Back Up of Digital Images

<p>I have a laptop and 3 USB drives ... one seems to be failing. I wonder what suggestions people have for on-line storage of digital photo images. So far I have 80 GB. I know I have 2 working USB drives but I am still looking for fail safe ideas. I expect in the next week to double that quantity, close to 200 GB.<br>

Any ideas. TIA</p>

<p>There's no such thing as absolutely failsafe. Thats why you need back-up. Bear in mind that you only actually need one copy of an image. Two copies (one card, one laptop or external) is very likely to be enough to give you that. For me the laptop and the cards are always in separate bags. A third copy on a external drive, again all in separate bags, is enough IMO even for the nervous.</p>

<p>What Dave said. I normally have one copy on my computer, and copies on two external HD's, one of which stays in a pocket in my travel vest. About a year ago I tried backing up to a "cloud" site, and found only half of the day's shooting (maybe 20 out of 40 GB's) had been transmitted by breakfast the next morning - the problem was the wi-fi connection, but presumably you have better things to do on a trip than hang out in an Internet cafe.</p>

<p>I back up onto two external HDs when traveling. If I am not shooting much, there will also be a copy on my laptop and/or on the card, but that's difficult to manage when accumulating 10-30 GB (or more) of photos each day.</p>

<p>I backup on my laptop and an external drive and also keep the images on the cards until I run out and then only format cards one at a time - or buy a new card (they are readily available and not that expensive). <br>

I never delete duplicates and duds while on the road, it's just asking for a regrettable mistake. </p>

<p>There is no fail safe...all you can do is cover your bets with as many as practically possible options. For the sizes that you are talking about its only really practical to use hard drives but try and not use them too much, ie keep them only for backups. My experience has been that adding files is easier on the drives as opposed to erasing etc. You should also get heavy duty types and be very careful with them once they are plugged in.</p>

<p>For short trips I have stopped carrying hard drives as they are too big and bulky and more delicate. I now carry two 64GB flash drives in addition to my laptop. So have 3 copies of my photos while traveling. One of the flash drives is in my wife's purse, one on my person and the laptop in my hand carry. They are not as fast as HDDs but defiantly much more tougher. </p>

<p>You can also try to burn DVDs and keep them as an alternative to your existing setup. </p>

<p>I carry a 250 gig ssd which I only use to down load and then upload to my main computer at home. during this last 4 week trip I filled up my 360 gigs of cards and 860 gigs on a 1 tb drive. since I decided not to bring a laptop on this trip so I am not able to save files to my tablet with out filling it up.</p>

On line? Dropbox.com, or copy.com

<p>I am a firm believer in triple backups. Bad things happen when you least expect it or them! I use Hyperdrives, external hard drives, my laptop, rarely the cards themselves as they get reused during the course of a trip. I shoot RAW and cards fill up rather quickly. In Africa, I almost had my cards confiscated when I left the country as they did not know what they were! Be prepared for anything.<br>

Joe Smith</p>

<p>Haven't used any online storage, but will consider it the next trip. Pricing is very reasonable, and the vendors are claiming security. At Google Drive pay $5/10/20 for 100/200/400 GB for a month, and then cancel. Should be good for one trip.</p>

<p>http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57592985-93/is-dropbox-cloud-storage-too-expensive/</p>

When I travel I keep a copy on my laptop, a second copy on a small EHD, and a third copy on a large flash

drive. Hotel wifi speeds generally preclude big uploads to the cloud.