external hard drive with all of the same files on it? Internal and external storage is super cheap. There are also cheap or free software solutions out there that'll sync files for you between folders / different hard drives but I personally just do it manually.
I have all of my photos on my computer's drive and on an external backup and my only concern now is a robbery / fire / flood so I'm thinking of keeping another external with family nearby or at work. This will inevitably not be completely up to date but will be a lot better than losing everything. I'm thinking that I'll take my home external drive which will be up to date and periodically swap it out with the one I keep elsewhere.
Ever consider a small RAID NAS? I would. If you get a box with RAID 1 (mirroring), it has redundancy, so you won't lose any data even if a drive dies. RAID 5 is even better, but it requires at least three drives, whereas RAID 1 can be done with only two.
The redundancy of RAID is useless if your house burns down, etc. You're also dependent on how well the NAS reports disk problems, and how well it manages the drive swap when problems happen.
I'm a huge fan of Jungle Disk. $2/month service fee, then $0.15/GB storage pay-as-you-use, and I believe no bandwidth cost if you use Rackspace CF as the storage site. The software is simple yet effective - backups can be as often as 15 minutes, or as infrequent as when you click the button. It can also be a networked storage drive. It offers version control, so it can keep up to perhaps 10 revisions of a particular file (up to 60 days old). I haven't played much with that feature though.
I use it for personal files and key photographic files while "in progress". I keep a second set of storage drives at my parents' house as my off-site safety net.
Hmm... yeah I don't use an online storage site either... but could be a good idea. I just keep everything I'm "working on" on my main internal HD of my MacBook Pro (which doesn't do much traveling) and then I make backups onto my main external HD every couple of days. Then once the data is in those two places, I can breath easy. If every decide to remove it from one of those two places (which I often do actually) then I burn in to a DVD first. I have a DVD binder of all my backups labeled well. Also, that second drive (the external...) I make backups of it onto another external here and there too. I'm paranoid about losing data. But I know if I do lose anything, it will be when I least expect it. I've found external hard drives seem to be the most dangerous place for them - so if you only have ONE and you use it a lot, and I would back them up to a second and/or DVD soon!
I back up my lightroom library onto my ftp server (ixwebhosting.com) in case of natural disaster at home.
I keep jpeg's on flickr with my pro account but find that with my 5DII some pictures exceed the 20 megabyte limit /:
lastly I have a copy of my lightroom library mirrored on a second internal drive in case a single drive fails.
I dislike the idea of my personal stuff residing in the cloud and like to have more control over my images... so this is what I do...
2 external hard disks, from different manufactures.
Backup computer to external disk 1 when camera memory cards are full
External disk 2 stored at in-laws house.
Every month or when necessary, backup to disk 2 (means having to talk to in-laws :-).
Replace each external disk every 3 years, staggered by a year.
This works for me, it does require a bit of discipline but I know that every image is always in at least 2 places... replacing the external drives on a rolling basis has so far meant that every time I replace them, they are MUCH bigger than the ones they are replacing and I have yet to have a problem with disk space!
In case fire I have the remote backup.
NOTE
I used to backup to CD (in the old days) but have experienced CDdegradationand been unable toretrievesome images... no experience with DVD, but copying the data has always worked for m
Quote:
Originally Posted by uberbloke
Why is that? Read your contract and verify that they don't have license to use your files, maintain good copyrights, and you'll have no worries.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uberbloke
All that means your most recent work is always the most vulnerable, and an unexpected photo opportunity can put you in a bad spot: full memory cards, no time to keep up with your backup plan, etc.
Thanks all. I already have 2 external hard drives that I backup to. Just a bit paranoid I guess. I will look into Jungle Disk.
Thanks.
Paranoia is good, in that it keeps you aware of what you're doing.
I have dreams of a home/office setup using Apple's XSan, a large, flexible, robust (though very expensive) system with an off-site colocated XSan site, using Apple's Time Machine software to automate all of the backup tasks as needed. Someday, Pete, someday...
