Photo Archival: I would like opinions/recommendations regarding the archiving of photos. Criteria: cost, ease of use, accessibility, external, internal, SSD, jump drives, cloud based...

Viewfinder1 Loc: Missouri

I would like opinions/recommendations regarding the archiving of photos. Criteria: cost, ease of use, accessibility, external, internal, SSD, jump drives, cloud based, easy workflow between storage and post-processing software, and overall; best bang for the buck.

Currently I have around 115 GD (33k) photos on computer and small passport external HD (.5 GB).
Thanks,

VF1

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

But two (2) 2TB passport USB drives. Put all your photos on both drives. Put one in an off-site location, other family members or bank safety deposit box. Keep the one at home updated and about every 6 months (or shorter time-frame depending on how many photos a month you take) and swap it with the off-site unit and then keep that one updated...and swap again at whatever time-frame you have decided on.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Local external backups (two) and cloud.
One local can be stored off-site, or at least in a protected cabinet (different location in the house).
Cloud is for disaster recovery. (I would use a local backup first.)
I would not put a backup in the same case as the worker, just in case something physically happens to the computer.

I do local backups (WD Passport Ultras (<$100ea.)) manually with a batch file, cloud (Carbonite ~$72/year) is all automatic.
Don't forget to save your docs; PDFs; and other important documents/files, not just your photos.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I go to the low priced method. I also choose "synchronization" over "backup". That means my external drives don't have copies of everything I do, but only copies of what I keep on my primary. The Sync software intends to delete on the external drive what I've deleted on my primary drive. My software that does it is called GoodSync. I use two alternating low cost, but large drives. The result is that there is normally three copies of every file I want to keep.

Viewfinder1 Loc: Missouri

Thank you. Thoughts to ponder.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Viewfinder1 wrote:

I would like opinions/recommendations regarding the archiving of photos. Criteria: cost, ease of use, accessibility, external, internal, SSD, jump drives, cloud based, easy workflow between storage and post-processing software, and overall; best bang for the buck.

Currently I have around 115 GD (33k) photos on computer and small passport external HD (.5 GB).
Thanks,

VF1

I expect you have 115 MB on a 500MB (0.5GB) drive. As suggested on previous post, Amazon Prime members get free storage.

PierreD

Viewfinder1 wrote:

I would like opinions/recommendations regarding the archiving of photos. Criteria: cost, ease of use, accessibility, external, internal, SSD, jump drives, cloud based, easy workflow between storage and post-processing software, and overall; best bang for the buck.

Currently I have around 115 GD (33k) photos on computer and small passport external HD (.5 GB).
Thanks,

VF1

As other already suggested: TWO external drives that you update on a regular basis (depending on how many pictures you take and you level of comfort with waiting between updates) and that you keep in different locations (e.g., one home, the other in the office). PLUS some kind of real time backup (cloud) system. I've used DROPBOX for a number of years and it works great - incl. synchronizing all your files between several computers as one additional level of duplication.