Siemienczuk

Having finally made the leap to DSLR 18 months ago, I’ve been procrastinating an image backup plan. I use Lightroom, and as I understand it, I need to backup the Raw and JPEG files from my hard drive, but also the Lightroom Catalogue file (the “recipes” of my post-processing work). I am interested in input from members: external hard drive vs. cloud storage, and if the latter, which service. I am an Amazon Prime member but so far can’t tell if I could backup the LRCAT folder there.

whwiden

I have started using Amazon Prime photo for basic image back up. You can upload jpeg and NEF files at full size, but you need to do it using a computer and the Amazon app for that purpose. Uploads from a phone or a Kindle appear to be at a smaller jpeg size. The navigation is a bit cumbersome but I am in the experiment stage.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Both. Cloud storage should never be your only backup. As cheap as external hard drives are nowadays, get two and keep one off site. Then you can use a cloud service for a third backup.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I have everything in a "Photos" directory in the root of the primary computer with sub-directories for subject, etc..
Files are backed up on an external USB pocket drive, another computer, and cloud via Carbonite (off-site).
Tertiary backups.

johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio

There are 8tb external drive for $129 now, buy 2 if you want more backup. I use n SSD for current pictures, ones I am woking on for instance. The I copy to both 8tb hard drives. I save by year, and the by event. I also do not erase my SD cards until the double backup is complete. it mght seem like a lot of work, but really isn't.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I backup my computer and all external drives via BackBlaze plus a separate copy of all the drives on removable external drives

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Got a nice chuckle.
At my rate an 8Tb drive will last me more than 100 years...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I backup to two external drives using a program called SyncBack SE. I backup seven folders every day or so - Pictures, Files, Music, etc. You need two backups because if one fails, you have nothing. I use HGST UltraStar drives because they are very good quality. The refurbished drives are an amazing bargain. I've been using them for years without a problem.

https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hgst+ultrastar&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ahgst+ultrastar
https://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio

yes, but if you videos, you will consume a lot. Plus if you do panographic pictures, wit a 30mp camera, 6 pictures combined each final one can be 3 gb. now you may only get 20 years out of it. But in a few years 16tb will be a common drive size.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I use external drives. I put all of my originals on one and then copy that folder to my PC for editing in PS Elements. I keep the Elements Backup on a second external drive. Nothing fancy. I’m an advanced amateur but I’m not emotionally attached to my thousands of photos and their edits. If my house burns down there are lots of things that I’d lose that are more valuable than my photos.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

If your reply is to me, I don't do video currently. Some panos, mostly by the phone.
Like I said, "at my current rate", if that changes so will the time it takes to fill a drive.
.5 Tb in ten years is low. I'm not out everyday shooting anything and everything.
.05 Tb/year boils down to 160 years for an 8 Gig drive, I was allowing for some extra shooting.

Then again, it could be just humor regarding my storage needs.

And you are correct, 8 Gb will become commonplace.

GrandmaG Loc: Flat Rock, MI

I tried Amazon Prime for photos and didn't like it, mainly because they do not have a large preview available, making it difficult to decide which picture to print.

As far as backup, I use a CRU tough tech duo. It is a small enclosed system with two drives configured as one duplicating to the other. Whatever is saved to the first drive is automatically copied to the 2nd drive. Then every week or so, I swap out the 2nd drive and insert a third drive. The unit will copy everything to the third drive. The extra drive is kept in the safe, but I think it would be better kept off site (like in the safe deposit box at the bank or at my son's house). My keeper pictures are sent to Shutterfly for the family to view and/or print. This is my "cloud" storage. I have Carbonite, too; but I'm thinking about cancelling it.

As far as your catalog, back it up to a different place than your original. I back mine up to Dropbox so it is available to all my devices if I need it.

Hope this helps.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

There are many reliable methods for backup. I have 4 external drives and three internal drives and a laptop. I have used Acronis for backup software for 10+ years.
https://www.acronis.com/en-us/
Mark

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Hi, you can automatically back up your original images when importing into LR. This is what I do for the most part. It does mean that you might have many more images on your hard drive than you will use or want but I find it the easiest way to back up. The only time I don't do this is when I have several thousand images and I know I am not going to keep a whole lot of them, then I'll import, delete and eventually (if I remember) simple do a drag and drop to my designed backup drive. I think you can back up anything to Amazon. You might also backup the catalog to another drive attached to your computer.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

As others have said, you are better off with both external HDs and cloud storage. The problem with cloud storage is that your images are not immediately available, so there is a wait time before you can resume normal use of your LR Photos. Then there is the issue of external HDs - it is best to have more than one. With HDs, it is not a matter of IF they will fail, but rather of WHEN. I went for years without a failure, then a drive I had purchased less than a year before did fail. If I had not had another backup of my photos, I would have been very nervous until getting a new HD and saving my images to it. Truthfully, I still do not have a cloud backup, because I too procrastinate! I would go with BackBlaze if I ever get around to it...

Another thing to consider is whether you will do your backups manually, or subscribe to a service that does it for you. There are quite a few of them, I use SynchBack [2BrightSparks.com], which has a free level as well as paid. I set the schedule, the source and destination, and the backups are automatically done by computer. The information goes directly from your computer to your external HDs. Incremental backups are quite rapid!

The size of the backup drives should be large enough they will not fill up any time soon. If you take lots of photos, a 2TB may not be large enough. I thought it would be, but now with over 15,000 images, I have switched to 4TB, both for internal as well as external HDs. Eventually that may not be sufficient, But I will deal with that when it occurs!