The cloud is a nice concept, but I won't trust it with anything crucial yet. I keep photos on my main desktop computer, and all photos are copies to a separate RAID NAS as they are downloaded onto the desktop. I also make a complete copy of my image files onto a separate hard drive that is stored offsite in a media fire safe.

The cloud, the providers, the internet, and internet security are just not yet reliable and stable enough for me to trust using them as my primary storage for images.

kenadams said:
. What if your house burns down? Less likely than an HD head crash, but still not impossible. That is the tricky part. I don't have a solution for me for that yet.

I keep one copy of my on site back ups, in a fire proof safe, that I inherited

Right now I'm planning on moving all my photos to my Mac side and then using a 1TB Lacie drive to back it up using Time Machine.

I don't think backing up large quantities of data into the cloud is a viable option yet, no matter how cheap. Downloads have become fast enough to suggest it might be, however, the problem is upload. Every ISP here is basically the same, they advertise insane download rates, but uploading takes a holy eternity. I wouldn't even dream of backing up 40 GB into the cloud. A LAN however can give you a gigabit bandwidth.

I'm with Tao here, for me, backing up means a NAS w/ RAID system - out of the box solutions have become affordable, and a basic RAID can even be built out of an old NIX box for free. Invest a little in the hard drives (big, but not too big, and quality stuff) and set it up so it mirrors at the very least (most basic and cheapest solution). RAID allows you to do crazy stuff (one disk for checksums only and so on), which is basically more than you'd ever need. You don't want to build a high performance I/O system with lots of traffic and load, which makes technical failures more likely over time, but a backup service. If you can recover one crashed disk from the others, it should suffice.

2nd, very important thing - off site backup. What if your house burns down? Less likely than an HD head crash, but still not impossible. That is the tricky part. I don't have a solution for me for that yet.

I still researching this subject

but I thought i would share with you the advice or Bristol city chief archivist

If you want your work to be seen by future generations, make black and white prints

this advice was given, whist viewing an original document from the 16th century

@sevencrossing - One of the things to look out for with remote storage sites is the UPLOAD speed. I used to use "Livedrive" (based in the EU) and while it worked well, it was so slow that at times it was painful. Part of that is often as a result of uneven connection speeds in DSL environments but even at work where I have full bandwidth over multiple T3 connections it wasn't what you'd call exactly "speedy".

Always encrypt what you upload, BEFORE you upload it - you never know!

There are some problems with Warez sites going away with no warning (as TaoTeJared says), but with places like Amazon you are dealing with a legitimate company. Same for Carbonite, who are legit/above the board businesses not covers for mafia scams or there to shift millions of dollars for shady deals.

sevencrossing said:
I think it is important to distinguish between file sharing, which can be illegal and off site backing up. Amazon S3 is not a file sharing system

It's the exact same thing - there is no real way to separate the two. Both load files to the web. You can set protection/passwords however you want and share your password to the world. Hell even the US military and other government agencies were using Magaupload for secure on-line file storage. Magaupload did have some "user" interface that was different, but the seizure of the site was due to users allowing others to log in and pull files. That can happen with any "cloud" service.

I'd go the redundant route. Back up on an external drive on site (I recently bought a 2TB drive for $165) and upload everything to an off-site server. A friend of mine runs a company called Mimedia that will send you a drive, which you can then use to upload all your stuff initially. Every upload after that is done via Internet and takes place automatically.

TaoTeJared said:
I will not touch any of the online sites now for long term storage. If you don't follow some of that news, Megaupload which was huge with many users, was taken offline (gov't seized) due to people sharing copyright protected data .

I think it is important to distinguish between file sharing, which can be illegal and off site backing up. Amazon S3 is not a file sharing system

I will not touch any of the online sites now for long term storage. If you don't follow some of that news, Megaupload which was huge with many users, was taken offline (gov't seized) due to people sharing copyright protected data among other issues & things. Everyone lost everything and there is ZERO way to get it back. ZERO. Every site has a clause that states they are not liable for any data. This event has really pull the mask off of these services and have shown that you really can not rely on them.

For short-term like when you are traveling - It may be a good option but upload and download fees are usually charged. 10 32gb cards to transfer - you can bet they will find a way to charge for it. Devil is in the details with every site. Back-ups from most software are single file based as well. A 16GB SD card back-up will blow through any sites Max upload.

Most services for 1TB are around $100/mth and have fees for huge usage like us photogs have. Some even charge by the GB and if we have 36mb files you are talking about 10-20Gigs of data per photo shoot if not more. You can buy 1TB drives for $100.

I'm now looking at a full Raid NAS solution with Blu-ray backup from LG and then buying a 4tb drive to put at my parents house (60 miles away) with a VPN back-up. (Just don't ask me how I'm going to set that up yet.) Blu-rays (25gb or DL 50gb) may not even hold enough for some shooting raw at 36mp sensors.

24mp-36mp sensors, up to 72mb raw files, HD video... Photography is about to get much more expensive for many who are have not had to worry about this for many years.

sevencrossing said:
Yes this has been coved before

but all the threads are over a year old, and technology changes

I dont think these days backing up a days shoots from a D800 on to Cds is a viable option

I am looking at Amazon S3 as , off site, backup

Any one use it?

At the moment I make a second copy to a separate had dive when importing to Lightroom

but often forget to do a third, off site, back up

There's a company called ADRIVE that gives you 50GB of storage for free with at 2GB file upload limit. Sign up with a few different e-mail addresses and you'll have plenty of storage for a while.

I don't have a D800 but understand what would happen if I get one. I will probalby back mine up on a Blue-ray blank disk. At 25 GB I think its not a bad deal, I think I got at least 15 (if not 20) blank disk for $35.

I like the idea of backing up remotely but unless I have a really fast internet connection, a weekend of shooting might take a week to upload if its a S.....L.....OOO...W connection.

Part of my problem is what shots to keep, I should only keep the ones I like and trash the rest. But at this moment that is not happening, I will have to learn the hard way not to keep everything. I will say I did go ahead and get LR4 and Capture NX2. Now if I can't fix the shot, the trash can it will see. Before I was not sure what I could and couldn't fix in PP.

I do like the idea though, say I get robbed or have a fire. If you go this route your at least somewhat protected from a total loss. I really don't have clients that care if I retain what I give them or not but would really look into this if you do need to hang on to them for whatever reason.

Yes this has been coved before

but all the threads are over a year old, and technology changes

I dont think these days backing up a days shoots from a D800 on to Cds is a viable option

I am looking at Amazon S3 as , off site, backup

Any one use it?

At the moment I make a second copy to a separate had dive when importing to Lightroom

but often forget to do a third, off site, back up