on-line storage

[BeemerlessBob]

My computer is full of pictures and I need to clear some disk space. One option is to just copy them off to a removable media and hope that copy does not ever get damaged. I think it would be better to store them on-line somewhere so that they are safe and accessible.

I know there are several sites out there such as photobucket, etc. I’m looking for some recommendations as the best one to use. Do there kind of places do back-ups.

[STCPO]

Can't go wrong with SMUGMUG.

HERE (http://pkac.smugmug.com/) is an example. They do backup and I've never had a problem with the site being down.

Cheers,
Pete

[bigjnsa]

I'm lucky, I have a web server here at work I dump all my pictures to.

[george-1]

Here's another vote for Smugmug. No limit on storage, and they do a good job of displaying your photos. They have a 14 day free trial.

http://www.smugmug.com (http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=7hlbThvNOsIu2)

For 5 bucks off your first year, use coupon code 7hlbThvNOsIu2

I get 10 bucks off for referring you.

See my sig for my Smugmug site.

[M38A1]

I'm using SmugMug as well but haven't investigated the on-line storage capabilities. For the time being I just have an external USB hard-drive that's the same size as my internal HD and it gets backed up every night. But that doesn't help your space problem unless you just dedicated an external to more 'stuff'.

[Red Brown]

I'm lucky, I have a web server here at work I dump all my pictures to.

That may not be a good idea depending on your employer's on-line policy plus if they decide to remove personal partitions etc. there goes your images. Plus I would not want fellow workers to have pictures of me trying the limbo after a few beers when it came time for a salary review. :)

SMUGMUG sounds good to me..

RB

[mikeofcontex]

Just purchased a 1TB USB external drive for $100... if I was concerned about the copy going bad, I'd just buy two... I have two old 160G drives that haven't filled up yet... so I did buy 2... or 3

[DFW_Warrior]

I'm with Mike on this one. For the money of a monthly subscription I could pay off some hard drives in no time.

Plus, I would be all for using any web based site for hosting, but I certainly wouldn't keep the only copy of my photos on their site. Who's to say they don't just pull the plug and presto, there go all your photos. This did happen to one of the photo sites I was using a few years ago, but lucky for me I just used it for hosting, and not for storage.

I would say just keep an external hard drive with copies of the photos, and then burn some DVD's and keep those in a desk drawer at work. What are the chances that your place of business will get destroyed with a hurricane the very same day your house has a gas explosion? And even so, if that happened, photos probably aren't the biggest of your concern....:lol2:

[bigjnsa]

That may not be a good idea depending on your employer's on-line policy plus if they decide to remove personal partitions etc. there goes your images. Plus I would not want fellow workers to have pictures of me trying the limbo after a few beers when it came time for a salary review. :)

SMUGMUG sounds good to me..

RB

The server is under my control... I just post my riding and trip pictures. Nothing too personal. I keep the rest on a server at home.

[sharkey]

I use photobucket and Costco and have never had a problem. I don't keep a lot of jpgs. up there though.

I usually keep 4 folders on my HD - spring, summer, fall, and winter for current year. At the end of the year, I usually make a photo book and burn images to DVD. DVD gets labeled and index prints I get with Costco go with it to give me an idea of what is on there.

Works for me but your needs may differ.

[wanabeguru]

I'm with Mike on this one. For the money of a monthly subscription I could pay off some hard drives in no time.

Plus, I would be all for using any web based site for hosting, but I certainly wouldn't keep the only copy of my photos on their site. Who's to say they don't just pull the plug and presto, there go all your photos. This did happen to one of the photo sites I was using a few years ago, but lucky for me I just used it for hosting, and not for storage.

I would say just keep an external hard drive with copies of the photos, and then burn some DVD's and keep those in a desk drawer at work. What are the chances that your place of business will get destroyed with a hurricane the very same day your house has a gas explosion? And even so, if that happened, photos probably aren't the biggest of your concern....:lol2:

I think Bill nailed it!!

[Tracker]

I use Carbonite to backup my home system. If the house or system goes up in smoke, I can get all key data back, including pics, etc. No drives to keep up with; run backups, shuffle around, etc.

On another level, smugmug is a semi-backup of my photos, but I don't have all my photos posted on smugmug.

[Tourmeister]

:tab What is Carbonite?

:tab One thing some folks might consider is that without electricity and a computer, or some other electrical viewing device, it doesn't do any good to have the images in digital form if you cannot view them. If you want to just preserve your best images, there are numerous sites that let you upload images, adjust the layout on pages and add text, then they print the whole thing in a bound hard copy book. They are actually quite cheap. Sure, if the house burns you could lose the book. However, you never have to worry about having power, a viewer, batteries, etc,... You can just pick up the book and look at it. Of course, you can probably make your own if you have a decent color printer and just have it spiral bound somewhere. But there is something about having the book in your hand versus viewing the images on a screen. They would also make cool coffee table books or gifts to family/friends.