I'm using Mozy home. Works like a dream. It took a while first time I backed up everything. Now I've 119 GB of data backed up at mozy. I've a 10/10 Mbit internet connection
http://mozy.com/home
After losing a good bit of data one time i am pretty strict with my back-up storage. I have a RAID 1 setup for my photo library only. Then I have a 1.5TB drive for a Time Machine back-up as well as my music back-up (music is kept on a portable 500GB "media drive"). Once a month, I take a different portable hard drive and backup my entire photo library. This drive stays off-site in a fire proof, pressurized, dehumidified safe. Even after all THAT, I am still worry about the off-site drive failing but just don't have the money to pony up for a G-Tech mini-RAID1.
I haven't really thought about online back-ups, but I think I should when I start getting into audio recording for my interviews. I was looking atthese guys. What should online storage pricing look like with a library ~150GB?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mbaltrusitis
Admittedly, I don't know this product whatsoever, but much like camera wars I wouldn't expect any one particular product to be truly better than anther in the drive/storage market. The strength is in numbers; hot-spare drives, and replication to other drives/arrays.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mbaltrusitis
I just checked out their site. You'd be looking at $96/month with them (150GB * $0.80/GB - 20% volume discount). Jungle Disk would be $22.50/month. Rsync.net customers sign up for a disk quota, and you pay for your quota. JungleDisk bills based on the space consumed, period; there's no rounding-up or incremental size tiers that you have to pay for.
I wanted to bump this thread and let you guys know about a new backup service I recently signed up for. I was useing MOZY for several months, but when they changed thier pricing structure and doubled thier cost for me, I dropped them earlier this year. Since then I have been contemplating an NAS raid box of at least 2 TB But, but preferably 4TB but the cost for a decent one is in excess of $300. So I went back to looking for online services and found the reviews of "Just Cloud" solid across the board. Unlimited backup for $9.95 a month---and cheaper if you buy a year or two in advance.
Just cloud's interface is extremely easy and has run flawlessly on my Windows 7---even while I do other backups, manipulate photos and video and surf the web, Nothing seems to bother it---It just keeps on running. It also has an option for a sync folder which will sync all files in it across multiple machines, i.e. desktop, labtop, phone, pad etc.
So, for the moment, I am extremely happy with this service: Just Cloud
My backup scheme currently consists of this:
One onboard backup drive for all of my documents and pictures and other files set to backup daily.
One desktop 2 TB raid box for weekly system backup
Just cloud for offsite daily file backups
and I also have a 1tb mini drive that I backup up my pictures and files on about once a month and I keep this one in a fire-proof safe.
So for the moment, I am confident that I can recover most or all of my files in the event of disaster.
Bob
My back up routine:
All finished and processed images are backed up X 3 : Lacie External HD / SanDisk Thumb Drives / Zenfolio Site ($100/yr)
I only save RAW images that I finished, these are backed up X 3 : Lacie External HD / SanDisk Tumb Drives / DVD
jrw, you have a point with security. Today GoDaddy was down for several hours, some claimed they were hacked some said otherwise. It was kind of ironic because I watched their video yesterday about how safe and secure their site was. I wouldn't use GoDaddy for storage because the price is to high but still, its kind of a scary thought that if you backed up all you're files on a site that gets hacked someone could go through every file you had ever saved.
I agree with both you and JR, But I normally weigh the risks over the benefits----In my case, I don't backup financial data, not even my taxes. So most of what I have wouldn't be really usefull to a hacker. I also look at it this way: If they can hack GoDaddy, they can certainly hack my own personal machine so I don't see any greater risk with useing the online storage. Frankly, I am more concerned with someone tapping my wireless network, even though it is password protected, I don't really consider it "secure".Quote:
Originally Posted by HDNitehawk
My biggest reason for going with online storage is convenience and cost. I can get 3 years of online storage for the cost of one nas raid device. And with the online storage, I am confident that a local lightning storm or house fire won't meltdown my data.
About 3 years ago we had a large power surge at work----it melted the power strips to the floor, killed 24 of my classroom computers, a copier, and set a fax machine on fire. Even our UPS protected network switch was killed. Needless to say, I don't have a great deal of faith in surge protectors, UPS's or in commercial or residential fuse/breaker protection. If it's wired, it can be killed with lightning or power surges.
I do like the idea of simply storing a device in another location, but then I have to remember to re-acquire that device and periodically run my back-ups. I no longer have the discipline or memory to reliably carry out such operations. It's an age thing.
