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Back up flash drives such as Photostick
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Nov 24, 2021 16:03:02   #
RobertP
 
I have multip[le older computers and older external hard drives and of course lets say medium rare organization. Used to use Aperture but I cannot open the program and now use LRClassic CC. Is a back up drive a good alternative? Does the software classify the photos by computer or by hard drive. Does the flash sick keep RAW vs JPEGS? Just wanted to hear your thoughts on pro's and cons and of course which one is better than another. Thank u for ur time. I appreciate it.

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Nov 24, 2021 17:10:57   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
The photo stick is an over priced POS. For example, if it “searches” for JPEGs, it will find hundreds images used as pictures in applications, but it may not find images you want in a sub folder where you placed them or raw or PSD images. In addition, a flash drive is not the most reliable backup media (yes, I know someone will say they have thumb drives with images 10 years old).

If you want a reliable on-site backup, choose an SSD or an enterprise class HD. If you want an archive, use an M-Disk, and if you want an off-site disaster recovery copy (which you should absolutely have), the most robust and convenient is a major cloud provider such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Apple.

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Nov 24, 2021 17:16:43   #
Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States
 
TriX wrote:
The photo stick is an over priced POS. For example, if it “searches” for JPEGs, it will find hundreds images used as pictures in applications, but it may not find images you want in a sub folder where you placed them or raw or PSD images. In addition, a flash drive is not the most reliable backup media (yes, I know someone will say they have thumb drives with images 10 years old).

If you want a reliable on-site backup, choose an SSD or an enterprise class HD. If you want an archive, use an M-Disk, and if you want an off-site disaster recovery copy (which you should absolutely have), the most robust and convenient is a major cloud provider such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Apple.
The photo stick is an over priced POS. For example... (show quote)


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Nov 24, 2021 17:48:48   #
DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA
 
Forget about the photostick. Overpriced and inefficient.

You’re much better off getting a hard drive. They’re fairly inexpensive and will hold any kind of file.

In fact you should use one to back up your stuff, and not just the photos.

Flash drives are for temporary storage. Great for sending photos to your kids or other family members.

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Nov 24, 2021 17:49:33   #
fetzler Loc: North West PA
 
TriX wrote:
The photo stick is an over priced POS. For example, if it “searches” for JPEGs, it will find hundreds images used as pictures in applications, but it may not find images you want in a sub folder where you placed them or raw or PSD images. In addition, a flash drive is not the most reliable backup media (yes, I know someone will say they have thumb drives with images 10 years old).

If you want a reliable on-site backup, choose an SSD or an enterprise class HD. If you want an archive, use an M-Disk, and if you want an off-site disaster recovery copy (which you should absolutely have), the most robust and convenient is a major cloud provider such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Apple.
The photo stick is an over priced POS. For example... (show quote)


TriX sums it up well.

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Nov 24, 2021 21:58:31   #
Quixdraw Loc: x
 
I have a 4 TB Western Digital. Small, inexpensive and easy to set up. Consider giving it a look.

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Nov 25, 2021 08:35:54   #
ELNikkor
 
15 years ago, I started buying external hard drives to back up my computers, then, when the computers started dying, I'd get flash drives to back-up the external hard drives. There were no external SSD's back then, and I wanted double-backup with different technologies. I still have those early flash-drives, and they still have all my early photos and videos on them, and play back no problem. Basically, they are miniature SSD's, and often saved my images when somehow files were lost on the external HDDs. Today, I can get a reputable 512gb flash drive for under $50, and one of those can back up many years-worth of my early files. The external SSD's have become more reasonable in price, so only now am I considering one of them to help back up my 4TB external HDD.

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Nov 25, 2021 08:42:07   #
Bison Bud
 
I use USB Memory sticks all the time for moving files from machine to machine and for short term backup of many kinds of files including photos in several formats. I think they may be the best bang for the bucks out there for this type use (I can generally get a 32 Gig stick for $6.00 to $8.00 around here). However, as others have already mentioned, the "Photostick" is pretty much a gimmick device that uses a USB memory stick format and has software that is supposed to search, find, and backup the photos on your computer to the stick and has a premium price tag. I would highly recommend buying your own memory sticks and more purposefully saving your photos on it if that is your desire. Good luck and good shooting to all.

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Nov 25, 2021 09:43:20   #
RobertP
 
Thanx all. I was just trying to look for something that would automatically find all photos since I don't really know where all of my photo's are, especially older photos from older iPhones, Pam Pilot photos, etc. It looks to me that it may take me a long time to look for all photos vs to have some device do it automatically. I just do not know how the software organizes the photos. Is there any type of organization when using these decices? I am no using these "sticks" for long term storage just a fast way of finding ALL of the photos no matter where they are located, then bringing them to say LRCCClassic for possible improvement. Like I said before I used Aperture previously and for some reason I cannot open that software. Thanx again.

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Nov 25, 2021 10:09:47   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
RobertP wrote:
Thanx all. I was just trying to look for something that would automatically find all photos since I don't really know where all of my photo's are, especially older photos from older iPhones, Pam Pilot photos, etc. It looks to me that it may take me a long time to look for all photos vs to have some device do it automatically. I just do not know how the software organizes the photos. Is there any type of organization when using these decices? I am no using these "sticks" for long term storage just a fast way of finding ALL of the photos no matter where they are located, then bringing them to say LRCCClassic for possible improvement. Like I said before I used Aperture previously and for some reason I cannot open that software. Thanx again.
Thanx all. I was just trying to look for something... (show quote)


Here’s a suggestion. First set aside a folder for photographs and sub folders for JPEGs, Raw images and PSD of TIFFS if you use them. Then download a copy of Search Everything. First do a search for .jpg files (JPEGs), then whatever the raw extension your camera uses (if you don’t know, look here: https://fileinfo.com/filetypes/camera_raw ) and then COPY the results of each search into the appropriate sub folder. Then go through each folder, removing duplicates and discarding unwanted files. You can also sort them by date by just clicking the top of the date column in file explorer. You now have a single folder (with sub folders) that contain ALL your images that you can back up. Going forward, you may want to employ a digital asset manager (DAM) such as LightRoom and/or you may want to further subdivide each folder by subject etc.

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Nov 25, 2021 10:20:46   #
RobertP
 
It looks like it does not work for Mac platform.

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Nov 25, 2021 11:34:01   #
DrDon Loc: Hingham, Ma
 
I needed the same device. I tried Photostick and it works. Found everything including lots of pictures you don’t need. After that you can copy new photos on flash drives yourself.

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Nov 25, 2021 12:24:28   #
leftj Loc: Texas
 
[quote=RobertP]I have multip[le older computers and older external hard drives and of course lets say medium rare organization. Used to use Aperture but I cannot open the program and now use LRClassic CC. Is a back up drive a good alternative? Does the software classify the photos by computer or by hard drive. Does the flash sick keep RAW vs JPEGS? Just wanted to hear your thoughts on pro's and cons and of course which one is better than another. Thank u for ur time. I appreciate it.[/quote]

Photostick is a scam. I can personally attest to that.

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Nov 25, 2021 13:21:20   #
DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA
 
RobertP wrote:
Thanx all. I was just trying to look for something that would automatically find all photos since I don't really know where all of my photo's are….


Be aware that there are going to be lots of images on your computer that go with software and you don’t want to back them all up.

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Nov 25, 2021 14:41:39   #
BigOldArt Loc: Seminole, FL
 
You can use free s/w such as Agent Ransack to search for *.jpg;*.mov;*.gif and so forth.

You can <export results> that you can turn into batch command files.

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