Photographers - What are you using for long term photo backup?

[kpk]

I recently had a new Seagate drive fall 4" and it flat out died. Luckily, I had the originals on the PC and a second drive. But now I'm questioning the best route to go for long term photo backup.

HDD vs SSD vs DVD/Blu-Ray vs Cloud.

There's serious pros and cons to all of them and I'm currently sitting at roughly 100gb worth of photos.

 

[RuggedYogi]

I use a 1tb SSD.

 

[gjviii]

if your number of 100gb is not a missprint, pick up a few of these and make 2 copies

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1730627-REG/sandisk_sdssde30_1t00_g25_e30_1tb_portable_ssd.html

 

[gggaff]

SSD and Cloud

 

[mlevimadden]

1 TB SSD portable hard drive and google drive for cloud storage.

 

[kpk]

1 TB SSD portable hard drive and google drive for cloud storage.

Is there a way to "organize" the google drive? My phone backs up there but everything is just sorted by date as far as I can tell.

 

[mlevimadden]

Yes, you can create folders. It's at the top by the toolbar. I name them all by date so they sort nicely (i.e. 2023-03-21 Colorado Elk Hunt).

One nice feature of google drive is you can share access to the individual folders via email. If I go on a hunt with a couple buddies, I can share the photos with them afterwards.

 

[kpk]

Yes, you can create folders. It's at the top by the toolbar. I name them all by date so they sort nicely (i.e. 2023-03-21 Colorado Elk Hunt).

One nice feature of google drive is you can share access to the individual folders via email. If I go on a hunt with a couple buddies, I can share the photos with them afterwards.

Good to know. I'd like to ensure that if something were to ever happen to me or a housefire or whatever - they're backed up offsite. I backup to an SSD I keep at work currently - but I'm thinking a cloud is the way to go for long term.

 

[steeleb3]

I recently had a new Seagate drive fall 4" and it flat out died. Luckily, I had the originals on the PC and a second drive. But now I'm questioning the best route to go for long term photo backup.

HDD vs SSD vs DVD/Blu-Ray vs Cloud.

There's serious pros and cons to all of them and I'm currently sitting at roughly 100gb worth of photos.

I think the smartest way is cloud based. icloud/google drive, microsoft onedrive. Each of these platforms are relatively flexible in the event that you change device type (i.e. going from an iphone to a samsung) etc. The issue is cost. The added benefit of using these cloud based services is the easy recall features of the photos using geotags, the AI etc.

 

[5MilesBack]

I have two external drives that I keep everything on. One of them is in a safe deposit box, and has pics and info of most everything we own for insurance purposes. That one is offsite for obvious reasons. The other I add new stuff to it and will transfer those files to the other one about once a year or so.

 

[sistae93]

Network-attached storage with cloud backup for redundancy. A bit complex to set up at first but I like that I fully own/control all the photos and pay any slowly-creeping-up monthly fees for storage space.

 

[Calgarious]

I was a full time pro photog for 12 years, and after simply deleting most of my images I was left with just shy of 30tb of RAW images. It was frankly too expensive to maintain multiples so instead I recommend this “last resort “ backup as a cost effective option.
In lightroom you can save compressed DNG raws at smaller sizes, so I ran my system overnights for a week and replicated the entire collection as “largest side 2400px” in compressed DNG. It all now fits just under 1.2tb yet retains raw in enough quality more than enough for online use. I have 2tb monthly on iCloud so I keep it all there with room to spare, but I could now easily fit what was once 30tb into many pocked SDs

 

[takepics]

The easiest way would be something that syncs to a cloud. However, if something happens like your files get encrypted by malware and you don't notice it right away, it may sync to the cloud, too. Therefore, if the photos are of high value, I would still recommend a backup solution to something like an offline hard disk (not always connected). The simpliest type of backup would store them unencrypted. For photos that should be fine and alleviates the worry of not being able to decrypt them.

 

[takepics]

My thought process is this:
Cloud Sync: Pros: Protection from theft, fire, loss of computer. Negatives: File retention needs to be checked to see how long (if any) the cloud provider can restore previous versions in case corrupt and/or encrypted files get written to the cloud side.

Hard disk: Pros: No monthly fee. Easy to increase storage by adding more drives (in say a NAS) or switching to larger drives. Negatives: Could be lost, stolen, or damaged in fire. Need to manage with additional backup or syncing software. If only a single drive is being used, it's still quite risky hard drives can, do, and will eventually fail.

The two methods above could be combined.

 

[mdwstnor]

Backblaze for cloud storage, and being a Mac user: OWC Thunder Bay.

 

[RhinoKel]

QNAP 5 Drive NAS with 12Tb of storage. Have not had to upgrade the storage for years. Also, print hard copies where possible, you never know with electronics.

 

[GSMLookoutfarms]

I use Zenfolio it’s great site for printing, sharing and storage.