Cloud Backup Options

<p>I am looking for some suggestions on which photo storage site/cloud to use. The majority of the pictures and videos were taken with a Sony DSC-HX20V camera and are currently being stored on our PC and an external hard drive. I would estimate that we currently have around 20-25GB combined of videos and pictures. The main purpose would be to act as a back-up in case of unforeseen disasters. The ability to share them would be nice but not a deal-breaker. The photos and videos aren't really organized right now so I would be doing so while I download them. Ideally, the site would be free. Thanks in advance!</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Ideally, the site would be free.</p>

</blockquote>

<p> <br>

Ideally, everything would be free but it rarely works that way.<br>

<br>

20-25MB is hardly anything. Did you mean GB? If so, you can get 15GB free with Google Drive and 10GB free with Box, so there you go.</p>

<p>Yes.....GB. I would prefer to have everything stored on one site.</p>

<p>You get 1tb for free with Flickr.<br>

http://www.flickr.com/help/limits/</p>

<p>I use CrashPlan as my offsite backup and an external HD as my local one. CrashPlan isn't free (someone has to pay for the staff and server), but it is effortless once you have it set up.</p>

<p>Michael:<br /><br />How good is your internet pipe? You might be shocked at how long it can take to upload 25GB of data.</p>

<p>Flickr is frustrating as a makeshift backup. Tried it a few times. Unattended it always times out and there doesn't appear to be any sync option to pick up where I left off. I may be wrong but I'm getting the impression Flickr has crippled the system to hinder efforts to use it for mass uploads for bulk storage. It already has specified limits, but I haven't even been able to reach those periodic limits before the system times out. Tried different browsers, etc. Maybe some trick I haven't figured out.</p>

<p>I know several folk (not me) who use Flickr for backup with no problem, Lex.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>How good is your internet pipe? You might be shocked at how long it can take to upload 25GB of data.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>That's why I gave up on cloud backup - although I've got an awful lot more than 25 gb to upload.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>How good is your internet pipe? You might be shocked at how long it can take to upload 25GB of data.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Mine was an order of magnitude more than that. When I first signed up for Crashplan, I had to leave my computer on for something like 12 days. However, it is not generally a problem for incremental backups. If you upload a large number of new images to the computer, that would take a while, but I get around this by doing my local backup right away. It's really pretty seamless. It just chugs away in the background without bothering me.</p>

<p>A proper cloud backup service allows you to ship them a hard drive (or hard drives) for the initial, large, data load. After that your backups are incremental and far smaller. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>A proper cloud backup service allows you to ship them a hard drive (or hard drives) for the initial, large, data load.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>That's true, and very useful if you live in the same country as the service you're using; but speaking personally there's no way I'd put a few TB's worth of HDDs in the post from here in the UK over to the US, where most of the big players in the cloud storage space tend to lurk.</p>

<p>[[but speaking personally there's no way I'd put a few TB's worth of HDDs in the post from here in the UK over to the US, where most of the big players in the cloud storage space tend to lurk.]]</p>

<p>I didn't realize shipping from the UK was akin to a war-torn third-world country, Keith. </p>

 

<p>[[i didn't realize shipping from the UK was akin to a war-torn third-world country, Keith.]]<br /> <br />I think it is more relevant to the way that the carriers handle goods!<br>

Seriously the real answer to this may be a couple of usb backup disks? Given that 3TB examples seem to be quite common these days and a couple of those would address the main issues- not Free I know but then nothing worthwhile really is. That and a mixture of putting the good stuff on Flickr to share might be a good idea. Also, and this is just a thought, how many of those images are truly worth keeping for posterity? My answer, keep the good stuff on hard disk and/or Flickr and archive the not so brilliant to DVD. I have a writer capable of using the 8GB types, but if that is not enough then invest in a BluRay. My only caveats, always burn two copies at least and don't buy the cheapest no-name media you can get!</p>

<p>Jim</p>

<p>To me, the best solution is to get 2 external hard drives. Back up your pics to HD 'A' and give it to a friend, or keep it at work. Next month, back up your pics to HD 'B' and rotate with HD 'A' back and forth each month.</p>

<p>I've been doing this for years, I have son who lives 10 miles away. My collection of photos is nearly 8TB. I have my pics organized by year. He has 5 drives of the older photos in a closet, and I rotate the newest pics between 2 drives.</p>

<p>So far, knock on wood, I've not had any reason to restore the files</p>