image storage

I am looking for ideas and reccomendations for storing images either online or offline. Besides nature photography I do a fair amount of HDR work resulting in large memory requirements. I am currently running a HP computer with 2 terrabyte memory. I am thinking of moving files from my hard drive to either an online service such as smugbug or onto a seperate hard drive that I can attach to my current machine.

If I go the online route the service will have to accept Raw/tif/exif/jpeg/psd files and be able to download them back at full resolution. I have discovered some services send the images back at a lower resolution which is not acceptable.

I am attempting to move the files to keep the main hard drive free for processing. At least that was my thought.

The question is: Am I better off with the seperate hard drive, or online storage? Or should I copy everything to DVD's and store the images in that manner? Which would be the safest method?

I have read many different articles pertaining to this subject but I wanted to tap the your vast experience before I decide to move anything.

I apologize for asking this question if it has been answered in the past. I do appreciate your assistance.

Thank You

Bill Gillis

William, the fact that you're already reviewing this issue is probably a good thing. Safe storage of any and all files is critical no matter what they are used for. As a very long time user of LARGE photographic files, mostly all duplicated in PSD and TIFF formats, I use and prefer USB external drives. The PC I have has lots of USB ports. I can drive a couple printers, scanner, and three external drives. As a matter of practice after processing images I merely copy the finished product(s) to the external drives.
My main drive really has very little stored on it to speak of beyond the original finished PSD images. All other images are three deep on three different drives. Yes, overkill is the word. However, after digging myself out of a few holes over the years I've never fallen back in one over the last 5 years or more........
Just my 2 cents on the subject.

I believe that external hard drives give you the best and most convenient bang for your buck. Pay once (or twice for two, etc.)and you're good to go. I've never had one fail yet, but I only turn it on when copying images, so it runs about 15 minutes a week.

You could consider a redundant drive like a Drobo, which automatically creates a backup for you. However, even in that case I'd consider leaving another copy of your files on a separate external drive that would then be stored in a different location than your computer (in case fire or burglars hit you).

Max

I use external Firewire drives on my Macs, plus raw and psd files are burned to CD as well.

I believe you may want to have both for redundancy. I use Carbonite for off site storage and a USB connected drive for speed. Carbonite is essential for me because I am protecting against a fire or other disaster in my home. Carbonite will automatically BU any files you put into designated folders and bring them back exactly as you sent them. It's main problem is that for databases the size I keep (1.5TB) Carbonite is exceptionally slow, so it is only used in emergency. The USB drive serves as backup in a fast mode.

Here is an example: A couple of years ago I lose the HD that I was using to store all my images on. I was able to recover 95% in just a few minutes from the USB drive, but there were files I had not yet backed up on there. Carbonite supplied those files but in a much slower fashion. And I was a very happy camper.

Thank you all for responding to my questions. I greatly appreciate your advice. It looks like external hard drives are the way to go with an online backup in addition as a possibility.

Again thank you.

William Gillis

For on-line backup, be sure to read up on a site's reliability and prospects for the future. Some earlier forays into cloud storage went bust, and people lost data. Also, carefully read the terms of use. I am not convinced that the cloud is really a good place to store critical files. Additonally, you will need a pretty fast connection if you plan to upload/download many large files.

Hard drives for backup are the least expensive option, as long as you keep track of drive health. I have my OS, programs and current 'work files' on a Intel SSD. My images and other documents are backed up on an internal drive and an external drive. My system image is backed up on the external drive, also. The external drive is only turned on when needed.

I hope you find a solution that works for you.

--P

If you opt for using external drives as your only backup, you should strongly consider multiple locations. E.g., a colleague had her backup drive on the same desk as her CPU. When her office flooded (from above, via broken sprinkler pipes), both were destroyed. If something happens (fire, theft, etc) to one location, you don't want that to be the only place you had your data.

I keep an offsite backup drive which I swap out with my onsite backup whenever possible.

I, too, use external drives. I have one 2 TB at home and one at the office, both updated regularly. The one at home updated every time I do anything new and the one at work updated about once a month. I do not like the Drobo idea as it will automatically back up any errors or virus as well as the files you want. I also use Acronis to make a back up of the system so in the event of a failure of my HD or something that kills the computer, I can change to a new HD and then load everything - operating system, programs - everything and start again with the system as it was when I did the last Acronis back up. This has saved me at least twice.

You should also check your internet upload speed when considering an online backup. Most DSLs services work well downloading but are very slow uploading. This also happens with cable companies.

I agree with most of the other commenters, external hard-drives are the way to go (for me anyway). The cost is lower and it is much more convenient. I operate with 3 rotating external drives - currently upgrading to Thunderbolt enabled drives, so I can't wait to see the speed improvements
I keep two 2 TB drives at the home office, mirrored in content. A 3rd 2 TB drive is kept off-sight at a secure location, and is rotated with one of the home drives weekly, or sooner if I've had a busy shoot schedule. This way, if I have a catastrophic loss at home, I still have a 3rd drive safely kept at another location.

I was perusing the Puget Systems blog when I came across this article by Bret Nordquist, a Puget employee, about an online service called CrashPlan.

For those who are looking for a cloud-based solution, this one looks pretty interesting.

Read Bret's article.

--P

Another online option that may work out is Google's 'Google Drive'. The storage is really inexpensive (100 GB for $5/month) and you can buy up to 16 TB (albeit at a whopping $800/month!). I've been using it since it came out for holding documents and sharing images for collaborative work, and it is surprisingly fast for download/upload speeds. I may start using it to hold a backup of my 'Portfolio' and my top tier images (RAW files). We'll also be using it as a very inexpensive 'FTP client' for our new printing business.