Backup

[Marvin McAbee]

I don't think I have a good backup system.  Just wonder what others use Cloud, extra hard drives, or off site storage?

[Harry Harrison]

I must say that I haven't investigated the cloud but I have a fairly hefty PC under the desk with two internal hard drives and I use SyncBackFree to 'mirror' my Lightroom catalogues from one to the other every night automatically. I also have an external backup disc drive in the garage which I have to manually use the same program to backup to every week, easy to lapse with that though I must say. I like to think that the PC is of very little value and awkward to carry so unlikely to get stolen, and hopefully the garage disc drive would escape anything but a catastrophic fire.

Edited July 1, 2019 by Harry Harrison

[Betty LaRue]

I have two desktop HDs that I mirror my images on. If one should fail, I’ll immediately buy another and copy over. I learned my lesson having only one. It failed and I spent $100 to a service to get them back. Even then, there were some blips and I didn’t reclaim a hundred or so. This was 10 years ago.

Betty

[Chuck Nacke]

I am currently looking up at a shelf above me desk that has over 30 1TB external drives (1TB external WD drives currently cost me $60.00 USD) 

I also have a set of drives with selects in a fire proof safe.  Everything is backed up on at least two drives.

Chuck

[John Mitchell]

34 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I have two desktop HDs that I mirror my images on. If one should fail, I’ll immediately buy another and copy over. I learned my lesson having only one. It failed and I spent $100 to a service to get them back. Even then, there were some blips and I didn’t reclaim a hundred or so. This was 10 years ago.

Betty

 

I use a similar setup -- i.e. two external HD's (which reminds me, one is almost full). How do you "mirror" your images? I do all my backing up manually, which gets tedious, and I sometimes forget to update.

 

I'm also thinking of contacting SpaceX to see how much it would cost to have a third HD put into orbit around the moon for safekeeping. 😏

 

[dlmphotog]

IMHO, Unless you have an offsite backup you are not backing up at all...

 

I use "Just a Stack of HDs" methodology, meaning I clone each on my 9 HD's and SSD's drives (not all images) on to hard disks that I store in a padded metal watertight surplus 50 cal ammo can. I have three sets of these that I rotate with one set always at my wife's office. I rotate them about once every three months. My Blu-ray archive is onsite, something I need to fix.

 

I have read of cloud storage companies going belly up with subscribers losing their data, rare for sure but something to worry about. another factor with cloud storage is the time and bandwidth to upload gigabytes of data.

 

Hope this helps,

[Harry Harrison]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

How do you "mirror" your images?

I use this:

https://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html

Mirror is just one of the options, synchronise and backup are the others if I remember rightly. This is Windows software but I'm sure there will be many Mac options also.

 

 

[Bill Brooks]

2.48 TB of Image archive data on a 6 TB hard drive backed up using SuperDuper to a second 4 TB hard drive, both attached to desktop IMAC. Every 4.2 gig of image data also backed up to a DVD that I keep offsite. So I have two copies of entire  image archives on 2 Hard Drives onsite, and one copy of entire image archive using DVDs offsite.

 

Computer entire SSD drive used for applications and work in progress backed up to a partition on third Hard Drive using Time Machine. Also back up entire SSD drive to second partition on same third hard drive using SuperDuper occasionally. This is not offsite because I can recover most of it if we have a fire.

 

Hard drives will always fail over time, SSD drives will loose their mojo, fires happen, so spreading your backups over multiple drives onsite, and DVD offsite critical.

 

I do not use the Cloud.

 

Use Bridge to browse the 30,738 image files on the 6 TB hard drive by keyword. Very useful to make sure I am not getting into a rut photographically, new keywording, making prints, etc. The archive is alive and very useful, not encased in amber.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Bill Brooks
clarity

[MizBrown]

9 hours ago, Marvin McAbee said:

I don't think I have a good backup system.  Just wonder what others use Cloud, extra hard drives, or off site storage?

 

Back up drive formatted eFat so it can be used by both Mac and Windows machines.   Second back up drive -- ideally, I'd store this off site, but haven't yet.  Holding onto your own back up media is cheaper than cloud storage.  If you can rent a safety deposit box, putting one drive in there and then switching that for the newest back up gives you good redundant back up storage (what I did when I was writing commercially). 

 

My Windows laptop has enough spinning disk space that I use it as storage, too, but my LightRoom catalog only has a little over 13,000 photos on it.  More photos, more drives.  

 

Off site can just be a friend's house if the friend is reliable, or a locked office drawer elsewhere.  Safety deposit if you're working with thousands of dollars worth of images or words. 

 

I use Carbon Copy Cloner with my iMac, and straight import into Lightroom on the Windows lap top at this point. 

 

 

[Betty LaRue]

John, I used the wrong word. I don’t “mirror”. I do it like you. Copy to one HD, take the wires out and plug them into the second. 

