Photo back up

fredjclaus · August 22, 2011

I've been looking into extra external hard drives for backing up my pictures. I have a few hard drives now and I back up to DVD as well. What do you all thing of companies like Carbinite for photo back up?

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.992569,-78.961709

Dan7312 · August 22, 2011

You got a whole bunch of backup services to choose from. Backblaze.com and Crashplan.com

Carbonite and Backblaze only backup what's on your drive. If you remove an extenal drive or delete file, after 30 days they will delete the backup for it.

Technically you cannot use Carbonite to backup files that are part of your business, you have to use CarbonitePro for that. I don't know how closely they enforce that for 'togs.

Crashplan and Crashplan pro keep your files even if you delete them from your drive or remove an external drive.

Again, technically you can't use Crashplan to backup files from your business but I don't know how closely they enforce that.

CrashplanPro will backup to the cloud and to your local machine. In general you want to do both, you can't depend on a cloud only backup. So CrashplanPro makes this easy to do.

fredjclaus wrote: »

I've been looking into extra external hard drives for backing up my pictures. I have a few hard drives now and I back up to DVD as well. What do you all thing of companies like Carbinite for photo back up?

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.992569,-78.961709

ThatCanonGuy · August 22, 2011

Why not another hard drive that's offsite? They're pretty cheap now, like 2TB for $100. Isn't that cheaper than an online service?

Dan7312 · August 22, 2011

If you've got a place you can depend on to host the offsite drive for free that works. Cross hosting with a friend or other 'tog, is done. These friend hosted drives probably won't end up being as reliable overall as the cloud backup sites, but probably good enough as long as you backup locally too, which you should be doing anyhow. You can end up cutting into your friends' bandwidth while they are trying to watch a Netflix movie online though :-).

If you are going to pay for hosting the drive tough, typically an online backup will be cheaper. Crashplan has a free plan, and their most expensive plan, even for business hosting, is 7.95 a month per computer for unlimited backup. Backblaze is $5 a month for unlimited backup.

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

Why not another hard drive that's offsite? They're pretty cheap now, like 2TB for $100. Isn't that cheaper than an online service?

Andy · August 22, 2011

backblaze.com

gecko0 · August 22, 2011

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

Why not another hard drive that's offsite? They're pretty cheap now, like 2TB for $100. Isn't that cheaper than an online service?

The primary benefits for an online service versus an extra drive offsite like you mentioned:

online backups are near real-time (or at least as fast as your upload speed)...a spare USB drive kept offsite needs to be updated manually and you could lose days/weeks of work if you don't update it often
$5/month for something like backblaze and it's unlimited storage. $50/year. you can buy a hard drive for $100, but eventually it will be full.
redundancy. a single drive (or drives) can and will eventually fail. online services offer multiple site redundancy, their own backups, etc

.02

Dan7312 · August 22, 2011

As far as I can tell neither backblaze, carbonite home, nor crashplan or crashplanpro offer multiple site redunance. The do have redundant drives, just all in the same building. Carbinite Pro and cloud backups based on Amazon S3 (like Jungle Disk) do have multiple site redundance.

The free version of crashplan does backup to a remote disk the same as it does the cloud.

Overally though I'd rather use a service like Crashplan or Backblaze than maintain a disk offsite. $5 or $10 a month to eliminate that hassle is worth it.

gecko0 wrote: »

The primary benefits for an online service versus an extra drive offsite like you mentioned:
online backups are near real-time (or at least as fast as your upload speed)...a spare USB drive kept offsite needs to be updated manually and you could lose days/weeks of work if you don't update it often

$5/month for something like backblaze and it's unlimited storage. $50/year. you can buy a hard drive for $100, but eventually it will be full.

redundancy. a single drive (or drives) can and will eventually fail. online services offer multiple site redundancy, their own backups, etc

.02

Overfocused · August 23, 2011

Just in case you might get any ideas, here's how I've been backing up my photos for the last ~2 years now:

