abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I do not know what NAS is but if does not back up constantly, then backing up every other day does not provide the protection you really need.

With cloud products as reliable as they are, I cannot fathom why people use such complicated alternatives.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Steve,
I have my images on a G-Tech drive connected to my iMac. My original images are backed up on two additional systems locally and the G-Tech is backed up both locally and remotely. One can't have too many back ups. But, at some point the ridiculous level is reached.
--Bob

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Only one suggestion I have is get a 2nd external drive and put ALL your pictures on both. I lost a drive years ago and now have them on two drives so if one goes you still have your pictures.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Backblaze is a cloud backup service.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Rather than 200 miles away, he could do what I do. I rotate two of the backup drives in my RAID between my home and my safe deposit box at the bank. Even if the bank itself is destroyed, the safe and deposit boxes will survive.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Assuming the safe and deposit boxes can be located after a disaster, what is the likelihood that the drive will be usable after an unspecified time in salt water?
Safe deposit boxes are safe from ORDINARY disasters.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

One other thing you could do Steve is to buy a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) sized for your computer and hard drives. It is not necessary for your printer or other peripherals that can be attached to a power strip with surge protectors. So by calculating the wattage of your computer and hard drives you can buy a smaller UPS and save money as opposed to buying one that has the capacity to protect everything. That way you will not lose power and possibly data if the power mains fail and if there is a voltage spike or surge, everything will be protected. If you live in a lightning area, proper grounding is also required.

WDT52 Loc: Sarasota, FL

I was in the data protection business for 15+ years. Our saying was 3-2-1: 3 copies of data on 2 different media with 1 off site. You have it covered! As Traderjohn said, if you have to worry about earthquakes and no internet, you have far bigger problems than retrieving your pictures.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Where I live I am 75 feet above sea level. If the bank is inundated by salt water, I would have more to worry about then my photographs. However, bank vaults a fully sealed and salt water would not be a problem. If you are concerned, I would ask for a box located higher up on the vault's wall.

juan_uy Loc: Uruguay

The only reason for the additional external drive that you are considering would be if restore from cloud would take too much time for your needs.
I do that, but because for me restore from the cloud would be the final option. Other than that I think you are OK.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

"When it comes to backup you can't be too paranoid."

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

No not too paranoid but if you lose a drive you better have it on another drive. As I said earlier I lost a drive about ten years ago. PS if you have it on a solid stat drive and it goes you have 0 % chance of getting it back.

PeterBergh

Network Attached Storage

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

For all those who have commented about having more to worry about in an earthquake than worrying about photograph backups let me point out a couple of things -
1. So you have spent $20-40,000 on equipment over the years, invested $200,000 on time and holidays etc taking the photos and you couldn't care less about trying to save them ? On the day of the quake (tsunami, fire, civil unrest - you name it) you might not be worrying about it but you will later once things settle down. And if you are never going to worry about it at all then why are you even bothering to take a single backup now ???
2. There are a huge number of things wrong with online backups and none of them are under YOUR control. For starters do you think data centers have some sort of earthquake protection that you don't ? Are their generators capable of running for months in the event of major power outages ? (You might be able to reroute power distribution but very hard to replace a dam overnight). And have you stopped to consider just how hard it will be to retrieve your data when 200,000 people are all trying to do the same thing ? Your piddling photos will be the last thing on everybodys mind as they try to restore companies data as the companies are trying to rebuild. Maybe the data can be retrieved but it will be months before the priorities shift in your favour. And as you are busy taking photos of the disaster where will you back them up to ?
My offsite storage is my daughters place 80km away. I see her at least once a month so this works for me.
And I have been in a major earthquake and had to help some companies recover. It was messy and traumatic for everyone. You don't need to add to the stress with worrying about whether you will lose decades of work and the invested time/money.

MrGNY Loc: New York

Your backup is more than adequate. Your photos and your other files are being backed up redundantly.