[Tom S.]

External USB Hard Drive. Western Digital 1Tb. It's used for other things as well. I had all of my K10d stuff backed to DVDs. One day I was able to read them, next day, not, and they seem un-recoverable so the stuff I really wanted from them is lost .

I thought about trying one of the online back up services but I prefer to keep everything in-house.

The disadvantage to that is if someone steals your equipment, unless your back-up drive is disconnected and locked elsewhere, the thief will likely take it too. And don't forget about the possibility of fire. The last one is why I'm giving a lot of thought to going to on line back up as well as my in-house set up.

[DAZ]

I have seen to many times that the backup is destroyed with the original data. This can happen to any backup that is on site i.e. in the same building or town. I am not exaggerating this.

I use Carbonite. Off site, encrypted, in the cloud, unlimited space, any file type (i.e. PIF), automatic backups, can be recovered to any computer anywhere with an Internet connection. I copy my files from the SD card to the computer. Usually by the next morning the files on the computer are backed up so then I just delete the files on the card. It can be configured for file types, directories, times or just all automatic. No it is not the cheapest way to go but I have over 375Gb backed up ATT and if you consider the cost of backup media it is not that much more. Carbonite is not the only way to do all this but it is what I use.

DAZ

[JeffJS]

The disadvantage to that is if someone steals your equipment, unless your back-up drive is disconnected and locked elsewhere, the thief will likely take it too. And don't forget about the possibility of fire. The last one is why I'm giving a lot of thought to going to on line back up as well as my in-house set up.

Nothing is 100% foolproof and safe. The external drive is kept in a fire safe along with the other 'irreplaceable' stuff. I'll kill the thief when he shows up and worry about the rest some other time if and when it happens.

[jolepp]

External (USB2) hard drives are convenient, cheap and fast enough. Having one at a different location is somewhat of a hassle so I have been pondering maybe setting up a simple, automated over-the-internet-during-the-night incremental backup scheme with a friend/relative.

[forensicscientist]

as others have said...multiple copies and at least one offsite. I keep at least 4 different copies of all my pics....at least 2 of which are offsite. Just in case.....

bottom line, do something....back 'em up. Its not IF your HDD will fail....its when. Having learned from experience, having good back up, (or 2 or 3 or 4) is a good feeling when you discover your primary drive has died.

mark

[magkelly]

Did I answer this one before? Sounds familiar. Anyway, I back up my photos to DVD's, in folders by date usually. Raw, plus corrected files saved to TIFF and usually jpeg for web sized versions too. Multiple copies just in case and once in a while I even store things away from our house in a secure location.

You never know what life will hand you. I really do believe in backing up the important stuff. You can't save everything if something is going to happen, but with scanners and copiers some things you can with a little thoughtful preparation and I do try to do that, think ahead. In the event of disaster a lot of things can simply be replaced but some personal things you can lose can often be emotionally devastating. It's bad enough to lose the roof over your head, but to lose everything that made your house a home, your life's work even?

That's harsh and it doesn't have to be that way. Some things just can't be, but what can be should be duplicated. Losing personal documents, pictures, and such? I don't think that's necessary in this day and age. Not when scanners are so readily available and you can scan to decent print sizes.

I have all my favorite books backed up onto DVD and saved elsewhere, my personal pics, my best photography, my important documents, even pictures of things that have great meaning to me so that if I ever did lose them so that at least I'd have pics if they couldn't actually be replaced. 10 inches of space in a bank box and a few DVD's can be a great comfort under the right circumstances.

[Ratmagiclady]

External (USB2) hard drives are convenient, cheap and fast enough. Having one at a different location is somewhat of a hassle so I have been pondering maybe setting up a simple, automated over-the-internet-during-the-night incremental backup scheme with a friend/relative.

That's part of why I've been thinking of a 'buddy system' for those who can't afford online storage (or just the idea of it: not that paranoid, personally, but can't take on another monthly bill, yet. )

But, especially for those of us not generating terabytes and terabytes of data every month or something. I still shoot rather like I'm shooting film, just as though well-stocked and not paying for it, myself, as opposed to 'Film? There's no such thing.' Apart from taking shots I otherwise wouldn't try, it's still not *huge* amounts of data.

[jolepp]

As for the 'buddy system' I have been envisioning taking a something like a wireless router (or a ~$100 chinese arm netbook) with a USB port (for an extrenal drive) running Linux, and then setting for automated nightly synchronization using rsync (with ssh). The USB drive could be mounted in the local network using SMB (samba) and dynamic dns service used so that the two boxes can locate each other. Using a wireless router (openwrt) would seem to make most sense as these use little power, are inexpensive, are usually on all the time anyway and could be used for their original purpose as well. Of course rsync could be run directly on the computers to be backed up, but having a local on-line backup would be good and syncing to a local disk first might interfere less with normal use.

[Ratmagiclady]

As for the 'buddy system' I have been envisioning taking a something like a wireless router (or a ~$100 chinese arm netbook) with a USB port (for an extrenal drive) running Linux, and then setting for automated nightly synchronization using rsync (with ssh). The USB drive could be mounted in the local network using SMB (samba) and dynamic dns service used so that the two boxes can locate each other. Using a wireless router (openwrt) would seem to make most sense as these use little power, are inexpensive, are usually on all the time anyway and could be used for their original purpose as well. Of course rsync could be run directly on the computers to be backed up, but having a local on-line backup would be good and syncing to a local disk first might interfere less with normal use.

I don't get quite all that, but I was thinking that it might be useful to have people just trade space on some hard drives in case of catastrophe.

[Ash]

Yep, it's been raised before:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-beginners-corner-q/89340-where-do-...ur-photos.html
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/27970-where-does-e...ir-photos.html
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-beginners-corner-q/79832-photo-edi...cient-way.html
among other threads...

...then refer to this: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/general-photography/15554-photo-back-up.html