So, for me, online storage only costs per month what I spend on one fast food lunch and is much easier and has less overall risk than most of the other options.
It's easy to be negative with these things, from my experience 'a' secure back up is away from original files, by example if your house burns down then all HDD are lost in the fire so you could have a few back up methods such a NAS of external HDDs' but they would be gone in a fire, flood etc.
So I looked at a cloud solution (justcloud) seemed good until I realised that to move my archive of RAW images to the cloud would take 7.5 days at 8Gb/24 hrs speed, that's JustClouds best optimisation.
Then you consider downloading 30Mb for a single file it gets time and money consuming.
So in the end I sprang for a 4Tb NAS Raid 1, high initial cost but in the end will reach break even, all I have to remember now is to grab it when the fire starts ;)
David
You are right about being slow---I am in to my third day and I am only at 26%. I remember similar speeds when I had Mozy. But once the initial upload is complete, the daily's are usually fairly quick and take place after midnight so I rarely noticed them. But again, That first big upload is PAINFULLY slow.Quote:
Originally Posted by djmorgan
I read that some services accept hard drives that you mail them for the initial data transfer (you get them back). But that was a while ago, not sure if anyone still offers that.
If you want to combine the best of both worlds, you back up to a NAS and and let the NAS back up to a cloud service.
Hi Bob, its morning which means I'm very slow, so forgive me if this is a dumb question.Quote:
Originally Posted by bob williams
There is one thing I don't understand... how do you get your data to the cloud provider without your line data charges and speed killing you. Do you have an unlimited data contract? For me to upload my local NAS would take about 6 months, I don't want to work out the cost.
Tony
Yes, I'm the same side of the pond as you and it is unworkable! JustCloud offer a service but what I found when I joined up for 250Gb was the original quoted $48.00 all of a sudden went to $79.00, okay went with that, but when I started to upload the max speed hit was 190Mb/s I wanted to upload my initial RAW folder of 58Gb, went to JustCloud and for an additional $14.00 could get a turbo patch! so did that speed improved to about 200Mb/s.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raid
All the time doing this my bandwidth is getting chewed up with Bigpond, searched JustCloud and found that with all their enhancements they advised best bandwidth speed for them was 4 to 8Gb per 24 HOURS, doing the maths I found that at best (8Gb) it would take 7.5 days to upload.
After a bit of a protest they agreed to cancel my subscription, they did offer a 50% discount!, so got the money back but not the $14.00 for turbo, I'll put that down to cost of education :-).
Happy to get out of it as I think it would have been a costly disaster, moving 30 meg RAW files around the internet is time consuming and costly, my solution, just purchased a 4Tb NAS
David
Correction that should be 669 Days at 512kbps.... never do maths first thing in the morning.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raid
Tony, I use a standard cable based internet service provider and there isn't any limit on data transfers, so no increased charges. As far as speed, the initial upload is painfully slow, but the software runs in the background and still allows me to continue business as usual. Even system shutdowns or other backups don't seem to be a problem---the software just picks up wherever it left off. The only thing I have noticed is that the internet is a little slower but not so slow as to be frustrating ----its about the speed difference as you might see between DSL and Cable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raid
I stuck with the basic unlimited package of 9.95 per month---no up grades. At the moment I am 37% through my initial upload and I have been at it since Sunday. So I am guessing a full two weeks for the initial upload of almost 400 gig. But what I do remember from my MOZY days is that once the initial upload is complete, the incremental backups are very quick and rarely noticed. Even after a full day of shooting, lets say 1200 21 meg photos will only take a couple of hours to backup if that. And normally this occurs while you are sleeping if you schedule it that way.Quote:
Originally Posted by djmorgan
With data upload charges and serious impact on bandwidth, I agree with you---this wouldn't be a good solution; but for me, it just seems to work for the moment. Although, I'll give it a month or two before final judgement is made.
8gb per 24 hours, so my 1.6 tb of archived files would take 200 days to load to Just Cloud.
Or is my math wrong. I am glad this was brought up. That wouldn't work for me.
