TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I order mine on Amazon...

therwol Loc: USA

Yes. Amazon. They come in DVD-R and Blu Ray flavors. There is a big difference in how much each can store. There is some overlap in these results. The last link is for the 100 gigabyte blu ray discs.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mdisc+dvd-r&crid=XV3Q65UVZYIP&sprefix=mdisc+dv%2Caps%2C191&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_8

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mdisc+bluray&crid=13RYYEUALRBP9&sprefix=mdisc+blu%2Caps%2C437&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_9

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mdisc+100gb&crid=3BEEVWN0SR7BE&sprefix=mdisc+100%2Caps%2C327&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_9

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Yep, 100GB MDisks aren’t cheap, but unless they are physically destroyed, they’re probably the most robust archive material available, but plan on changing media every 10 years or so as each previous media becomes slowly obsolete due to the lack of players for that format.

arathorn357 Loc: Sydney, Australia

+1 for Carbon Copy Cloner - not just for your photos, but for everything else on your mac and making an image of your operating system - saved my sanity on 2 occasions.

On my MacBook Pro less than 3 months old the 256G SDD failed - probably due to a surge or spark - with USB3 devices with a constant voltage across the input ejecting before removing is a really good idea.

Apple replaced the SDD under warranty and CCC had the new drive up to where it was the night before the automated backup last ran.

Other versions of NAS devices are also relatively inexpensive and give you a private fee free cloud which I like - I used a pair of Synology NAS on which I keep an extensive movie collection now about 7TB.

But do use good backup software like CCC - when you need it, you really need it.

SangerM

Hello: I use three backup options.

1. One is a QNAP 2-bay LNAS with 3TB WD 'RED' raid-array drives. Not expensive, considering the cost of my cameras and laptops, but it uses Linux so it's not entirely cost-free in terms of having to learn it. Still it has a very decent user interface, the drives can be hot-swapped, and it has a wireless capability, etc. All in all worth the time and effort because everything from all home PCs can be backed up on schedule, etc. If you like, you can also make it web accessible so you can access if from elsewhere--your own cloud, so speak. I'm not comfortable with that, but I may give it a try if I can assure myself of the security. BTW, I keep it on a small UPS, and so far I've never had it go down. This is my main off-machine version controlling BUp.

2. I have a 4TB WD 'MyPassport' Wireless Pro. It charges via USB 3, has a USB port, and is managed from a wireless device via a WD app. I can connect to it from my cameras and from my laptops, and it can connect to the internet via the phone (which I can use as a hotspot, etc). It's not a straight-forward plug and play, but it is very useful, and I've never come close to filling it when I travel. It was fairly reasonably priced.

3. Alternately to either I also have a couple of USB 3 HDD docks that can accommodate either 2.5 or 3.5 inch HDDs. I connect them directly to the laptop and use a very reasonable program named MT Partition Wizard Pro to just clone the laptop drives, which are 1 and 2 TB drives w/ hybrid SSD. I don't clone the SD, but then I only use that for work, not for storage because of concerns about long-term data loss.

Cheers,

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

Carbon Copy Cloner.

Raptor

I have the same setup. I keep my pics on an external drive and have 2 backups. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up the drive. Easy to use, reliable and has great reviews. I don't remember if it was or came with a modest cost. My brother has been an Apple user from way back and he uses this program. I use Time Machine with an 8TB drive for system backups. Hope this helps.

A. T.

Do some research on a RAID array. There are several manufacturers out there but I found Glyph to be the best for my use. Stay away from Drobo, their newest drive system has nothing but bad reviews and customer service is horrible. Glyph is a U.S. made product with outstanding customer service right here in the good ole U.S.A.

God luck

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Bill P

stay away from Drobo, their newest drive system has nothing but bad reviews


I had a Drobo raid 4 array. it totally destroyed itself. I was able to put twp of the HD's in cases and get stuff off them but it never worked again.

Total piece of crap.

Bill P

Harry,

Thanks.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

He won't need that, because he is a Mac user. Mac has a backup program called Time Machine.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Does CCC do something Mac's Time Machine doesn't do?

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

There are far more sophisticated systems than the inexpensive and simple systems that I use, but it has worked for me for years, and enabled me to recover from machine failures quickly and thoroughly. There are always machine failures. It is just a matter of which and when.

My photos are on two standard thunderbolt external hard drives. My mac and my two photo drives are backed up automatically via time machine onto a standard USB external drive. The images, LR catalog, along with other files of my choosing are also backed up on a series of small portable drives kept in another location. I figure the chances of more than two of these going south at the same time is pretty slim.

Less than a month ago one of the external photo drives went bad without warning (the newest and most expensive by the way). Within a couple of hours I had Time Machine restore tens of thousands of raw images from the failed drive to a replacement drive, reconnected the images to LR in less than a minute, and lost nothing. So I agree, yes, you need to have a backup for that external drive ASAP. If it isn’t the most sophisticated system, so be it. Get something in place, and upgrade if and when you need to. If you decide to use Time Machine, and run into challenges, ask. The way TM backs up external drives is a little obtuse. Just be sure it is working, and keep it up to date. Trouble will come. The battle between man and machine is never finished.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Synology makes the best NAS servers IMHO. Best of luck.