:tab I have all my images on my hard drive at home, on an external backup drive at home, on my machine at work (which is just me and Dad, no one else to worry about), and on the external backup at work. I also have smaller copies of most of my riding related images on my server. The cost of large USB sticks is coming down and the sizes are going up. I think once they get around 64Gb or maybe 128 GB and less than $20-30 each, I might just buy a bunch of those and backup all my full sized images. The small size makes them perfect for stuffing into the firebox for safe keeping. Also, I figure the USB and JPG standards are going to be around for a long while. Of course, if the terabyte drive Mike mentioned is so cheap and if it is not too big, that might be an even better idea. Imagine how long it would take to transfer a terabyte of info over USB... :eek2: My external drives are SATA drives, so just as fast as if they were in the machine.

[Tracker]

Carbonite--online backup ("http://www.carbonite.com) It automatically detects new files or changes in existing files and backs them up over the internet.

Mozy's another online backup I've heard decent things about.

[Tourmeister]

:tab I just get bad vibes about backup up my stuff to someone else's server... :shrug: I guess ride report pics would be okay, but personal stuff or work related stuff... I dunno :ponder: This is even more true with the heavy hand of government demanding that anyone with info it wants turn it over or be crushed. What business is going to go to the mat to keep government from getting its hands on the data it may have from a few of its clients? No... At this point I still prefer to keep more direct control over the info.

[mikeofcontex]

...can we expect that we are entitled to privacy? I can see "them" saying, you put it on an internet facility therefore you didn't expect privacy.

So, I'm in agreement about keeping my own stuff where I know I have some sort of control of it.

[Tracker]

ya'll got me thinking, so I went back and found the legalese:

The contents of your files are encrypted before they are transmitted to Carbonite's data center. Carbonite may have the ability to decrypt your data files. However, Carbonite will not decrypt your files unless i) it reasonably believes that it must do so to troubleshoot problems with the Carbonite Services or ii) it reasonably believes it must do so in order to comply with a law, subpoena, warrant, order, or regulation, including, without limitation, the requirement of a certification that complies with 18 U.S.C. § 2703. Carbonite may also provide access to your data to government authorities if Carbonite suspects or believes that the data contains child pornography or other prohibited data or that the data is being used for illegal purposes. You acknowledge that Carbonite or Carbonite Affiliates may use servers and other equipment to provide the Carbonite Products or Services that are located in the United States or in other countries where litigants, law enforcement, courts, and other agencies of the government may have the right to access data stored within their jurisdictions upon terms and conditions provided by local law, and that as a result, they may gain access to your Backup Data as provided by applicable local law.

You can opt to manage your own private encryption key--just don't lose it!

[ysr612]

smugmug I have 55046 images there 140Gig I also have back ups on my home computer. None of my pictures are good enough to warrant this much security.

[sprale]

Wife's a photographer, so it's Gigs of photos! Began using SmugMug a few years back, along with a mirrored RAID external backup system. After losing any significant amount of data, you'll get more cautious...

[BeemerlessBob]

I signed up for SmugMug at the Pro level but was sure disappointed that they have a 10 min video clip limit. That was sure limiting and prevents me from uploading my road trip movies. I can upload them to free site like MySpace OK, but not to one I pay for. 

[NPHLYT]

My boss was going to add another internal hard drive to one of the computers on the network and share it out, I talked him into one of these (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0245672). At the moment he has one 1T drive in it. If it were mine I would put two 1T drives and set them up to mirror, just in case one drive goes down. You can also set up an FTP site on there and you have access from anywhere you may be, supposing they have fast internet access and a monitor.

[Tracker]

Do those that do local backups; do you see the fire/water/theft threat as not that big a deal? Also, unless you're doing snapshotting, if your original files get corrupted and you back them up, you've got a nice backup of corrupted files. Just trying to think of all the angles.

[NPHLYT]

If you put the NAS in a closet then you don't have to worry about theft....

What I am (probably) going to do is acquire another 1T for "off-site" storage, connect it to the external SATA on my desktop, back everything up and store this in my (detached) garage in a zip lock bag. The fire/water/theft issue has been bothering me for a while.

[Desert Skies]

Here's a paid option. Cool thing about it is your folder shows up on any puter you have connected to the interweb. I believe the first 2GB are free.

https://www.dropbox.com/

[DFW_Warrior]

Do those that do local backups; do you see the fire/water/theft threat as not that big a deal? Also, unless you're doing snapshotting, if your original files get corrupted and you back them up, you've got a nice backup of corrupted files. Just trying to think of all the angles.

Not really. I keep a copy of them at work and at home, + the originals on the hard drive. It's not very likely that work will burn down the same day that a thief steals my computer at home, and then a tornado comes in and destroys the fire safe that the home backup's are in....

And if it did go down like that... dang, what a crappy day!!! :lol2:

[Brotha J]

I just use an external HD meself. I can't justify a data storage fee in our budjet. So, I guess I'm a little biased.

In truth, I actually use two externals. One of them is right next to the big computer. The other one is in the fire safe. I can't express how comforting it is to know that I can simply purchase another external to back my back ups.

[Brotha J]

AAMOF, I'm encouraged to back up our picture folder right now.