Isaiah Brink wrote:
In light of another thread on the same or similar topic, I like many others have used exteral hard drives and dvd's for my backup.  But, do I need to tell anybody that external hard drives crash?  Mine just did, so I know they do.  Thankfully I had much of my new work backed up onto dvd.  So, let me ask the question(s)?  What is your preferred method of backup and why?  Is it external hard drives, dvd's, or an online service like Carbonite?  With the different online cloud style backup services, if you use one, I'd like to know what the cost is like and what if any data limits are there?

Minimum of three external drives.

Isaiah Brink wrote:
In light of another thread on the same or similar topic, I like many others have used exteral hard drives and dvd's for my backup.  But, do I need to tell anybody that external hard drives crash?  Mine just did, so I know they do.  Thankfully I had much of my new work backed up onto dvd.  So, let me ask the question(s)?  What is your preferred method of backup and why?  Is it external hard drives, dvd's, or an online service like Carbonite?  With the different online cloud style backup services, if you use one, I'd like to know what the cost is like and what if any data limits are there?

Digital backups have the disadvantage that a single failure can take out terabytes of data in just a few seconds.

Digital has the advantage that you can make multiple backups, and each is has the full quality of the original.

No matter which media you choose, your backups can fail.  Optical media is sensitive to heat.  Hard Drives are susceptible to shock or water damage.  The key is to have multiple copies, and eliminate/reduce failures common to all copies (i.e. if you are storing on multiple hard drives, use drives from different manufacturers).

Personally, I keep two copies on optical media (different brands) and two copies on HD.  The two optical copies are in separate location, and the two HD copies are in separate locations.  One of the HD copies is on a RAID like device (a Drobo).  I use a third HD copy to synchronize the two main HD copies.  I never allow all the copies of a file to be in the same location.  There's a good chance I'm being insane about backups.

It's easy to get carried away.  The trick is to consider how important your data is to you, what are the likely hazards, and what is the best strategy given your needs.

Isaiah Brink wrote:
But, do I need to tell anybody that external hard drives crash?

So this means you're down to one copy of your data until you can replace your backup drive.  Providing your primary data store doesn't fail during this time, there isn't be a problem.

Rudi Brooker wrote:

So this means you're down to one copy of your data until you can replace your backup drive.  Providing your primary data store doesn't fail during this time, there isn't be a problem.

No, this is a rhetorical question stating that it is fairly common knowledge that both internal and external hard drives fail.

Lohkee wrote:
I use a directory structure that puts **all** of my stuff into separate sub-folders under the "master" directory. This makes backups a simple copy/paste operation.

I have three USB Maxtor "Black Armor" drives (I use them because they have built-in hardware encryption).

I simply copy/paste my master directory to each drive.

One sits on my desk.
One sits in a safe.
One sits offsite.

Simples.

Not a bad idea.  Just curious, if you're storing one off site, which is a good idea, why not use an online backup service which is inherently off site.

Isaiah Brink wrote:
Not a bad idea.  Just curious, if you're storing one off site, which is a good idea, why not use an online backup service which is inherently off site.

I like to know where my stuff is. I'm also not fond of the idea of giving other people access to it.

Besides, I probably already have offsite backups. If all three of my drives fail I'll just call the N.S.A. I'm sure they'll be able to help me out. 

Lohkee wrote:

I like to know where my stuff is. I'm also not fond of the idea of giving other people access to it.

Besides, I probably already have offsite backups. If all three of my drives fail I'll just call the N.S.A. I'm sure they'll be able to help me out. 

Well, I"m not sure if the NSA will help lol, and you know, it was once said that the most dangerous words in the English language is "I'm from the government, and Im here to help."  lol

Isaiah Brink wrote:
In light of another thread on the same or similar topic, I like many others have used exteral hard drives and dvd's for my backup.  But, do I need to tell anybody that external hard drives crash?  Mine just did, so I know they do.  Thankfully I had much of my new work backed up onto dvd.  So, let me ask the question(s)?  What is your preferred method of backup and why?  Is it external hard drives, dvd's, or an online service like Carbonite?  With the different online cloud style backup services, if you use one, I'd like to know what the cost is like and what if any data limits are there?

In camera, I shoot RAW but also have a JPG that I consider a half-backup against possible file corruption or loss of one of the two cards.

Using a RAID/NAS (multiple disk, network attached storage) adds some comfort but not true backup.

Local backup to external drives is fast but subject to local disaster (fire, lightning, theft). I think everyone should do this.

