[stormtech]

My image files are growing. I normally cull my images when I first view them, but like to hold on to any potential keepers. Shame on me, but I haven't been keeping my raw files (I shoot only raw). Once I process them to my liking and converted to jpegs, I delete the raw files. After reading about this on another thread about keeping your raw files to possibly work on at a later time, I know that I should be keeping them.

Yes, I know the first answer is "storage is cheap", but I don't trust external hard drives 100%. I do have a 1TB (tb?) external drive that has a back up of all my files and photos done every day. But I still don't totally trust it. And I don't really want to get into a RAID system or multiple external drives for back up of the back ups. Where I live we have frequent sudden power outages which has at times fried some equipment. And yes, I use a voltage regulated battery backup for my computer and external drives.

I was thinking about using a service like Amazon's Cloud Drive instead of the external hard drive - 50gig of storage for $50 a year (100gig for $100 and so on). Is anyone using a "cloud" service for their image storage needs? Sounds like it may be a simple, albeit fairly expensive solution.

[twitch]

I did some investigation into this recently and came to the conclusion that Backblaze was the best for me due to cost (I have well over 1TB of data) and their support for backing up externally attached drives (which is where all my RAW's live). Other services charged extra for External drives or didn't support them at all.

I haven't yet tried their service, but it's on my "to do" list for next month.

[br.davidson]

Are you talking about using cloud storage as your only storage location? I'd strongly recommend against that, but using a cloud service to back up your files and access them remotely works great. I'd recommend getting a large internal hard drive (~1 TB should last you a while) and back that up using Mozy or Crashplan. Another option is something like Amazon Cloud, Google Drive or Dropbox for more of an active synced folder instead of a backup, but you would still sync the cloud files with your desktop.

Here's my backup/cloud strategy: Raw files and JPEGs are stored locally on a 1TB internal HDD and backed up to an external 1TB HDD. I use Mozy to back up my entire computer (I think Crash Plan is cheaper, though). I upload JPEGs to Picasa for easy access/backup/sharing. I was grandfathered in to $5/yr for 20GB of Google space and that's plenty for my JPEGs.

If Amazon's Cloud drive is affordable and easy to use, it could work well as a replacement backup solution for your external drive.

[BillS]

I've started using crashplan. Ive had many problems with backblaze simply stopping backing up and then taking some time to realize it. I do think some sort of offsite backup is critical since hardware failure is only one risk to worry about.

Cp and bb are the only affordable options I've found that also support video backup.

[JenniferLeigh]

I've been looking at crashplan. They offer unlimited storage for $3/month, that is pretty hard to beat. One feature I really like is that if your computer crashes they will send up you a harddrive or USB drive with your data (for a price), if you had 500gb of data that could take ages to download from the cloud. They also have the same service for uploading large amounts of files.

I would highly recommend keeping your external harddrive going in addition to your cloud service. Stuff happens.

I have two internal drives in my computer, one for my os/working files and one for backup. My main drive actually crapped out on me last week. I wasn't backing up as often as I should, so it was a big warning. Luckily I was able to save everything that wasn't on my backup drive. I'm also going to keep up to data system images too. I also have a network drive, I try to Sync my backup drive to it once a month, but since it is wireless, it is rather slow.

Besides 3 hard drives is useless if my house burns down. I need something offsite.

[stormtech]

Thanks for all the great responses everyone!

I frequent a couple photo related forums and found it kind of weird that I hadn't seen much anything mentioned about using a "cloud" service.

I took a look at Crash Plan - really can't beat the price. But not to sound too negative, but I always wonder how long some of these providers will be around. Amazon, while quite a bit more expensive, should be stable for the long term I think.

I think I am still going to give Crash Plan a go with their free trial to see how it goes.

Any more/other suggestion still welcome of course!

Edit to add: I'm even more glad that I asked this question here as it has made me look harder at the options. With Amazon's Cloud Drive, your backups have to be done manually - not an option as I want an automatic program to do this. Looking harder at Crash Plan - I also have a discount for "Just Cloud" - anyone tried that one?

[Marc Sabatella]

Inded, stability of cloud services is a real issue. Tons of files have been lost forever over the years as companies that ostensibly provided reliable online backup went belly up. If I were to put any trust in a cloud service for photo storage as anything but a third-level backup, I'd do it the way some used to recommend picking stocks - ask your mother if she has heard of the company, and if so, go for it.

[dmfw]

Thoughts:

Check your ISP's monthly data limits, if any, and upload speed before using cloud storage.

Most "external hard drives" work well, if not abused. I archive my pics. on and external hard drive and store it in a remote bank box. The box is safe and temp. controlled.

