Storage & backup

[jamesmartin]

Was wondering how everyone goes about backing up there images??
I read a online article where the author recommends three copies of data should be kept. One primary then two backups with one backup offsite. Makes sense!
At the moment I have all my pics on my computer then all backed up to a external hard drive. Might need to invest in another one (always something to spend $$ on with this hobby lol).
I also take my laptop on trips to backup although it doesn't have much storage capacity

Possibly should of posted this in the help/advice section?

[ameerat42]

It sounds like you're on the right track. Backup methods are wide ranging, and no single method
particularly suits everybody. If anything, focus on regularity of backing up, like after every (major)
shoot/every evening/..., so as to avoid the possibility of irretrievable data loss That to me
would mean at least having a copy of the original raw files.

How many copies you make depends on your considered needs. The two separate copies you have
sounds reasonable.

(Lastly, I will shift this to General Help.)

[Jaded62]

I have a primary data drive and a back up drive (backed up after each shoot) in my PC as the first line of defence. Each week I back up to an external drive that I keep at work. I am considering moving to online storage but this still has its issues. I have a NAS drive too but since its in the same house as the PC I don't use it to back up as it would be stolen/burnt/lightning struck along with the PC.

[nardes]

When you have chosen a Back Up Plan and implemented it, be sure to also regularly perform a controlled restore to confirm that it is working correctly and backing up the data as expected.

This way, should you accidentally delete files and want to restore them, you know how to do it and have confirmed that it actually works.

Cheers

Dennis

[richtbw]

I use two external (USB) drives, both 2TB in size. One I use as the "primary" drive to which all images are downloaded first. I also use this drive to perform all edits I require (I don't use LR) so all edits are stored as sidecar files. At least once a week I synchronise the two drives. The primary drive and laptop goes with on holidays, so that I can download the day's images onto the external drive and do some basic editing.

[ameerat42]

^Pretty much the same, except that primary edits done on computer, then results and
originals shifted to ext. drives. Same thing about the holidays. Nardes, for me it was
drive crash when I "thought" I had done sufficient backing up

[Colin B]

Most of the bases have already been covered but I would also consider the (may it never happen) scenario of your house being burned down or thieves swiping all your computer gear. In that case the only safe backup is one which is online or stored at a different physical location like your workplace.

I back up my photos and important documents to an external drive but also have Dropbox online storage which is quite modestly priced and, with an app called "Boxifier", seamlessly syncs my "camera images" folder to Dropbox any time I am online.

I Cloud does something similar and if you use Snapfish they offer online storage and there are probably others out there.

[jamesmartin]

Thanks everyone for your replies

[ameerat42]

Gosh, JM! - I reckon you must have 10 times the pictures of places that Lucky Starr sings about here
- Worth saving

[jamesmartin]

Gosh, JM! - I reckon you must have 10 times the pictures of places that Lucky Starr sings about here
- Worth saving

Haha

[Jaded62]

This thread prompted me to look at online backup again. I think its cost prohibitive give the size of the RAW and TIF files the 5Ds generates (50-100 MB each) but more importantly is the upload speed (NBN) we get here of max 5 mbs. Backing up to the cloud would be a slow business. No 1 son (working in IT) recommends putting a (say) 4 TB drive in the NAS for backups and backing that up each week to an external drive kept off site (at work).

I have a primary data drive and a back up drive (backed up after each shoot) in my PC as the first line of defence. Each week I back up to an external drive that I keep at work. I am considering moving to online storage but this still has its issues. I have a NAS drive too but since its in the same house as the PC I don't use it to back up as it would be stolen/burnt/lightning struck along with the PC.

[jamesmartin]

This thread prompted me to look at online backup again. I think its cost prohibitive give the size of the RAW and TIF files the 5Ds generates (50-100 MB each) but more importantly is the upload speed (NBN) we get here of max 5 mbs. Backing up to the cloud would be a slow business. No 1 son (working in IT) recommends putting a (say) 4 TB drive in the NAS for backups and backing that up each week to an external drive kept off site (at work).

Thats a good point!

So whats a NAS drive??
My external drive is just one of those my book

[ricktas]

Thats a good point!

So whats a NAS drive??
My external drive is just one of those my book

i use a NAS as well (Network Attached Storage). Mine is a RAID array of 3 x 4tb hard drives. What happens is data is written across all three drives with a check-sum. So that if any one of the three drives dies, I can just buy and insert a new drive and all my data is still available, even that which was lost on the drive that died. A RAID array is RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks or Drives, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks)

To simplify how it works using a checksum. My checksum might be 9. As the data is written across the drives it might write 4 to the first drive, 2 to the second drive and 3 to the third drive (adds up to 9). So if a disk dies and I put a new one in, the system goes OK, I have a 4 and a 3, so the missing data is a 2, because I know it has to add to up 9, and the NAS rebuilds the missing drive, onto the new one, completing my data.

