Backup storage for pictures

firststring74 · November 16, 2007

I have a mac and I need to back up my photos. I am considering an external hard drive of some sort. Does anyone have any suggestions? I shoot JPG, but still take a fair number of photos so need something with a fair amount of memory.

Thanks!

BeachBill · November 16, 2007

You can use your Smugmug account for remote storage. After that, I would suggest burning your photos to DVD (make at least two copies of each).

hgernhardtjr · November 16, 2007

I burn to DVD-R and make two copies. Both go into safe storage, with one set kept off the premises.

I maintain my working backups on an external HD.

In fact, I just ordered a second 500GB external sata/usb/firewire for $150 (Fry's and TigerDirect both have them at that price, although I believe TigerDirect took theirs off-sale this past week).

J.T. · November 20, 2007

firststring74 wrote:

I have a mac and I need to back up my photos. I am considering an external hard drive of some sort. Does anyone have any suggestions? I shoot JPG, but still take a fair number of photos so need something with a fair amount of memory.

Thanks!

Like Bill said, you can backup all photos to smugmug, but may take some time if you have plenty of gigs to do. Check out OWC Computing at macsales.com, they are very friendly, helpful, and have a good selection of external hard drives. Most hard drives ship out same day too. A redputable company that totally supports mac!

ian408 · November 20, 2007

I just installed a 750G Maxtor disk. I divided it into 2 partitions. One for TimeMachine
and one for data.

Works pretty well.

Martyn · November 20, 2007

I used to have a single external drive for backups. However, after it crashed (I managed to get most of the data back) I upgraded to an external RAID system set up for mirroring. This has two hard drives inside and each drive has a copy of the data.

I bought the Buffalo Drive Station with 1TB of storage (split into 2 x 500GB).

claudermilk · November 20, 2007

Definitely run paired hard drives. I used to use DVDs, never again. In a nutshell, the claimed lifespans of those things is extremely optimistic.

Manfr3d · November 21, 2007

Stay away from CD's and DVD's for storage. And buy
two USB or Firewire harddrives. Any known brand will be
just fine (Iomega, Seagate, WesternDigital, LaCie, etc.).
I'd suggest two WesternDigital Elements 320GB or 500GB.
They smell like winegums too btw

gryphonslair99 · November 21, 2007

Call me paranoid, but I have a seperate internal 500 gig hardrive as my dedicated photo storage. An external 1 terabite hard drive that is made up of two 500 gig hard drives in a single chassie. The external allows me to set it up to make dual backups simultaniously on the seperate drives. It can also be used as a single terabite drive if you desire. Plus I burn a copy of everything to archival quality DVD's and store them off site.

Martyn · November 22, 2007

A year-or-so ago I would have called you paraniod, but then I had two Maxtor One-touch external drives go down within a few weeks of each other. Of course I had always thought about backing up but never got round to it.

I too have two copies of all pics on hard drives plus I burn the ones I know I really want to keep to DVD.

firststring74 · November 22, 2007

Thanks everyone. I hadn't thought about using an external hard drive and also burning to DVD's. I had looked at doing two external harddrives that mirrored each other so I think that is the way I will go. I'll also burn ones to DVD that I need and keep them somewhere else.

Thanks!

raebrown · November 22, 2007

I'm using a Western Digital 500gig Mybook for an external drive and SyncBackSE (http://www.2brightsparks.com/) for the backup software. It works flawlessly as I have it set to automatically backup over the wireless network from Computer 1 to Computer 2, then backup again from Computer 2 to the Mybook. Actually I'm synchronizing which means the files aren't compressed and don't need to be restored to use them.

Hope this helps.

Joves · November 24, 2007

I burn to DVD and, have 2 Maxtor 165 gig externals. I havent had any problems myself with the One Touch but then they are off 99% of the time and, I only use them to add more pics to them.

jasonstone · November 27, 2007

Airport Extreme (the new N model) with USB drive connected
Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up to disk image on the network drive - only updating the folders i want - photos and movies and user files

Then have a copy on laptop and on network drive

Also back up the better than average pics to smugmug - I have 1Mbit upload at home so can upload over 1.5GB over night without a problem

Also have 2 external 1TB drives - the thing is - to keep the backup as safe as possible you don't want them sitting on your network or mac spinning all the time - so connect them 2X a week and make sure they're in synch and then put them away - one preferably off site or in your basement or something

that makes 5 copies in total and no time consuming DVD archival which for me was always a pain in the ass as hell you go through a TON of them! and it's time consuming - and more expensive than external drives

Just my 2 cents anyway

cheers
Jase

colourbox · November 27, 2007

One drive dedicated to all images.
Two identical backups of that drive, with one offsite, rotated regularly.

DVDs are just too much trouble to track and update. I only use DVDs for backing up virgin shoots out of the camera, and for images you simply can't afford to lose (in case your original on the hard drive goes bad and it propagates to all your backups before you notice).

cmason · November 27, 2007

I have one dedicated drive for photos, which is my working drive. I backup this drive nightly, doing a simple copy. For this backup, I use an external drive, in an external enclosure: cheap and cheerful.

Also, I use different controllers: my main drive is SATA, which is separate from my OS and apps drive, which is on the IDE controller. The Backup is on the USB controller. This way, a controller failure will be isolated to one source only.

I also make DVD backups whenever I have 4GB of photos. I use a tool that scans the photo harddrive each day, and if it hits the 4GB quota, pops up a message reminding me to burn a DVD of photos since the last DVD. I store DVDs offsite.

jasonstone · November 27, 2007

Reading the extents to which we go to backup anyone would think we were paranoid about losing our photos!!!

hehehe

I lost some video of my 2nd son in the hospital right after he was born and I don't think I'll ever forgive myself - now I go to all extents to ensure that my stuff is backed up

Joves · November 27, 2007

jasonstone wrote:

Reading the extents to which we go to backup anyone would think we were paranoid about losing our photos!!!

hehehe

I lost some video of my 2nd son in the hospital right after he was born and I don't think I'll ever forgive myself - now I go to all extents to ensure that my stuff is backed up

I lost 20 years of negatives in a fire. :cry So I kinda back things up.

gryphonslair99 · November 27, 2007

Joves wrote:

I lost 20 years of negatives in a fire. :cry So I kinda back things up.

Been there, done that, have a beautiful chared lump of celuloid as a memento. I definately feel your pain.

:

jasonstone · November 28, 2007

Joves wrote:

I lost 20 years of negatives in a fire. :cry So I kinda back things up.

I'm trying to backup all my negs and slides too - but damn it just takes sooo much time and I don't have any time at is is

both working full time, 2 small kids and no parents around for baby sitting (other side of the world) - makes for demanding times!

but i sure can't say it's not interesting

Backup storage for pictures

Comments