A note about DVDs.  That was my only way to store them at first. I had quite a few DVDs. Stored well, dry. Then reading the Alamy forum, I thought it wise to get external HDs. Funny thing, (not) I decided to go through some of those CDs a couple of years ago. About a third of them are corrupted. Lost. Even those top dollar gold ones.

I read after that we need to recopy them onto fresh disks every few years. I think I’ll buy another couple of HDs and salvage what I can. I don’t care to redo disks constantly.

Betty

Edited July 2, 2019 by Betty LaRue

[Allan Bell]

I have read in the past that trusting backup to the cloud is NOT a good idea for various reasons.

 

My files are all kept on two WD duo drives, one backup to the other at end of day. Then another backup to a separate drive which lives in another location. Also a bootable back-up is carried out on a frequent basis, just in case. Then I have Apples time machine working too on another drive.

 

Allan

 

[John Mitchell]

22 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

I use this:

https://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html

Mirror is just one of the options, synchronise and backup are the others if I remember rightly. This is Windows software but I'm sure there will be many Mac options also.

 

 

 

Thanks for the link. I've looked at programs like this in the past and found them a bit befuddling. This one sounds interesting, though.

[John Mitchell]

13 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

John, I used the wrong word. I don’t “mirror”. I do it like you. Copy to one HD, take the wires out and plug them into the second. 

A note about DVDs.  That was my only way to store them at first. I had quite a few DVDs. Stored well, dry. Then reading the Alamy forum, I thought it wise to get external HDs. Funny thing, (not) I decided to go through some of those CDs a couple of years ago. About a third of them are corrupted. Lost. Even those top dollar gold ones.

I read after that we need to recopy them onto fresh disks every few years. I think I’ll buy another couple of HDs and salvage what I can. I don’t care to redo disks constantly.

Betty

 

It sounds as if we're both looking in the same mirror. I still tend to do just about everything "manually". My car has roll-up windows and I open the doors with a metal key. I also have a mountain of old CD's and DVD's that have been sitting under my desk for years. Chances are they are now corrupted, but I have no idea what to do with them all. Some people make crafty things like wind chimes and garden decorations out of CD's. However, I'm not that talented.

[Harry Harrison]

55 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

I've looked at programs like this in the past and found them a bit befuddling

Yes, I agree they can be but on the other hand they are doing something quite clever and once set up it is a great time saver. Even the free version has a lot of options that you can stay clear of. I would recommend setting it up to backup some unimportant folders (of anything really) and schedule it for the early hours just to get the hang of it. You can also let it do a 'simulated run' after which it will create a report that you can check. It's very satisfying to see that it has done its work every night.

 

My nightmare scenario is when I create a backup manually, say I take a copy of a catalogue away with me, add to it, then want to copy that back over the old one. Hugely important not to get the Source & Destination confused! In reality I don't really do that anyway but you can see how accidents can happen.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Harry Harrison

[John Mitchell]

9 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Yes, I agree they can be but on the other hand they are doing something quite clever and once set up it is a great time saver. Even the free version has a lot of options that you can stay clear of. I would recommend setting it up to backup some unimportant folders (of anything really) and schedule it for the early hours just to get the hang of it. You can also let it do a 'simulated run' after which it will create a report that you can check. It's very satisfying to see that it has done it's work every night.

 

My nightmare scenario is when I create a backup manually, say I take a copy of a catalogue away with me, add to it, then want to copy that back over the old one. Hugely important not to get the Source & Destination confused! In reality I don't really do that anyway but you can see how accidents can happen.

 

Thanks for the helpful tips. I'll download the free version and experiment with it. I often create duplication messes by modifying folders and recopying them to my external HD's. It would be nice to be able to avoid having to do so many cleanups.

[M.Chapman]

I use Goodsync and have done for years. It's not free, but I've found it to be very powerful and flexible. It allows setting up a safety net (to catch deleted or older versions of files), essential IMHO. It spots when a file has been renamed or moved which saves a lot of "bandwidth". It's also cross platform which helps when I swapped from Windows to Mac and my "backup" file server (in another building) runs on Linux. I also use Time machine and CCC to a couple of external drives. A bit belt and braces, but hey ho, I'd hate to loose anything.

 

Mark

 

 

Edited July 2, 2019 by M.Chapman

[Allan Bell]

13 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

I use Goodsync and have done for years. It's not free, but I've found it to be very powerful and flexible. It allows setting up a safety net (to catch deleted or older versions of files), essential IMHO. It spots when a file has been renamed or moved which saves a lot of "bandwidth". It's also cross platform which helps when I swapped from Windows to Mac and my "backup" file server (in another building) runs on Linux. I also use Time machine and CCC to a couple of external drives. A bit belt and braces, but hey ho, I'd hate to loose anything.

 

Mark

 

 

 

Totally agree with CCC. I used to be free but is now a pay for software but well worth it.

