Back-Up Media Storage Choice

Tom Potter

Hey Folks,

I hope this is the correct forum for this. I am looking for advice / suggestions on what type back-up storage to use. I work off a laptop
which has a pretty large drive. I have been backing up my photos on DVDs.
Since my library is growing, I want to make sure I am using a good back-up system.

I think I'm ruling out an external drive, because I do not want ALL my pics on the same storage device, in case that device dies.

I am also considering small 4G of so sized portable drives. However, i do not know if that is the way to go.

So, without further knowledge, I'm leaning to DVDs. I currently have my pics on "regular" DVDs. However, I believe I've heard there are "Photo" DVDs. Is this true?

Thx a lot.

Tom
Colorado

W.W. Webster

Tom Potter wrote:

I think I'm ruling out an external drive, because I do not want ALL my pics on the same storage device, in case that device dies.

But if you have ALL your pics on your laptop, and this is in a different physical location than your backup drive (particularly if you also continue to have ALL your pics on DVDs in a third physical location, as I do), where's the problem?

Recovery is always easier from an external drive!

Tom Potter

W.W. Webster wrote:

But if you have ALL your pics on your laptop, and this is in a different physical location than your backup drive (particularly if you also continue to have ALL your pics on DVDs in a third physical location, as I do), where's the problem?

Recovery is always easier from an external drive!

Alright, Mr Know-It-All. So I guess I pretty much had the answer
all along, huh?

Thanks a lot - Much appreciated :O)

Tom

Newsy

Tom Potter wrote:

*snip*
I think I'm ruling out an external drive, because I do not want ALL my pics on the same storage device, in case that device dies.

*snip*

So, without further knowledge, I'm leaning to DVDs. I currently have my pics on "regular" DVDs. However, I believe I've heard there are "Photo" DVDs. Is this true?

Tom,

Why would you rely on one set of DVD's for backup??

Ever made a DVD backup only to go back later and discover that you were tired when you made it and forgot a step in finalizing the DVD? Have you not heard about the "potential" problems with trying to read DVD's after 10 years?

Why rely on something so slow to write to as DVD's?

I think you should go to an external drive system but use a redundant "multiple copy" system of backups.

Get one of the new hard drive docks. You can get them with USB2.0, Firewire, and eSATA connectivity. Something like one of these....

http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/pro_list/70

Hard drives are cheap these days - 500GB 7200rpm for $65 USD or cheaper. Cheaper per gigabyte than DVD's I believe. Go out and buy a handful of bare 3.5" drives and use them like CF/SD memory cards with the dock. Plug them in, run your backup software - hopefully one that will also run a checksum to compare the copied files to the originals.

You can have one drive that you backup to once a month - keep this one off site in case of a break-in or fire. Keep another to swap with that one. Have another or two that you backup to daily or weekly. Or run software that will copy on the fly to the docked drive so that a duplicate is always there without you having to conciously make an effort to backup daily/weekly.

For software check out either of these:

Beyond Compare 3 > http://www.scootersoftware.com/index.php

SyncbackSE > http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbse.html

.

Blackwood

I agree with Newsy. The best option, IMO, is hard drives. They're faster, larger, and cheaper. Set up a RAID system, external if you wish, and you'll get the redundancy you're looking for.

You can get 1TB (1,000GB) hard drives for scarcely over 100 bucks.

Tom Potter

Blackwood wrote:

I agree with Newsy. The best option, IMO, is hard drives. They're faster, larger, and cheaper. Set up a RAID system, external if you wish, and you'll get the redundancy you're looking for.

You can get 1TB (1,000GB) hard drives for scarcely over 100 bucks.

Newsy & Blackwood. Thank you for your help. I don't see anywhere where I said I woould use only ONE set of DVDs for backup, but, that's a mute point. I really appreciate the time you took & the detailed info, Newsy. Thanks a lot. :O)

mercphoto

I'm seriously considering an online backup system. Carbonite and Mozy both look attractive and of low cost, though they don't seem to "officially" support the Mac yet, just through Betas.

mwgrice

mercphoto wrote:

I'm seriously considering an online backup system. Carbonite and Mozy both look attractive and of low cost, though they don't seem to "officially" support the Mac yet, just through Betas.

I'd recommend having more than one backup if you can. Murphy's Law: your main hard drive will go out the same week that your online backup provider goes out of business. Look at the Digital Railroad fiasco.

Also, it's going to be a lot quicker to restore your files if you have a local backup. Let's say your main hard drive goes out without affecting your portable drive, which is a fairly likely scenario. It's going to be a lot quicker to restore from a portable hard drive than it will be from an online backup vendor. Probably cheaper, too, if they charge you for bandwidth.

Not that I think online backups are a bad idea at all.

wildviper

I am currently evaluating Online Backup services. Amazon's S3, Mozy, Carbonite and few others.

I have backups on 4 different hard drives from four different manufacturers. (Samsung, Seagate, Maxtor and Hitachi). Can you tell I am paranoid??? :P

The reason is that I had my backup on 2 drives and both failed at the same time. I was able to recover most, not all, of my pictures..but it taught me a lesson...Murphy's Law!!!!!!!!!

Online backup is just that...backup. For me, it would the fifth backup, but I will sleep better.

Also, having a Hard Drive in a safe or Safety Deposit box is a BAD idea if you think you are protected. While these things can be fire resistant or proof...they are NOT heat proof. Heat will come through and fry your hard drives anyways. Just an FYI.

Tape backups seems really good, but are expensive.