Aldebaran Loc: Florida

I have a mac and it comes with time Machine but i don't like it. It is confusing. Just bought Carbon Copy Cloner for $39.95 and I am backing up to an external hd. The best of all is that it is a simple process and i can boot from that backup if something happened to the computer disk. It also backs up in incremental steps after you do the first backup.

I am finding out that the process is long, since it is taking overnight to do it and it is only halfway. Most importantly I always save my photos and documents to a separate HD , 2 TB disk (40,000 photos and still lots of storage available), so if anything happened to my PC, the photos AND documents are safe. And i can connect the HD. To another machine and boot from there.

Cloud storage? Why would i want anyone i don't know face to face see and probably handle my files? Are they going to be out there forever? What happens if they go out of business? Do they have a backup of my backup somewhere else. I bet they do.

Did they tell you why they could not recover the photos? They should have been able to.

Old Redeye Loc: San Mateo, CA

Note: A DVD will hold far more photos than a DVD. I have my photos on two 4T hard drives and copy my favorites to DVDs.
You might try sending the failed drive to Seagate. Also, when you replace it, Seagate offers a recovery warranty, promising to replace the drive if they can't salvage it. I forget what they charge for the service.

jeryh Loc: Oxfordshire UK

Duplicate copies on CDR, plus external hard drive; try another hard drive- Sea gate seem to have hit a problem at the moment !

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

If you use SD memory , the cost is quite low to just store the cards as they come off the camera and never re -format/reuse them ( in a safe place of course) - in affect treating them as film ! This way, at least you retain your unedited files.

garyaltoonian

I have not read through all of the pages of responses and apologize if what I am suggesting has been suggested previously. Purchased one to use for the same reason. I will follow this thread.

Have you contacted SeaGate about the unit not working?

One other suggestion, check their support page - http://www.seagate.com/support/external-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/

Good Luck!

john.punky1 Loc: Catskill NY

Besides an external drive I purchased the Picture Keeper. It comes in very handy. It only takes your pictures from your computer and as you add more pictures it will not recopy ones it already has copied. Basicly it is like a memory stick. Hope you will be able to recover all of your pictures

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Put them on dvd, they will last forever.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

The discussion so far has not included specific affordable examples of devices to do the backup job.

This one uses a system called "RAID" that makes redundant copies up to 2 TB on two drives and can be used with included automatic backup for $349. Considering the total capacity is 4TB, that's pretty cheap. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/891610-REG/LaCie_9000316_4TB_2Big_Quadra_USB.html

A cheaper approach is doing it less automatically. Yesterday I bought a Seagate 1TB at Costco for $60 like this one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/874904-REG/Seagate_stbu1000100_1TB_Backup_Plus_Portable.html I've never seen a TB that cheap!

Alternating backups to a matched pair of Seagate 1TB drives, stored in separate locations, is about as safe and cheap as you can get.

Free downloadable software from Microsoft called SyncToy will make any drive internal or external mirror another. All external drives I've seen have backup software included. All version of Windows has backup software and I presume Apple does the same.

Backup software normally keeps adding files to the backup drive and never deletes them. My image management process includes deleting junk photos and videos from time to time. Mirror software like SyncToy will delete copies of the junk on the external.

thephotoman Loc: Rochester, NY

I use Lightroom for my image downloading. The beauty is that I can download to 2 external drives at the same time. I use 2tb drives. The cost of storage is very cheap today. I also burn the important photos to a DVD. I use DVD'S because they hold more photos.I store the DVDS in a fireproof safe which is also waterproof. While the DVDS won't have any edits at least I will have the photos.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Can you explain that a little more? Is one of the two externals your primary? Thanks.

KVM

This KVM on board, I only can echo that I have 1.5 trig storage and a second that I transfer too. I also have Carbonite Back up service that will do only one external along with the computer back up at a time.
I have a lot of friends that go to dvd 1st with photos and then do the same as I after that.

Regis Loc: Coeur d' Alene, Idaho

I store my photos on 'Carbonite' for $60 a year. Also, I store them on an external hard drive.

Bpace Loc: Alabama

And Mac Pro

Bushpilot Loc: Minnesota

I store my favorite/important image files on "Archival Gold CD's"
The Delkin ones are 300 year archival rated, and a scratch resistant coating.

rfazzi Loc: San Jose, California

What's the consensus regarding flash drives for photo back up?

Rich