 

Allan

 

[Homy]

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this but a true backup should be kept elsewhere than where your actual files are stored. If you only have an external drive as backup at home then everything will be lost in case of a fire or burglary. You should use a cloud service or other solutions in addition to your external storage at home. I use Flickr Pro for my original JPEG files since it's the cheapest service for just storing photos.

Edited July 5, 2019 by Homy

[Allan Bell]

23 minutes ago, Homy said:

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this but a true backup should be kept elsewhere than where your actual files are stored. If you only have an external drive as backup at home then everything will be lost in case of a fire or burglary. You should use a cloud service or other solutions in addition to your external storage at home. I use Flickr Pro for my original JPEG files since it's the cheapest service for just storing photos.

 

I did mention that I also backup to separate drive which lives in a different location. Meaning not where my desktop drives are.😀

 

Allan

 

[MizBrown]

13 hours ago, Homy said:

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this but a true backup should be kept elsewhere than where your actual files are stored. If you only have an external drive as backup at home then everything will be lost in case of a fire or burglary. You should use a cloud service or other solutions in addition to your external storage at home. I use Flickr Pro for my original JPEG files since it's the cheapest service for just storing photos.

 

When I'm away overnight, I take the backup drives with me.  There's always a chance that they could be stolen from me when I travel, and I could be burglarized at the same time, but someone is in the house when I'm away to tend the critters.  If I start making more money from this, I'll see if any of the local banks have safety deposit banks, as that tends to be off site and yet under my control.  I like having the raws available, too.

[Phil Robinson]

Hard drives for me. RAW and TIFF files saved once here and once at my parents' house, where I visit at the weekend and transfer the week's work (and get fed).

 

[Marvin McAbee]

Thanks for all the information and I do have a external hard drive but haven't hooked it to the new laptop.  When you copy the files to the external hard drive do you have a system of knowing were everything is if it is not a mirror system.  I also think I could use  lightroom for organizing better.  I think I will look into more external hard drives for backup.   I have two out buildings at my house that I could use as off site.

Thanks Marvin

[Betty LaRue]

On 02/07/2019 at 15:52, M.Chapman said:

I use Goodsync and have done for years. It's not free, but I've found it to be very powerful and flexible. It allows setting up a safety net (to catch deleted or older versions of files), essential IMHO. It spots when a file has been renamed or moved which saves a lot of "bandwidth". It's also cross platform which helps when I swapped from Windows to Mac and my "backup" file server (in another building) runs on Linux. I also use Time machine and CCC to a couple of external drives. A bit belt and braces, but hey ho, I'd hate to loose anything.

 

Mark

 

 

I have a distinct idea I could be copying my files more easily to my hard drives. But, as you know, I’m technically challenged and nobody in my family uses Macs or understands them. 😒 Time Machine? I’ve heard that name, but don’t remember if it’s on Mac or PC.

I’m closing this down and going to my art table and finishing my watercolor. 

That I understand!

Edited July 6, 2019 by Betty LaRue

[MizBrown]

7 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I have a distinct idea I could be copying my files more easily to my hard drives. But, as you know, I’m technically challenged and nobody in my family uses Macs or understands them. 😒 Time Machine? I’ve heard that name, but don’t remember if it’s on Mac or PC.

I’m closing this down and going to my art table and finishing my watercolor. 

That I understand!

 

Time Machine is Mac OS's system for making incremental backups, but this disk isn't bootable.  It's absolutely great for recovering files I deleted by mistake or changed my mind about.  My TM drive died and was replaced yesterday with a bigger (2 TB) drive.   I think the paid version of Macrim Reflect is useful for Windows incremental backups, but I haven't got the paid version yet for my laptop.  Time Machine's big strength is being able to browse backward along the time line to find things that it may have copied last year.  Very useful for what it does.   I don't back up photos to Time Machine and also don't have them on my internal hard drive. 

 

If you can leave a back up drive connected to your computer, automating the process makes life very much easier. 

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, MizBrown said:

 

Time Machine is Mac OS's system for making incremental backups, but this disk isn't bootable.  It's absolutely great for recovering files I deleted by mistake or changed my mind about.  My TM drive died and was replaced yesterday with a bigger (2 TB) drive.   I think the paid version of Macrim Reflect is useful for Windows incremental backups, but I haven't got the paid version yet for my laptop.  Time Machine's big strength is being able to browse backward along the time line to find things that it may have copied last year.  Very useful for what it does.   I don't back up photos to Time Machine and also don't have them on my internal hard drive. 

 

If you can leave a back up drive connected to your computer, automating the process makes life very much easier. 

I have a drive connected, but I don’t want to put everything on my computer on it. Just my images. What’s a pain is I’m unplugging it once I copy new folders to it, then having to plug everything in to the other HD and copy them all to it again. It would be nice to copy to both drives at the same time.