I would use cloud storage as a backup for the backup, but I would not consider it a "safe" backup option.

[stormtech]

Thanks for all the replies. After thinking about what all was said here, and doing my due research, I think I will stick with my external hard drive - just need to upgrade it to a larger size.

Also, I upload my favorite photos to zenfolio @ 1600x1200 - worse case scenario I will still have them which are still printable at that size.

[mysticcowboy]

Last I looked, uploading RAW files would choke my data limit or be way too expensive. I do make high quality JPEG copies of my better photos and sent those to both Flickr and Amazon Web Service. Worse comes to worse, I'll still have a copy, if not the original RAW.

[simico]

Hm, this crash plan sounds good as an online backup beside my offline&off-site backup. Having two different type/kind of backup never hurts (the external HDD can fail, can be stolen during transfer; online provider can fail, go out of business, etc). Gonna test what transfer speeds I get and if it works from my country at all. Fortunately I have unlimited data plan

[magkelly]

If Amazon's Cloud drive is affordable and easy to use, it could work well as a replacement backup solution for your external drive.

Yeah until Amazon has a major disaster and their servers go down et all. I worry that Amazon has my CC info. I would never trust them or anyone else exclusively with my photos. Keep a back up HD and burn to discs. Keep them in a safety deposit box like I do. The HD will give you instant access, but if it goes down you, or goodness forbid you lose your house, you will still have your disks safe away from the house to recover with. Actually if you want to get technical in the bank box I have a back up of my back up HD that I swap out every month or so and a set of dated DVD's that I add to. There are a lot of things I can replace in this world but my photo work that's irreplaceable. Cloud storage isn't all that great. Anyone you choose ever has legal troubles you may lose access for a while sans warning. That's why a lot of the file share companies are going belly up. For all the legal content they were hosting the illegal content took them down. I'd like to think Amazon's cloud storage won't be in trouble for anything but you never know these days everyone is so sue happy. Cloud storage can be hacked. People's CC's and store databases get hacked on a fairly regular basis. Every photo you own could end up on the internet, unlocked. That's not cool.

[br.davidson]

Yeah until Amazon has a major disaster and their servers go down et all.

Amazon has better backups than any of us could ever afford to implement ourselves. Their cloud services are very well-regarded by business customers as well. (Off-topic, but the way Amazon treats it's warehouse workers is reprehensible and may be reason enough not to do business with them). You're absolutely right that cloud storage should not be your only backup, but the odds of your hard drive crashing are a lot higher than an established business like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft biting the dust with no warning. As long as you've got another backup, then you can find another offsite option if something does happen to your cloud backup service of choice.

As for your hacking and legal concerns, that is certainly a risk. I hate that any site stores our credit card info, but it can be stored in a way that is impossible for hackers to match with personal info. The problem is companies like Sony (with the PS3 hack recently) who store credit card info in plain text linked with other personal info. Your credit card is probably safer with Amazon than it is in a taxi cab or at a restaurant, though. The legal problems you're talking about are probably referring to MegaUpload and it is scary how that process has gone down and completely unfair for the customers storing legal data there. However, that case is different than cloud backup services because MegaUpload was a file sharing site, not a backup site and the vast majority of content stored there was illegal. If you are worried about access to your uploaded data, it is not too difficult to encrypt the data prior to uploading. There are cloud services which place security and privacy at a premium.

Actually if you want to get technical in the bank box I have a back up of my back up HD that I swap out every month or so and a set of dated DVD's that I add to.

You have a pretty bulletproof backup strategy, but be sure to test the data integrity of those DVD's once a year or so because they do degrade over time. Not to mention that DVD's won't last forever as a medium. For example, the new "ultrabooks" and mini-desktop computers without any optical media storage.

The whole idea of backups is to prevent all of your photos going POOF at once. If you have off-site backups of any kind, then the odds of that happening drops to almost nil. Keep everything up to date and verify the integrity of the backups every once in a while and you're golden.

[reeftool]

Cloud storage is ok as an extra backup but I wouldn't use it as my only backup. Cloud storage offers protection against flood and fire damage but the cloud is not immune to issues either. Look what recently happened to Megaupload.

[Lowell Goudge]

I use a "cloud" solution for transient files only, but not for permanent retention. Unlike the OP, i actually trust external hard drives, as a back up means, and have 1 in my safe and one in a safety deposit box, as well as using one for primary image storage because no matter how you plan, storage requirements always outgrow an internal hard disk.

The biggest issue I have with using a cloud for any form of permanent storage is the access. At present, in canada, you generally have data fees for internet access, and as a result, why should i have to a) pay to store my data, and b) pay to access it.

Not a chance until the telecoms monopolies get busted up or re-vamped.