John Walker Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Some advice please. I now have many thousand images stored on my PC and two external drives but I still worry that this is not enough. Any suggestions for best on-line storage companies that don't cost the earth and don't make the images available for anyone else to access? Also need to be easy to use and access. My ideal would be an upload facility similar to Alamy where I just select images/folders etc. and just click 'upload' Regards John UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Crean Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Why not open a zenfolio account, doubles up as a website, and you can have an unlimited amount of images stored. If there are some you don't want to be public you can restrict certain areas to be only viewable by you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theDaveB Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 There are plenty about, some will act like DropBox and Google Drive. Where you get a shared folder on your HD and anything you drop in thier will be backed up. Others (like Mozy) do a full backup of your computer in the background and keep it synced. This page has some good info - http://pcsupport.about.com/od/maintenance/tp/online_backup_services.htm Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 I don't have online backup, but I do have hard drives at my parents' house, where I regularly go to get a decent meal and copy everything I have done since the last visit. The chances of both premises being burgled / destroyed by fire on the same day are, I hope, pretty slim. I have a possibly unjustified distrust of storing anything in 'the cloud' - fueled by the number of sites that have been hacked for personal details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Walker Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Thanks for the replies so far - very helpful. I'm still undecided and like Phil I also am a little twitchy about storing on line. However, it does seem to be the best option for me. One further question - suppose I store all my images on line with a company and then lose my local storage. Is it a straightforward (but time consuming) job to download them to a new hard drive? John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Azure-images Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theDaveB Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Thanks for the replies so far - very helpful. I'm still undecided and like Phil I also am a little twitchy about storing on line. However, it does seem to be the best option for me. One further question - suppose I store all my images on line with a company and then lose my local storage. Is it a straightforward (but time consuming) job to download them to a new hard drive? John Some companies give you the option to ship your backup to you on a HD, you copy your stuff off and ship it back. Obviously this costs and is around $125 as a one off. The other option it to literally download everything back to your HD. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Walker Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Have zero faith in online storage after extremely poor experience with Carbonite. I use RAID1 My Mirror as primary backup and then multiple HDs both on and off site. Main thing is to get into a routine over swapping/replacing. Thanks for the replies so far - very helpful. I'm still undecided and like Phil I also am a little twitchy about storing on line. However, it does seem to be the best option for me. One further question - suppose I store all my images on line with a company and then lose my local storage. Is it a straightforward (but time consuming) job to download them to a new hard drive? John Some companies give you the option to ship your backup to you on a HD, you copy your stuff off and ship it back. Obviously this costs and is around $125 as a one off. The other option it to literally download everything back to your HD. Dave Thanks Dave - Sorry I wasn't very clear with my question. I meant is it a straightforward job for me to download my files back down to a new HD ie. drag and drop etc. So many companies that have file transfer systems make them so complicated for the end user. I need simple! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theDaveB Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 They all seem to have their own custom software now. Best thing is sign up to a few on a trial basis, download the software and have a play with it. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 One thing to consider. If you set-up "synchronisation" to keep all your devices up to date, be careful to check what happens if you accidentally delete a file or damage it by editing in Photoshop etc. Some systems will happily propogage the change by deleting or updating the other copies of the file accordingly to bring everything back into synch.... If you don't realise you've accidentally deleted or damaged the file before synchronsation or the recycle bins are emptied, then you've lost the file and the "backup" copies. I remember once watching as my contacts disappeared one by one from Outlook on my PC as it synchronised with my phone. Luckily I had another backup. I'm not aware of any simple solutions to this. I use Goodsynch which I've set-up to keep copies of earlier versions of files and anything that's deleted, but eventually I have to have a clearout. I have also specified how changes are propagated from one device to another. For example I have set it up so that if a file disappears from my backup, it won't be removed from my PC. The reason I raise this issue is that so far, I've lost more image files through my own error (accidental deletion or saving a damaged version) than I have through hardware failure or loss. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photoguy Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 I do a daily backup using Carbon Copy Cloner and a monthly backup which I store off-site. The default software setting keeps current files but also has an archive section, so deleted files (or original files which have been changed/replaced) can be accessed for a period of time which depends on the capacity of the storage device. I've had the experience of retrieving a deleted file that I needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.