Backing Up Photos - Advice

[Progressive]

Hello,

I have started to back up my more recent photos online, using Dropbox. I have uploaded a number of photos into folders for various events in the past couple of years. I am quickly running out of space.

My question is, the photos are in the 'large jpeg' size as shot on the camera, generally around 5mb per image. I have learned from when I have needed to e-mail the photos that I can resize them and this 5mb quickly reduces to a fraction of this with 'what seems' a minor loss of quality.

Is it advisable that I resize my valuable photos for online storage or when I come to look at them in years to come, will them be a pixelly mess?

Thanks.

[GetCarter]

Don't do it. Keep them as large as possible, or you'll not be able to print them. And don't be such a tight chap and upgrade to get 100gb of space!

I also use Dropbox, but in case they go bust, also back up onto hard drives and DVDs.

[tim2100]

Dropbox can be fairly limited for space. There are a few services out there for larger secure storage.

Mega offer 50GB free (but no Desktop app)
Amazon Cloud drive (desktop & Phone apps) 5GB Free, 50GB for £17 per year.

[markmullen]

GetCarter said:

Don't do it. Keep them as large as possible, or you'll not be able to print them. And don't be such a tight chap and upgrade to get 100gb of space!

I also use Dropbox, but in case they go bust, also back up onto hard drives and DVDs.

This, NAS storage is cheap enough that I keep both raw files and also finished TIFFs which run to 100-125Mb each. You can always scale them down, scaling them up is where the issues arise.

[Phil.]

I have a 3TB mirrored NAS drive (Synology) that is easy to set up and use bought new for around £500. Plus I back up everything to CrashPlan (www.crashplan.com) a low price well recommended cloud solution that again is easy to set up.

[markmullen]

Phil. said:

I have a 3TB mirrored NAS drive (Synology) that is easy to set up and use bought new for around £500. Plus I back up everything to CrashPlan (www.crashplan.com) a low price well recommended cloud solution that again is easy to set up.

Pretty much the same system I have, 4Tb running RAID 1 and then up to Crashplan through a Mac Mini server, plus external portable drives for my catalogue of finished shots.

[tog]

How long does it take to backup TBs of data to CrashPlan? Can you ship them a hard drive? I need to update my 'system' of multiple internal and mirrored external drives (rotated weekly with off-site duplicate drives as well).

[Glosphil]

Auto backup to second internal hard disk every time I hibernate my PC. Weekly backup to one of two external hard disks (used alternatively) with one always off-site (at a friend's house). All photos also backed up to laptop every couple of weeks.

Backups completely under my control.

[markmullen]

tog said:

How long does it take to backup TBs of data to CrashPlan? Can you ship them a hard drive? I need to update my 'system' of multiple internal and mirrored external drives (rotated weekly with off-site duplicate drives as well).

I think you can ship them a drive. I just leave a Mac Mini running without keyboard or mouse and uploading all day whilst I'm out. I've got a good downstream speed but not upstream so it is a slow job but is just chunking away.

[Craikeybaby]

I also take a two pronged attack, raws and Lightroom catalogues backed up on hard drives at home/work (rotated weekly) and all processed images are uploaded to Flickr at full size.

[tenohfive]

Surprised that Google Drive hasn't got a mention. It's half the price of Dropbox - 100GB for $4.99 a month and so on. At every price point it's half the amount of Dropbox. Google are obviously starting with competitive pricing.

Personally I'm a Dropbox fan but I don't pay anything for my 50GB with them, and backup to a HDD on a seperate PC.

[Craikeybaby]

Google Drive is good, I've ditched Dropbox for it. My reason for storing full size joeys on Flickr though is that a pro account is $25 and unlimited!