Actually I have been at this since Sunday evening. So with that in mind, I have uploaded 126 gig in 4 days (96 hours), that comes out to about 31 gig per day-- which is far greater than than what others are reading. Based on that, I am guessing it would take about 45 days for 1.5 TB---even still, that would be unworkable for most people with that much dada.Quote:
Originally Posted by HDNitehawk
It would be unworkable for me. I want an archive more for old files than current. I think the external might be the better choice.Quote:
Originally Posted by bob williams
If I were in your shoes, I would agreeQuote:
Originally Posted by HDNitehawk
You guys are lucky, all of the plans I can find in Aus are both Speed and Data Quota caps. Even the NBN (fibre to the home) is still caped.
I included a link to one of our providers, is this cheap to you guys?
http://www.iinet.net.au/nbn/nbn-plan-residential.html
WOW, I didn't realize they charged you like that. Most ISPs here just charge a flat rate depending on the speed you want. For me, I pay $39 for 30 MBPS and there is no limit on data transfers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raid
No not cheap, we have cable where I am at. DSL is much slower. Both do not limit your service and your speed is only limited by the demand put on the lines.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raid
I have property just 45 miles from the city and if we wanted service there it would either be dial up or satellite. In town there are several providers and they are very competitive, which is good for us.
Those plans look similar to what we might expect to see with wireless services. Although my iPhone I pay $30 a month for unlimited service I have an older plan, it is my understanding the company did away with unlimited service and now charges usage fees on new phones. My brother bought an iPad about 6 months ago, his grandson wanted to see a movie off of iTunes so he rented it. By the time it downloaded and was available his rental time expired, and then he got a $139.00 bill for his usage. He was mad because he didn't even get to watch the movie.
Well, as much as I hate to admit it---my original enthusiasm for "Just Cloud" online back up service has been squashed and so I am now forced to reconsider another service or just do as many of you have and go with an NAS raid setup. Let me tell you why I have changed my mind:
1. My initial back-up (expected to take two weeks) kept stalling at 55%. I tried all of the settings, but no matter what I did--it stalled at 55% and reported that the backup was complete---clearly it was not.
2. I contacted thier support via email; and as promised, they responded within two hours---The first guy seemed to understand the problem and gave me a couple of procedures to go through. at this point I was still ok with the service and the help.
3. Unfortuantely, when I reported that the original fixes didn't work, all three subsequent technicians responded with patronizing suggestions even though those "corrections" were clearly addressed in previous discussions. They were not reading the previous discussions even though they were all on the same ticket.
4. Ultimately, I discovered that I had two files that exceeded thier 5 gig limit on file size. Now, I would think that this would cause an error and that it would tell me of the error. It did not, the software just reported that the backup was "complete". When I reported this, the technician told me they couldn't increase the file size limit and suggested that I use some third party software to split my large files into one gig files.----This wasn't a reasonable option since my two large files were Video projects that I have been working on for a couple of years---as some may know, video projects are very finicky so I wasn't confident they would survive being split into 10 files each. Also, It's just to much work and too much to remember before every backup.
5. So now, I have cancelled the Just Cloud service and will resort to a NAS raid option. I supposed if I really do have a disaster of such proportions that all of my in-house backups are destroyed, then I will have concerns far greater than my file collection---Although I will keep my pics on a portable drive and locked in a fire resistant file safe and hope for the best.
I backup to a NAS raid locally but have been looking for offline as well. It has a built-in back offline, but the prices seemed a lot higher than a service that runs from a PC.
PC Magazine has a comparison from March. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp
SOS Online was their Editor's Choice.
I have not tried or researched prices, but some NAS boxes (I use Synology) allow back up to the amazon cloud. I do hourly backups to the NAS, and then the NAS could do a daily backup to the cloud.
I have two home NAS units a QNAP TS-409/4TB (now obsolete) and a QNAP TS-410/5.5TB. The TS-410 is my main home NAS for streaming/storing data, I have everything stored on it (Music, Podcasts, Photos, PC & Laptop Backups, Video Surveillance & Videos).
I have one NAS stored in the house and the other in the garage (separate building). The QNAP NAS has a backup/synchronization application that lets me backup selected directories/files on the main NAS to the backup.
I had intended taking the backup NAS to (TS-409) to my girlfriends place, which is not far away. This way I could schedule a re-sync to the backup as required over Internet. Unfortunately my now ex girlfriend doesn't like that idea any more:(.... there must be a better way.