Mick 53 Loc: Minneapolis

I back my photos on 2 external hard drives. When they get full I bubble wrap then vacuum seal them. I then put them in a cool place. Also use Carbonite for off site storage in case of a crash or surge. Also have some on discs and of course photo albums of some great occasions.

Takyo485 Loc: Planet Earth

Amason S3.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I bet your glass is half full. :D

amehta Loc: Boston

My glass is completely full! :-)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Great! Now have a drink. :D

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

Only if they let you know that they are going out of business. I know of three companies that were here one day, gone the next (literally). One of them had been in business 53 years, another one even the staff didn't know they were closing. Staff came to work one morning, door locked, note on the door: sorry guys, there's no longer any work here for you.

With which I am only saying: Do not RELY on cloud storage only. Regardless of who owns it, the risk of losing it all is just as great as if you only use one drive to put your photos on.

Mick 53 Loc: Minneapolis

I have old black and whites from growing up with my family 50 years ago. Best back up then and now.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Look at the responses to the "I'm crushed..." thread

Mr PC Loc: Austin, TX

I'm a computer repair guy and have seen the crushed look on someone's face when their one and only backup has died. I would recommend a rotation of two drives and keep the one not in use off site at a friend's house. If a fire or other disaster occurs, having both drives in one place is not so good. Also, I use Carbonite because it is still unlimited in the amount it will backup. They will backup most photo formats except for RAW, due to the size. So, you do need external drives at least for your RAW files unless you want to pay a fortune for storage. That's my 2 cents...

Festus Loc: North Dakota

Don't be so positive that you think that one drive will last the rest of your life. It will not. Not because you will fill it with data, but because the mechanics will not last. The drive has moving parts that will certainly fail at some point in time. I have purchased drives from various manufactures and have had them last for less than a couple of years. Others have lasted for many years. Buy at least two smaller drives and be prepared to replace them down the road.

amehta Loc: Boston

What kind of companies were the ones which closed suddenly?

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Things may have changed, but the last time I looked Acronis is a 'Windows only' product line.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

There was a similar thread yesterday or the day before. External RAID's, NAS, etc. One of the NAS vendors had a list of backup software which included Mac applications.

For a simple backup, depending on the security needed, how about a Other World Computing RAID5 with Firewire interface? I think that a USB connection might be a bit slow but I have no idea about our need for speed. However, the new Thunderbolt interface is FAST and the USB 3.0 specs also look good. Former not on the 2010 MacBook Pros. Not sure of your level of USB.

Also, as a general aside. There is a device called 'Black X' by Thermaltake that has models with USB, Firewire, and eSATA interfaces. This allows you to take a standard SATA harddrive, either full or laptop size, slide it in and use it as another back up device. I have 6 3 TB drives that I use to back up my RAID (Not that much data yet but I keep a rotation going so the newest is always off site). Keep them in a Safe Deposit Box with a Blue-Ray Disc that I burn each year of the latest work.

HTH
I also back up my processed and printed images, in final ready for the printer form, Monthly and take out of the house.

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

I too use a TB external hard drive. My son uses drop box to back up all his files.

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

I bought a MacBook Pro with Retina Display, which only has 256 MB of flash drive. I am backed up with a Passport 2 GB portable external hard drive, and Apple helped me set up as a "Time Machine". It automatically backs up my MacBook every hour.
Also have my Windows computer with an external hard drive, and I save my Scan Discs on that computer and external hard drive.
Just returned from ten days in Hawaii and trying to save everything now.
I have a D7000 so I have and save both RAW and JPEG, on both computers and external hard drives.
OPEN TO OTHER SUGGESTIONS.
Thanks
Duane