For me, DVDs are too small. A single shoot is 15-25GB of data.

Carbonite,Crashplan,etc. gives added safety of off-site backup but is slow to backup (weeks or months with a lot of data) and slow to restore. So you will probably begin by sending them data on a physical drive and restore the same way. The online backup being used just for updating changed files.

I think everyone should have some kind of off-site backup.

Also, an automatic backup (not manual) is essential, so you know that everything is up to date.

The F-Stop wrote:
Negatives!

What will happen when a new os wont recognize your drives? Hardware goes obsolete pretty fast.

Formats go obsolete with newer programs that fit newer operating systems.... Now what?

I still have beta n 8 track tapes.... Just cant enjoy em anymore! Oh btw, i can use a working vhs if you still have one?

Love my vinals though!

I can still plug in old 2 Gig drives that are FAT format and read the files off them. If you are talking about ZIPs and LS100s or JAZ drives, then yes, hardware has gone obsolete (although I hooked up my JAZ a couple of years ago and copied all the data off those drives onto another Hdd - that was on Windows XP while the drives had originally been used on Windows 98). Don't see hdd file formats changing all that often - FAT, FAT32, NTFS.

Brooklyn Bridge Images wrote:
Online is not viable unless you have access to a T1 or faster connection
Gonna take days/weeks to transfer a few TBs of data

Today's cable speeds and (most) DSL speeds are much faster than T1.  You're correct though that it could take weeks (or even months) if you have a TB or more of data.  For your initial backup many online services will let you send a hard drive to seed the initial backup and then your backups happen in the background on a daily basis.

Looknsee Photography wrote:
I am 'way too paranoid to trust any on-line storage scheme.  I'll rely on my quintuple backup strategy -- if all those backups fail, I'll take it as a sign to start over.

Have you ever stopped to consider whether your information is safer sitting in a data center with state of the art security and disaster recovery vs. sitting in a drawer at your buddy's house?  If there's nothing confidential or of value in those backups, then maybe the trust you have in your friend outweighs placing that trust in an established company with everything to lose if they lose your data, but I have a hard time getting my head around that.  Some services (the one I use at least) allow you to backup to a friend instead of to their servers.  Is the hard drive in the drawer encrypted?  How secure is your information if someone breaks into your buddy's house and steals the drive?  How often are you sending another drive over there?  What if it's been a month (or more) and your place burns down and you've lost all that information?

I like the candid nature of this page where a lot of the concerns about cloud backup are addressed:  https://www.code42.com/crashplan/talk/ceo-q-and-a/

Looknsee Photography wrote:
I am 'way too paranoid to trust any on-line storage scheme.  I'll rely on my quintuple backup strategy -- if all those backups fail, I'll take it as a sign to start over.

GM Photography wrote:
Have you ever stopped to consider whether your information is safer sitting in a data center with state of the art security and disaster recovery vs. sitting in a drawer at your buddy's house?  If there's nothing confidential or of value in those backups, then maybe the trust you have in your friend outweighs placing that trust in an established company with everything to lose if they lose your data, but I have a hard time getting my head around that.  Some services (the one I use at least) allow you to backup to a friend instead of to their servers.  Is the hard drive in the drawer encrypted?  How secure is your information if someone breaks into your buddy's house and steals the drive?  How often are you sending another drive over there?  What if it's been a month (or more) and your place burns down and you've lost all that information?

I like the candid nature of this page where a lot of the concerns about cloud backup are addressed:  https://www.code42.com/crashplan/talk/ceo-q-and-a/

Well, I've known this friend for over 40 years, and I have a drawer here to hold his data, too.  And we are each other's executor, so it's a race to see who dies first.  I feel pretty secure.

He lives on the nineth floor of a condo building -- his won't be the first condo to get robbed.  If he does get robbed, I can change bank accounts & etc. in less than a day.  And I'm sure that dusty drawer won't be the first thing to get taken.

One hears about some "state of the art" company being hacked every month or so.  We also hear about things like the IRS reviewing the returns of celebrities for fun.  This way, only my buddy has access, and he's just not technical enough to figure out how to decrypt my hard drive, even if he wanted to.

So, hey, if you trust the Internet, more power to you.  Your data is probably okay.  But at least I can tell you the names of the people who have access to my data (my buddy & his wife, who has trouble figuring out e-mail).  Can you?  But I'm a computer engineer & pioneer -- I know that the best way to keep secrets is not to share it with strangers.