Back Up Your Photos!

[RichardM]

Yep. I use Carbonite and currently have 210 gb backed up. As noted, the initial run is rather excruciating but, once done it runs quickly for everything new. The service can be had for less than $50 a year if you search hard.

There's only two kinds of computer users.....those that have lost data (and either were prepared or learned a hard lesson) and those who are going to lose data. I learned the hard lesson in 1990 in DOS days when there wasn't much to lose but it left a lasting impression.

Wow, 210gb of data and not a Big Bend photo to be found!
Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

Another pseudo-backup for photos is to have them stored online, although in my case, I've been woefully delinquent in keeping my photobucket account up to date.

[MilesOfTexas]

There's only two kinds of computer users.....those that have lost data (and either were prepared or learned a hard lesson) and those who are going to lose data. I learned the hard lesson in 1990 in DOS days when there wasn't much to lose but it left a lasting impression.

I hear you on that!  Personally I have been fortunate to have a working backup plan, but I have spent many tough hours recovering data from friends' hard drives that were accidently formatted or partitioned.  In nearly all cases I was able to recover the data, but it was not fun!

[presidio]

Wow, 210gb of data and not a Big Bend photo to be found!
Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

Hey, that was good.

I have quite a few Big Bend photos.....deciding which ones to pick would be a chore.

Actually, in the mode of the US and MX continuing to support the perpetual idea of an international park I, too, am continuing to contemplate posting photos. (Note to Homero: don't get all excited...this is contemplation not necessarily action ).

[homerboy2u]

I have quite a few Big Bend photos.....deciding which ones to pick would be a chore.

Actually, in the mode of the US and MX continuing to support the perpetual idea of an international park I, too, am continuing to contemplate posting photos. (Note to Homero: don't get all excited...this is contemplation not necessarily action ).

 I think i got the message, a loooong time a go.

[presidio]

I have spent many tough hours recovering data from friends' hard drives that were accidently formatted or partitioned.  In nearly all cases I was able to recover the data, but it was not fun!

Yep, been there and done that, too.

I had a relatively new hard drive catastrophically electrically fail last year. Because of Carbonite, I painlessly (though it took a few days) recovered the 20 gb of data that vaporized. No photos but a number of important files that would have been devastating to lose.

There are only 2 potential problems with off-site backup of extremely large amounts of data.

First is speed. The throughput could be far higher than it is, but Carbonite and likely the others at this level of service throttle the transmission speed so no one hogs the resources. If it wasn't for that things would run way more quickly. That's not likely to change until we have significant improvements in infrastructure and the US catches up to countries that don't have the bandwidth limitations we see. On a related note, you have to have broadband service, there is no way you can do this on dial-up...and there are still folks on that.

Second is an issue that affects some users and could be a deal killer. Carbonite typically sucks up 3-4 gbs a day. In my case, my first backup ran nearly continuously for almost 2 months, so I was looking at over 100 gb a month of use. My daughter, who is not using any such backup, got a nasty-gram from Comcast because she had exceeded some apparent secret company threshold and they threatened to terminate her service if it continued. As I recall, it was somewhere in the 10 gb (or maybe it was 20 or 30 gb) range for the month, but that may not be accurate. Suffice it to say, Comcast is unsympathetic to huge data transfers. So much for unlimited access. Given the size of files these days I could see exceeding that on a routine basis even without a backup running.

I have used 3 different providers for my internet service since I started using Carbonite and I've never had an issue with any company about my data load. However, I've never used Comcast and never will unless I had no choice. In that event I'd be pressing them hard for why they would think they need to impact my ability to save data.

[TexasAggieHiker]

Man you guys are making me paranoid!!  I didn't realize how many eggs I was putting in one basket...........

[presidio]

Man you guys are making me paranoid!!  I didn't realize how many eggs I was putting in one basket...........

A lot of folks don't realize what's at risk until it is irretrievably lost. It's the curse of the digital age.

Backup schemes that rely on manual intervention such as burning optical disks, using an external hard drive, etc. are better than nothing, but are doomed to fail because they are labor intensive and require constant attention. Furthermore, only the most disciplined person doing this takes the next mandatory step and removes these backups to another location for safety/security (thus inducing another huge time investment that is bound to get old quickly...though you could store them at your place of employment). So, a lot of local backups are left next to the computer and are at risk of theft, fire, flooding, electro-magnetic pulse from nuclear explosion, etc. You get the idea, so all their eggs still are essentially in one basket.

Casa Grande says it costs him $50 a year for Carbonite; that's $4.16 a month for convenience and peace of mind. A bargain in any event and there is no way you can do the same thing using local media for anywhere near that price nor discount the continued potential for loss anyway. From a convenience perspective it's no contest.

In my case I recently renewed my Carbonite subscription for 3 years for $119 (I shopped hard for discount codes), so I am getting the same service for a mere $3.30 a month. My value-o-meter says that's a no-brainer (even at the $4.16 rate).

When you install Carbonite and the other main competitor, Mozy (I tried both and like Carbonite the best for ease of use), you will have to do some minor tweaking of preferences to get them to do exactly what you want. No different than any other piece of software. However, even if you don't modify settings, they will protect the majority of what's important automatically. Carbonite does not default to backing up videos so that is the major tweak if it's important to you. Documents and photos are backed by default.