This is a very simplified look at the way NAS works. And it depends on the type of NAS you get. Some are simply one hard drive, partitioned, or two drives that are just a copy of each other. Which is basically what your external drive is, but once you set a NAS up in a RAID array you are creating a more secure storage type, that copes with a HDD failure. The biggest issue with a RAID array is the controller, if the controller dies or is damaged, and it loses the checksum, then your drives are not retrievable. So like other backup systems mentioned above, it is still definitely worth having another backup source.

Another benefit of a NAS (network attached storage) is the network bit in the name. You can assess your NAS from anywhere, if you set it up with internet access. So if I have a file on my NAS that I need and I am interstate, I can login to my NAS over the net and get the file. Eg. Maybe I am showing some people photos, and one mentions 'oh I know this place, there is a boat ramp near here, that my grandfather used to take me fishing from'. I have photos of it, but not on my computer with me. Easy.. login to the NAS and use the internet to access the boat ramp photos the person is mentioning. So it has advantages over and beyond an external hard drive plugged into your computer.

As well as my NAS, I have portable external hard drives that I backup to regularly and keep at my work. I used to keep them at a friends, but they changed jobs and started doing FIFO work and it became too hard to get access to the backup when I wanted it.

[Jaded62]

and further.............our NAS is also our network storage for music and movies that the family use. Ours is a Synology NAS and runs our CCTV recording program and storage. Sounds #### I know but we've been broken into 3 times in 5 years.

[jamesmartin]

i use a NAS as well (Network Attached Storage). Mine is a RAID array of 3 x 4tb hard drives. What happens is data is written across all three drives with a check-sum. So that if any one of the three drives dies, I can just buy and insert a new drive and all my data is still available, even that which was lost on the drive that died. A RAID array is RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks or Drives, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks)

To simplify how it works using a checksum. My checksum might be 9. As the data is written across the drives it might write 4 to the first drive, 2 to the second drive and 3 to the third drive (adds up to 9). So if a disk dies and I put a new one in, the system goes OK, I have a 4 and a 3, so the missing data is a 2, because I know it has to add to up 9, and the NAS rebuilds the missing drive, onto the new one, completing my data.

This is a very simplified look at the way NAS works. And it depends on the type of NAS you get. Some are simply one hard drive, partitioned, or two drives that are just a copy of each other. Which is basically what your external drive is, but once you set a NAS up in a RAID array you are creating a more secure storage type, that copes with a HDD failure. The biggest issue with a RAID array is the controller, if the controller dies or is damaged, and it loses the checksum, then your drives are not retrievable. So like other backup systems mentioned above, it is still definitely worth having another backup source.

Another benefit of a NAS (network attached storage) is the network bit in the name. You can assess your NAS from anywhere, if you set it up with internet access. So if I have a file on my NAS that I need and I am interstate, I can login to my NAS over the net and get the file. Eg. Maybe I am showing some people photos, and one mentions 'oh I know this place, there is a boat ramp near here, that my grandfather used to take me fishing from'. I have photos of it, but not on my computer with me. Easy.. login to the NAS and use the internet to access the boat ramp photos the person is mentioning. So it has advantages over and beyond an external hard drive plugged into your computer.

As well as my NAS, I have portable external hard drives that I backup to regularly and keep at my work. I used to keep them at a friends, but they changed jobs and started doing FIFO work and it became too hard to get access to the backup when I wanted it.

Thanks for the explanation rick, sounds like something worth looking into!

[swifty]

I use an ageing laptop for the purpose of editing then exporting my keepers into jpegs.
Both RAWs and jpegs are backed up onto two identical external HDDs. The jpegs also get uploaded to an online gallery.
I then delete the RAWs from my computer.
When the backup HDDs hit 50% full, I start looking to buy two more HDDs usually by which time prices would have gotten cheaper so usually double the previous capacity.
I then copy the entire content of the previous HDD onto the new HDD and start again.
Sometimes I decide to start afresh as I find I almost never touch my really old photos and I had to do this when I switched to external SSDs which had smaller capacities for the price but were so much faster to work with. But I'm repeating the same pattern with SSDs now.
Had a HDD failure a few years ago before I was really disciplined at backing up and lost a whole bunch of photos. T'was quite painful.

[Boo53]

Without adding redundant methodology (backup to a Nas Raid every time I add new files - regularly also to an external drive kept in another room, and almost as regularly to another that is kept offsite) I recently looked in to offsite storage.

In the past offsite has been expensive and slow and data was added to our limited internet plan, however in recent years we're on an unlimited plan and more recently forced to go to the NBN so that's no longer a problem.

Found a plan on a crowd called backblase that is US$5/month and I'm giving it a try. After 6 weeks it had only uploaded 400gig but I've tweeted a few settings and its now doing around 10-12 gig per day.

Still a long way to go but its worth a try