Backing up photos

Not sure if this is the right place to post this...

I've gotten to where I really need to think about backing up my photos. I have a 1TB drive almost full and just adding a 2TB drive. Both of these are for photo storage only. I need to think about backing these things up properly before I lose something important.

Obviously, it wouldn't be practical to try and archive this much to DVDs. I haven't found a good solution for us photogs for backing up this info. What are other photogs doing to ensure they don't lose their most valuable asset--their photos?

Thanks.

Blu-ray drives can burn discs with 25 GB capacity. Quantum tape drives have higher capacity, at a price. The most cost-effective backup solution may be another hard drive.

By 2 hard drives for each drive you wish to back up. Keep one on site and the other off site. Then swap them out on a regular basis. It is the only good way to do it.

I have 3 hard drive backups, one of them is at work. I also have DVD's because I burn them once a week.

rklepper wrote in post #13149971
By 2 hard drives for each drive you wish to back up. Keep one on site and the other off site. Then swap them out on a regular basis. It is the only good way to do it.

How do you sync files? Just regular backup software?

Honestly, I've been thinking of a RAID Array. Prices have been coming down and makes life a lot easier. What are everyone's thoughts on this?

DC Fan wrote in post #13149926
Blu-ray drives can burn discs with 25 GB capacity. Quantum tape drives have higher capacity, at a price. The most cost-effective backup solution may be another hard drive.

Not only cost but time. 25GB isn't a lot of data when you're talking about 3TB+ (eventually). So I'l be swapping discs constantly if I'm looking for something or doing the initial backup. Not to mention, how fast can they burn 25GB...

chrisa wrote in post #13150059
I have 3 hard drive backups, one of them is at work. I also have DVD's because I burn them once a week.

How do you manage everything? My problem is, I know there are ways I can back up, however, how do you manage? Back in the day, you'd just hook a tape drive up, fire up some software to do the backup, pop in a tape and let it do its thing. It figured out what tape to put in on what day, etc. With hard drives/DVDs/etc, I am struggling with how to handle it all. Maybe it's just because I haven't done it yet...

There are a couple solutions.

It depends on what you are trying to protect against. If you are protecting against only hardware, your hard drive dies, etc. Or damage or theft to your personal property.

If hard drive: add an external drive, or copy/ backup files to it.

If theft or damage: Look at online solutions. Dropbox comes to mind. Although there are tons, and many are automatic.

It just depends what you want to pay, and what you want to protect against.

FWIW, I have 3 ext drives and a docking station. 2 drives backups everything, and 1 drive just for photos. I keep the drives with eveything in a fire proof safe (gun safe) and the other on my desk for quick backups of photos.
I back up everything once a month and photos twice month. I use the WD software that came with the 2 Tb my book drives.
I have really enjoyed the docking station, makes it super easy to do backups

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6817392022

I use this:
http://www.amazon.com …TF8&qid=1316782​663&sr=8-1
with this
http://www.amazon.com …/B000NPKGH4/ref​=pd_sim_e1
then you can buy sata hard-drives

resno wrote in post #13150146
There are a couple solutions.

It depends on what you are trying to protect against. If you are protecting against only hardware, your hard drive dies, etc. Or damage or theft to your personal property.

If hard drive: add an external drive, or copy/ backup files to it.

If theft or damage: Look at online solutions. Dropbox comes to mind. Although there are tons, and many are automatic.

It just depends what you want to pay, and what you want to protect against.

I've used online solutions, problem is, the amount of data the first time you back up. Not terribly practical. Also, many of the places don't support external drives (at least for MacOS) the last time I checked.

I like the dock ideas although I'm on a Mac. Any software out to drive this kind of solution? I'd have to connect via USB.

All my photos are stored on two seperate network attached harddrives at home and I also use online storage (with unlimited quota) in case of fire.

oddne wrote in post #13150434
All my photos are stored on two seperate network attached harddrives at home and I also use online storage (with unlimited quota) in case of fire.

What are you using and how do you manager backups, etc.?

My problem is actually 2 parts:

1. I know there are solutions, I have to decide which one.
2. How do I manage the backups, archives, etc.?

I've searched and searched and there doesn't seem to be a general type of product/procedure photogs use as everyone seems to do something a little differently. So it's been a little confusing but I really need to get this figured out before I lose something important.

I use 2 external drives, one connected & one in a firesafe. I backup daily to the connected one using FolderClone <link> - have used this for about 7 years, so there are probably newer/better software out there... search this forum for ideas.

At the end on each month, I swap drives and simply continue. My first daily backup with the new drive only takes slightly longer. Each drive also contains a Windows backup Image of my PC, for system recovery; I only update that every 3 months or so.

It does take awhile to get each drive originally loaded, but thereafter, it's no big deal.

FolderClone (and I'm sure others too) can be set to do just about any kind of backup routine you like, selecting whatever folder you want... and you can design different tasks for different drives or uses.

(FWIW, I also backup critical personal & computer data to a 32gb SD card that I can pop out & put in my pocket.)