[MilesOfTexas]

A lot of folks don't realize what's at risk until it is irretrievably lost. It's the curse of the digital age. Backup schemes that rely on manual intervention such as burning optical disks, using an external hard drive, etc. are better than nothing, but are doomed to fail because they are labor intensive and require constant attention.

Backing up to an external drive, or in my case multiple NAS's, can be very painless and zero labor intensive (minus initial setup) by using some backup software. I definitely agree with you that backing up to optical disks is a real headache.

I use Memeo Premium Backup software, and all I have to do is tell it what folder(s) to monitor and backup, where to back it up to (NAS, USB external HDD, etc.), and it will automatically back up any changes or additions. In addition, it will not delete anything that you have deleted on your computer unless you tell it to (via purge deleted files) in case you accidently delete a file. I am very happy with this backup software. http://www.memeo.com/choose_backup.php

I back up to a NAS on my LAN, and also to another NAS that is off-site. This lets me back up a ton faster, and retrieve the data in just a couple of hours instead of days or weeks. For my remote NAS, I performed it's intial backup on my LAN, then moved it to the off-site location and it works like a charm.

Of course, my backup plan may not be enough, or it might be overkill, but with this in addition to my RAID1 configuration, I feel pretty content at the moment.

[cjacob]

I am a little simpler.  And I might not know the correct terms for stuff so bear with me. 

I have the following.

1 Hp Laptop main computer 7os
1 Dell as network Admin 7os
2 Buffalo 1TB network Drives

I have set up the laptops so they are both discoverable when on the network and can share files between them.

Using "Sync Toy" (free add on from MS) I have the Dell copy the photos from the HP to a "master photo file". and back up all my stuff.  I then have it mirror the two TB drives so they are the same.  I have considered a third one with a friend so we can off site back up but then we get in to VPN's and such. The Dell also serves as a dongle for the TV's Netgear Entrainer Live.  And if I ever have issues its set up as a back up machine so I can grab it and go.   

I home office so I have been scared of internet drops so I have two internet providers right now and a router that manages my traffic to the better of the two services.  So collectively I have a down load speed up aprox 36mbps, and a upstream of 4mbps.   I am hoping Austin is chosen for google's new internet service.

Things I wish I could make better is we are only getting about 24% use out of our wireless ie 24% of the dual band N router (300mbps) speed so wireless I can only move data at 72mbps to the network drives.  They are hard wired at 100mbps network speeds could my slow down be the 5400rpm of the network drives?  I do not think its the routers or switches since they are all gigabit equipment and its fast.  I wonder if there are gigabit network dives out there?

[sandersmr]

Back up to Mozy and it has saved my butt on more than one occasion.  When I chose Mozy, Carbonite was not supporting external drives.  Will it support them now?

One problem I have with Mozy and I try to really be careful now, if I accidentally backup without my EHD's plugged in, Mozy thinks I deleted the contents and marks it as such.  So the next back up with the EHDs takes longer as it has to go through and verify the files.  At least it doesn't have to back them up again.

When traveling, I carry a netbook/laptop with me and an EHD.  The photos get uplaoded off the flash card and immediately copied to the EHD before I wipe the flash card  That way, I have a backup before I ever lose the original.

And last but not least, I have found a guy in Pearland that has managed to recover stuff off of hard drives for myself and 2 other people.  And he charges reasonable rates.  That one file that I failed to back up was the one I needed when filling out loan applications - my 2009 tax return pdf file - and he was able to recover it for me.  Moral of that story - no matter the method of backup, from time to time ensure that you are covering ALL of the appropriate folders.

[Casa Grande]

Carbonite will not back up an external.  For the simple reason you explain with Mozy....you'll lose it anyway if it isn't there.

[cjacob]

Will these services capture stuff if they are a mapped network drive?  I have like 600g of stuff and it will not fit on any one computer.

[Casa Grande]

Carbonite will not for the same reason as the external.  A mapped drive is the same concept: not local. However, you can install carbonite or mozy on the remote computer, then it becomes local.  Of course, you'll have to purchase multiple licenses.

One of the coolest things about carbonite for me is the ability to access my backup from my iPhone.  Has saved me more than once!  Can't do that with an external.

[dkerr24]

Carbonite will not for the same reason as the external.  A mapped drive is the same concept: not local. However, you can install carbonite or mozy on the remote computer, then it becomes local.  Of course, you'll have to purchase multiple licenses.

One of the coolest things about carbonite for me is the ability to access my backup from my iPhone.  Has saved me more than once!  Can't do that with an external.

That's a good point about data access with cloud computing.  Good to know you can access your data from any location, plus your backup is safe from fire/flood/tornadoes/hurricanes, etc.

Darin

[sandersmr]

Mozy states that as long as it's recognized as a drive by your computer, they will back it up.  And I haven't had any issues with them backing up my EHDs which are mapped to my laptop - except for the before mentioned not having them plugged in - or for some reason, my laptop decides to remap them.  That used to happen occasionally with my old laptop and XP.  I haven't seen that happen so far with this laptop.