robert-photos Loc: Chicago

Your statement is incorrect. Such programs do know by virtue of the file extension (.exe, .jpg, .doc, etc).

tom hughes Loc: Phila Pa

Read your comment, almost had a heart attack, 15,000 plus photos. Called Carbonite spent about 20 minutes on the phone with their tech service. They assured me the photos would be restored to their original size. I read them your comments they said you should contact their tech support. I am sure you already have., but thanks for posting.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

Robert-photos:

In a strict sense, you are correct that I am, in a strict sense, incorrect. "He lies!"

What I should have written was that an honest back-up program (leaving aside, for now, the dishonest ones), having been told what folders to back-up, looks for size and address. Name is unnecessary. The file on my drive is transferred bit-by-bit to the destination drive whether it be over a cable in the box or the internet. Once there, its integrity is verified and the back-up moves on to the next.

This piece of honest software was written to do that specific job and nothing else. Oh, the files that go into the cloud are encrypted before they leave my machine and return in the same form. I expect that the name is encrypted as well but don't know this. The only things the transfer programs need to know is where it is and how big.

I am not aware of any back-up software that examines files for their types, re-sizes image files to save storage space, and returns thumbnails in a restore operation. That would make no sense.

robert-photos Loc: Chicago

Most cloud storage services (Carbonite, JimmyDrive, CrashPlan, etc.) exclude certain types of files such as .log, .tmp, .sys, et al. You need to check with the provider to determine which files are excluded.

Additionally most services allow you to exclude selected file types. By that I mean the user can exclude say all .mp4 files from back up.

With respect to resizing of image files I'm sure you are correct. That being said, most backup software and some cloud backup services use compression utilities to reduce file sizes.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

OK, we are in agreement. The lady's images weren't lost, they just displayed in a manner she wasn't prepared for. Been there, done that, no t-shirt. I am thankful that we have disaster prevention services like cloud storage and that physical loss of my computer would not mean loss of all of my work.

robert-photos Loc: Chicago

Those services are great if you don't maintain a lot of data.
The problem with them, as I have stated before, is they are abysmally slooooooow. I just checked my JimmyDrive...135862 Backup files and 2.04 TB left to up load (at 260 KB/s). Do the math :cry:

As an offsite failsafe they are OK. Just don't expect to be able to retreive your data in a reasonable amount of time (for me a reasonable time maxes out at one week).

BTW if you missed doing the math it equates to just over three months if I don't add anything and I upload 24/7 and my ISP connection doesn't slow and....and....and :roll:

Nikonista Loc: England

If you pay for a backup service and then don't bother to do a trial restore of a few of your most important files, what are you going to do if you actually have a systems failure or theft?

Who are you going to blame when it doesn't work or you haven't bothered to learn the process? President Obama's fault?

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

Robert-photos:

WHAT? Of course upload bandwidth is low and transfer takes a while. When I come back from the field, my new stuff may take more than a week to get out. My measured upload speed is 20% of download - 10/50 Mbps. I do not watch nor even care about how slowly my files are sent to Backblaze just as long as they are sent. Retrieving files is far far faster than sending. If everything goes totally to hell and I have to build a new computer in a new house, Backblaze will send me my stuff on its own drive, downloaded (as it were) at UPS speed.

I did not keep track of speeds the only time I had to recover a file but I do not remember waiting more than a minute probably less. This is not an issue.

Frapha Loc: Tulsa, Oklahoma

I've used Carbonite for several years and have had to use the restore function twice -- both times, got all my files & photos just as they should be. The restore was very slow, but when it completed I had everything as original. They also have an option (perhaps for extra charge) where they'll put it on DVD and express mail it to you -- probably would be faster restore thatn downloading (depending on size of your complete file system).

Frapha Loc: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Another thing I personally like about Carbonite is that I can access any of files on my backup from any computer anytime. Other backup services may offer that also - not sure as I've not looked at what all the others offer.

robert-photos Loc: Chicago

If I need a complete restore of my main data drive which has 4.5 TB of data and I request DVDs (4.7 GB/DVD) that would be ~1000 DVDs.....I'm curious as to the amount of the "extra" charge.

Obviously that is a worst case scenario. I'm only mentioning it because cloud storage as a sole backup solution is not viable for those with a large amount of data.

robert-photos Loc: Chicago

If I'm reading your post correctly you say your download speed is 10 to 50 MB/s which is fantastic.

I have Comcast Performance. Comcast download and upload services are as follows:

Download Speeds:

Comcast's Economy Internet service provides top download speeds of 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps). Performance Starter increases that speed to 6 Mbps. Performance is faster with download speeds of up to 12 Mbps, followed by Blast at 20 Mbps. Extreme 50 and Extreme 105 are the fastest with speeds of 50 Mbps and 105 Mbps respectively.


Upload Speeds:

Not every Internet user worries about upload speeds. If you transfer files from your computer to a website or another computer, that is uploading. Comcast Economy Internet offers upload speeds of 384 Kbps. One kilobit is 100,000 bits. Performance Starter and Performance upload rates are one to two Mbps. Blast provides upload speeds of 4 Mbps, while Extreme 50 and Extreme 105 offer upload speeds of 10 Mbps.

It would be nice to be able to upload at 2 MB/s but most (not all) cloud services throttle you down to 12.5% of your upload speed.

I shoot events and often have 20 to 30 GB of photos per shoot.

Most cloud services just can't keep up especially if I decide to upload/backup post processed PSD files.

surenuff Loc: Woodburn, Oregon

If you find out I would appreciate knowing. You all ready have quite a backup system :-)

robert-photos Loc: Chicago

I won't be investigating that until December of his year when I start looking around again.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

Speed costs money. I pay around $50 per month (Cox cable) for their mid-level package that just tested at 32 Mbps down and 12 Mbps up. I test with http://www.speedtest.net/, there are others.

My main concern is safety. My house is made of adobe and probably won't burn but could be shaken down in an earthquake and things do get stolen. In that worst case scenario, I would pay Backblaze to put my stuff on terabyte drive and send it to me.

I work at home and do not use Backblaze as a cloud-based hard drive so the speeds I am getting are fine by me. I have only recovered one file from them, not an image, and I got it rikki-tik.

If you have important files (whose aren't?) failing to back the up remotely is foolish given the relatively cheap cost.