Barbershots Loc: Wilmington, NC

Fellow Hoggers

For years I have utilized multiple portable hard drives to have all my photos backed up. A friend recently mentioned Carbonite, and I was wondering everyone's thoughts.

Thanks in advance

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

There are several choices like that. But, you have to have the bandwidth to make that work if you have many files.

DGStinner Loc: New Jersey

I use CrashPlan for off-site backup. If someone broke into your house and stole all of your portable hard drives, how would you replace the images?

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

I used Amazon photographers cloud, then they jumped the price from $12.00 to $59.00 , its free if you have Amazon prime. The problem with storing stuff on a cloud is if they decide to raise the
prices or go out of business, where does that leave you?

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

It appears you have done the right thing with your backup drives, but as has been mentioned, it is highly advisable to have a backup "off site" somewhere. Enter the likes of Carbonite and Crashplan. I would advise doing a Google search on "the best cloud backup system". There are nuances you may not have thought of.

I chose CrashPlan, and am very pleased. It just works! Also mentioned was the bandwidth assigned by your ISP. Typically, ISPs provide on the order of 10-20 MBps download and 3-5 MBps upload. Usually, it will cost you more money to go above these values, IF the ISP offers faster connections. These values are on the up-swing for many ISPs, due to customer demand. I currently have 300 MBps download and 25 MBps upload. It is quite sufficient at making CrashPlan work for me. You can check your current connection speed by going to www.speedtest.net and run a test.

Know this . . . if you subscribe to cloud backup, your first backup of the data you intend to protect there will take a long time to transfer. Even at 25 MBps, it took over a week to push 1.5TB of data to CrashPlan for me, running 24 hours a day. But after that, the backups became transparent. I never know when CrashPlan is backing up my data. As I said, it just works.

GAlanFInk

Quick thought... what is the most precious thing people search for after a catastrophe? ANSWER: PHOTOGRAPHS.
Keeping your files 'at home' regardless of the methodology or utility is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
I can't claim to have icloud storage but I do have a 750 pound (empty, and it's not by a long shot) safe that I put my iDrive into after backing up my computer and images. It's fireproof and theft proof (considering the fact that it's bolts are epoxied to the concrete floor). I don't worry about flooding because I don't live within a mile of a river so the only concerns I have are theft or fire which are pretty well eliminated.

One problem that icloud does provide... a price tag below $2000.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Galan, are you certain that your fire proof safe will be able to maintain a low enough temperature in the event of a fire to ensure that the drives stored within will not lose their data?

If you take a set of drives off site altogether-perhaps keeping them in our safety deposit box and rotate them every week or so with another back up set, then you avoid even that possibility.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I apologize, for my earlier link did not work. This one does.

http://www.speedtest.net

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

This topic is discussed weekly on the Hog. In fact, there's a concurrent one at the moment (which I'll add a link to shortly). I would suggest using the search function for "cloud", "backup" and "storage". Unfortunately the search function doesn't return the threads in any date order, so you'll have to sort through for the latest, but here's one for a start: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-439382-1.html

Edit: here's a recent thread on the subject: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-447083-1.html

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I've been using Carbonite for archive for a few years (I also have two local external devices.). I like Carbonite since it's all automatic and puts little status markers on the files and directories. The initial backup took about a week because of the number of files, but subsequent backups are quick. Carbonite has "standard" files that it backs up, but you can add files and directories of your choosing. (I also archive all of my .DOC, .XLS, .HTML, PDF, etc.)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Look at BackBlaze, too. You have lots of choices, but you never know when they're going out of business.

MikeMck Loc: Southern Maryland on the Bay

I have Carbonite. I even used it to populate a new laptop. Found it to be excellent. Good luck!

barrdennis

I burn all files to dvd as a third backup. I back up everything I shoot and will leave to local historian. Denny Barr I have many external hard drives.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have many, too, but some are old and small. Remember when a 250GB drive was considered large?

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I use Backblaze and when I needed to restore a failed HD I had them send me my files on a hard drive and after restoring the files I sent the HD back for a refund

I also copied my HDs to external HDs which are separate from and stored in a different location