I use windows 7 image backup to backup my whole drive since my photos are ~%85 of the data on my drive, and it takes roughly 45 minutes each refresh (i aim for weekly or bi-weekly) I personally prefer to keep my online bandwidth open. I also keep a 3rd copy of just my photos on an external 2.5 drive in an enclosure in case of a disaster in which I need to run away with it in my pocket

As a hard copy to withstand the test of time, I will be putting all my completed work up to date on archival gold plated Blu-Ray discs and lock them up in a safe or firebox. This form of data backup is highly resistant to magnetic fields, heat (if you have the safe part), and of course, age. The discs are less expensive than they sound, and they're the most lasting way of data backup used at the moment, some rated 100+ years of data redundancy after age simulation tests.

However, if you don't mind leaving your computer on to upload the data, then I'd go with an internet backup since it wouldn't be an issue with you. Just make sure of their backup terms before you dive into it cause their deletion policies could leave you in the dust. Find the right one, and you'll have your data remotely stored far, far away, maximizing the survivability rate in case of atomic explosion(s)

MomaZunk · August 29, 2011

I use Crashplan Pro as well as an external network attached storage device as my grab and go.
The biggest issue with online is the time it takes to get the initial backup into the cloud. When I started with Crashplan I had just over 400GB, and it took 1.5 months to get everything in the cloud. This is just running the backup at night and part of the day while I was at work. They will accept seed drives for a fee.

Sam · August 30, 2011

OK, I have a question. Do any of these services provide protection against EMP?

Sam

0scar99 · August 30, 2011

I used Carboniferous for a while. It took weeks to deliver my data to them which made me wonder how long I would take to get back if I had a failure. Went to duplicate external drives on the end..

mercphoto · August 30, 2011

0scar99 wrote: »

I used Carboniferous for a while. It took weeks to deliver my data to them which made me wonder how long I would take to get back if I had a failure. Went to duplicate external drives on the end..

That's the problem with any online service -- bandwidth. For me online backups are only good for small amounts of data, not hundreds of gigs like I have for photos. I once projected it would take 7+ days to upload the files from one track event I would typically photograph. And I have other needs for bandwidth as well, such as uploading photos for purchase by the racers, for emails, web surfing, etc. etc.

I use Apple's Time Machine for general files, and Aperture's Vault for photos. I have two vaults. One is local, the other stays at work except when brought home to update that drive.

Dan7312 · August 30, 2011

Since I've gotten Comcast Business internet, which is basically fiber at a nominal 5mbits/second upload but typically does around 8-9mbits/second, I've been able to backup at the rate of about 2-3GBytes an hour to CrashplanPro. How many GB does a track event produce?

Dan

mercphoto wrote: »

That's the problem with any online service -- bandwidth. For me online backups are only good for small amounts of data, not hundreds of gigs like I have for photos. I once projected it would take 7+ days to upload the files from one track event I would typically photograph. And I have other needs for bandwidth as well, such as uploading photos for purchase by the racers, for emails, web surfing, etc. etc.

I use Apple's Time Machine for general files, and Aperture's Vault for photos. I have two vaults. One is local, the other stays at work except when brought home to update that drive.

Dan7312 · August 30, 2011

EMP could theorically span the continent. There are some services that host their servers inside of mountains in what used to be miltary bases, but I don't know if even a moutain is enough to protect against EMP. What is it you plan to do with your images after a big EMP event?

Sam wrote: »

OK, I have a question. Do any of these services provide protection against EMP?

Sam

mercphoto · August 30, 2011

2 GB an hour, wow! I could backup a trackday in about a day at that point.

Overfocused · August 30, 2011

Sam wrote: »

OK, I have a question. Do any of these services provide protection against EMP?

Sam

While not practical for rewriting (I just use BD-R) If you want to keep a master/disaster backup, gold plated blu-ray discs would do the trick unless the emp somehow manages to heat the disc past the burn-point... in which a human wouldnt survive either

Photo back up

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