johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

I currently use Dropbox, Flickr and OneDrive for my online storage.
I like Dropbox but it only has 2gb and after that you have to pay.
Which online storage do members consider to be the best to use and has a good free capacity.
Thanks for your help.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

John,

DropBox is my favorite, but that doesn't mean there aren't other great alternatives. The point I'd make is that on-line storage causes concerns for me. Yes, I use DropBox, but only for sharing my photos with others. It provides a much easier method than trying to email images to everyone.

If storage of your images is the thrust of your inquiry, there is nothing as safe as a couple of external hard drives connected to your PC. One for storage, another for a backup of the first one.

On-line storage involves exorbitant amounts of time to upload/download the images. I have some PSD files that are over 100 Mb. When I share that photo, exporting it from LightRoom into a sharable JPG, the resulting file is (most times) less than 10 Mb. That's much easier to upload for sharing. Beyond that, if the site gets hacked, or goes out of business, all my catalog of images is still safe and secure on my hard drives.

Simply food for thought.

doduce Loc: Holly Springs NC

You've been a Hog long enough to read many horror stories about cloud/on-line storage. I use it, but not as my only or even primary backup. It is, at the end of the day, the last best hope if everything else turns south. Multiple external hard drives are critical to my method and I suspect most of the community will tell you the same.

A story--the company I used for cloud storage recently was forced to stop offering the service when their hosting service tripled the annual fee. If I had used them exclusively, I might be in real trouble. As it was, I had everything backed up elsewhere, so I didn't worry. But I'm certainly glad I didn't have a one backup strategy.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I would add to that: Keep the external hard drives in different locations.
I have one near the computer, and update it as soon as I have new photos on the computer's HD.
Once a week or so, I copy that external to another one that I keep in a waterproof/fireproof safe on the other end of the house. Every time I go to our son's place, I take the external that lives beside the computer, with me, leave it at my son's and bring the one that was there, home. The first thing I do when I come home, is to plug it into the computer and update it.
It gives me three copies of each photo original, plus three copies of each edited photo.

Mr PC Loc: Austin, TX

Computer guy weighing in. I echo Morning Star. Multiple backups both on and off site on physical devices that you control. I use Carbonite as well. Also, Google+ gives you 15GB free. I got an extra 50GB in my Dropbox account for 2 years when I bought a Samsung phone last year. That rocks! You need some discipline and maybe some synchronizing software to keep external drives and computers concurrent, I use Foldermatch, there are other good alternatives. Can't beat Carbonite for set it and forget it, it's saved me from disaster a couple of times. My 2 cents...

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

I use Dropbox for sharing, but not for storage.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I agree. I have an on line Network Attached drive (NAS) that my 2 desktops use as primary for photos. All photos are downloaded from the cameras to the networked hard drive. I back it up weekly to a usb external drive. (I have 3) Week 1 I back up to #1 and it stays in the computer room. Week 2 I back up to #2 and move #1 to a lock box in the house. Week 3 I back up to #3 and move #2 to lock box and move #1 to safe deposit box at the bank. This means that If I have a mechanical failure, I have 2 chances of recovery, one immediate, one a week old meaning that I (MIGHT) lose a week's data. If I have a fire, storm or whatever and can NOT save one or both in house, the worst I've lost is 2 weeks of images. This is where a cloud would come in. Be very wary of clouds though as they can go away at the whim of the provider. Also, I do incremental backups (Daily) but I don't want to over complicate things for you. What you need to do is figure how much you can afford to lose and use that to start your backup plan. NOTE: if I do a special project, I back up as soon as I upload those photos and then again once the photos are post processed and a last time once the finished photos are sent to be printed. (I include a pdf copy of the printing invoice and a pdf copy of the invoice that I make for the customer in that backup.)

Jwirlwind Loc: Irmo, South Carolina

My opinion. One year ago, I moved from Windows to Mac. When I was running Windows, I used Carbonite. Personally, I think anything that is running in the background like Carbonite, slows your computer. Windows virus programs also slow the computer down. When I went to Mac, I purchased MyBook. It sits in the back of the computer and can store an extra 2 teribit of storage along with my computer having 1 teribit of it's own. MyBook will also backup you computer in case you need to restore all files including the operating system. It is rare that a Mac will get a virus, so I don't run a program. I still believe that Microsoft and some of the virus protectors that you put on your computer, are programmed to put a virus on your computer so they can be able to take it off telling you that is it worth having. Who says that offsite storage if safe? Another way would be to download everything onto an external drive and keep in your desk drawer or have your daughter or friend keep it at their house. Hence, offsite storage. JS

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

True, however the reason that Apple didn't get viruses was twofold. 1. Apple OS was originally based on Unix and was not worth the effort of hackers. 2. and this relates to 1. Apple OS represented less that 15% of the computers in the world and hackers figured that they would rather develop a virus that had the potential of affecting 85% of the computers in the world for x hours of development vs 15% for the same or longer development. The time to write the virus to affect a potential 15% didn't make sense when they could spend the same time or less and have a potential for 85%. My percentages may be off but not by much considering that you had Microsoft / Dos , Unix, CPM, Apple OS (originally Apple ran a version of their own dos on the Apple 2 and 3, and IBM and compatibles including Compact, Dell, and everybody else.
NOW, Apple is beginning to be affected by viruses too and the ones out there are much worse than the ones that affected Windows, (this is my guess) because there is not a good set of anti-virus software available yet. Again, because the Anti-virus companies would rather develop for 85% of the market rather than 15%. There have always been UNIX hackers and viruses out there but UNIX (not the Apple version was mostly being used as server farms etc and behind large firewalls etc.
My Windows systems have never been attacked because I have 2 firewalls with 1 computer that is in the DMZ. It is the one that I use for anything outrageous and it has a very good series of anti-virus. Everything else is clean. I do have a second copy of the antivirus software running on a laptop that scans all of the other computers periodically.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Not free but for $97/2 years and unlimited I'll take Backblaze. Very easy to set up, emailed reports, and on line monitoring to make sure things are working as they should. Data is encrypted on their servers.
--Bob

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I checked with Carbonite. They throttle uploads after a certain limit. At least they did when I checked with them. Found Backblaze to be much more suitable, and for quite a bit less.
--Bob

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

There are a good many virus packages for the Mac now, I myself run a weekly file scan with ClamAV (never has found anything yet btw)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406379,00.asp

(2013 listing)

Mac OS is still based on BSD UNIX BTW.

picpiper Loc: California

Why are you stressing over the Dropbox 2GB limit? The Flickr ceiling is 1TB and OneDrive is 15GB.

I'm not going to add to all the admonitions about not relying on any cloud service for backup - other than saying once again: Make sure you have a local backup scheme in place.

skiman Loc: Ventura, CA

Not free $40/yr but has many features and unlimited storage.

http://www.smugmug.com/features

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

:thumbup: :thumbup:

I love what the I'net does for me, but I don't trust it. The whole cloud computing and cloud storage entails a lot more trust in large corporations and governments than my experience recommends. Adobe going to cloud for their programs lost me. Right now it's $9 a month, but Adobe is effectively a monopoly. Is anyone dumb enough to think the price won't go to $15, 20 or even $25 in a few years. And how long till someone decides to censor the pictures or the contract fine print allows someone to resell your images or some third party hacks your account?

Keep your creative stuff local. Yes I'm paranoid, but the are out to get me.