OFF SITE STORAGE
Mar 8, 2012 08:18:08 #
I have two external hard drives to store my photos, but I was talking to a photographer who had a fire at his home, and lost his computer and the hard drives therefore years of pictures. What is a good source of storage off site. Should one put their photos on a large zip drive and take with - or use an off site storage site such as carbonite? I think we would all hate to lose our photos to fire, flood, or other disaster. Your opinions and advice would be very appreciated.
Mar 8, 2012 14:12:42 #
Mar 8, 2012 15:37:07 #
Mar 9, 2012 05:42:07 #
Mar 9, 2012 06:45:14 #
photocat
Loc: Atlanta, Ga
I use a four system for backing up, three external drives at home and one tht i keep up todate and take the lab at school.
Mar 9, 2012 06:49:39 #
Opus wrote:
I have a 3 hour fire rated safe.
Check the specs, that means it will take 3 hours before flames get inside but how hot will it get inside there? Is whatever backup media you put in there immune to heat?
Mar 9, 2012 09:40:46 #
Even though I back up on external drives I rest much better knowing that all my photos, documents etc. are safe somewhere else--Carbonite. When a fire is consuming your house, and you have been evacuated from the area, it doesn't matter how many hours your computer or drives are rated, they are goners. For the few bucks it costs, peace of mind is well worth the price.
Mar 9, 2012 15:30:58 #
I use two external hard drives, but they are kept in the same fire safe inside the house. I know, one of the drives should be off site. We do have a alarm system that also monitor's for fire.
A few years ago my brother's house burn down to the foundation and all they had left was the clothes they were wearing and the car they drove up in, but no one was home at the time and no injuries.
He did have very good insurance for the physical stuff, but all photos, albums and personal family stuff was gone. Between my other brothers we were able to replace a lot of the family photos.
We plan on getting a safe deposit box, but we are within a mile of the fire department and not out in the country like my brother was.
A few years ago my brother's house burn down to the foundation and all they had left was the clothes they were wearing and the car they drove up in, but no one was home at the time and no injuries.
He did have very good insurance for the physical stuff, but all photos, albums and personal family stuff was gone. Between my other brothers we were able to replace a lot of the family photos.
We plan on getting a safe deposit box, but we are within a mile of the fire department and not out in the country like my brother was.
Mar 9, 2012 16:07:47 #
Can't go wrong with Carbonite. It will take a while initially to back up but then it works in the backyard. You can even subscribe to have them send the backup to you on an external hard drive.
Mar 9, 2012 16:37:45 #
sloscheider wrote:
Check the specs, that means it will take 3 hours before flames get inside but how hot will it get inside there? Is whatever backup media you put in there immune to heat?
Opus wrote:
I have a 3 hour fire rated safe.
Check the specs, that means it will take 3 hours before flames get inside but how hot will it get inside there? Is whatever backup media you put in there immune to heat?
The 3 hour rating may only be for paper documents. It takes a media rated fire safe to protect any of the electronic media.
Mar 9, 2012 17:39:38 #
Thanks for the feedback everybody. I will now keep one back-up outside of the house plus Smug Mug backs up all of my online photos. See you can tech an old dog new tricks.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.