cloud back-up?

What cloud back-up storage do you use and why? I'm exploring options since the service I use hasn't backed up my computer for over a month and customer support is non-existent. I need a reliable back-up for computer and external hard drive, over 2 TB (and growing). I need basic storage. Scheduled back-ups are nice when they work but I could handle manual back-ups for a price break. So, what do you use?

What service do you currently use? I'm using Backblaze. A friend of mine lost his only photo drive a few years ago and he was able to get those files back from Backblaze. He had the option of having a hard drive with the files on it shipped to him for extra money or just downloading from the cloud which is what he did.

I've no idea what the best (and cheapest) online backup deals are these days, I suspect that Google is your friend in deciding:). I tried out Backblaze some years ago. It's a very reputable company but it (then) seemed to take forever to make a complete backup of my files. Times have changed since then. Maybe Backblaze is much faster these days, but it's worth checking.

 

Since I first considered 'Backblaze', many other players have entered the same market (Amazon, Google to name just 2). It seems to me that if you want an online backup, there are 2 main things to consider:

- ease of use (preferably automatic backup of specific folders at regular intervals, without having to colllect 'backups' into app-specific folders)

- price

 

My take is that whatever App (for example Backblaze) just chugs away in the background keeping you're PC/Laptop synchronized with an online backup is worth the investment.

All online backups take quite a while to make the initial backup unless you have very little material. The bottleneck isn't usually your backup company; it's your internet connection. Particularly if you have cable, which is asymmetric, uploads are very slow. I have Verizon FIOS, which is symmetric, but even so, it took quite a while.

 

If my arithmetic is right: I have 1.15 TB filled on the HD that has my photos. That's 1,150,000 MB, which is 9,200,000mb. I have 200mb/sec FIOS, so if there are no bottlenecks other than the internet connection, that's nearly 13 hours. 200MB cable service is likely to have far slower upload speeds, probably more like 12 mb/s, so that would be 213 hours. Again, if my arithmetic is right. But in any case, it is VERY slow.

 

However, once you have the initial backup done, the incremental backups are quite fast and aren't even noticeable, as they operate in the background.

 

I've used two companies but am currently using BackBlaze. I'm satisfied.

 

However, I keep a second backup--a mirror, actually--as one really should have two (one on-site and one off-site), and I generally find it easier and faster to restore from a local mirrored image. Any sync program can create the mirror. I use Directory Opus, which is also a superb file manager.

I don't use cloud storage--I back up to blu ray discs when I can fill one and take that home from my studio, and back up to several drives in my studio. I also try to edit ruthlessly before I burn the blu ray discs. The big downside of cloud back up is upload speed, which for most of us is a tiny fraction of download speed. Once you have completed your initial upload it won't be so bad.

I’m of the same mind as AJG in that I don’t use a service. I use multiple backup hard drives kept in different locations. Never had a problem with that setup and honestly it takes very little time.

 

Rick H.

The key thing, IMHO, is not whether the second backup is in the cloud, but only that you have two and that they are in different places so that if your computer and local backup are both damaged (e.g, by water), you have another backup elsewhere.

 

re online backup speeds: once the initial backup is done, you aren't even aware of the backup going on. It runs seamlesslessly in the background. However, if you add a lot of material to your local drive at one time, don't have the computer running for very long, and have a slow upload speed, there would be a risk of not having the backup completed before you turn the computer off. I haven't done the arithmetic, but it would have to be a lot of material and a very short computing session to make this a problem for raw captures. Images edited in a program like photoshop can be 10-20x as large, but those take time to create. Even an 11 mps upload is 82.5 MB/minute.

 

This is less an issue for me; I had 70 mps uploads in the past and have 200 mps now, thanks to optical service. But nonetheless, this is one reason why I make my local mirrored copy as soon as I upload photos, to make sure that I have one backup even if there is temporarily some material lacking a second. It would be the same issue if you physically carry a second backup offsite

I have lots of back-up drives (many Terabytes), also DVD burner.

 

Store copies in different locations, too

 

I'm just a little paranoid, perhaps, but I like to have personal control of my "stuff".

Indeed. What do they say again? There is no cloud, just someone else's computer. Why trust your stuff to someone else for safekeeping when you can do it yourself? Get a large enough NAS unit, securely connect it to the internet, and backup to a 'cloud' that is not someone else's computer.

https://www.tomsguide.com/buying-guide/best-cloud-storage-for-photos

 

The above link has quite a bit of information for those seeking cloud storage.

 

Glenn

If you have an Apple computer you can automatically back up all your images to iCloud. You get an initial 5 GB, and if/when that runs out, you can upgrade to 50 GB for .99 cents a month ! Not a bad deal...

Over 2 TB. $1 a month for a fraction of that. So about $40 a month, $480 a year. Not a good deal either.

I don;t use cloud backup but I'm not in business. I do use a 4tb Western Digital My Passport external drive. Plug and play more or less. Around $100. Of course, I don;t have the safety in case my whole house burned down. But then again, I;ll have more worries than backup if that happens.

 

On the other hand, pictures of the family have been duplicated and already given to other family members living elsewhere.

Around $100. Of course, I don;t have the safety in case my whole house burned down.

 

or a power surge. Or a water leak.

 

An off site backup is like fire insurance: a low cost protection against an event that's very unlikely but that has a very high cost if it ihappens.

or a power surge. Or a water leak.

 

An off site backup is like fire insurance: a low cost protection against an event that's very unlikely but that has a very high cost if it ihappens.

This reminds me of the joke about Joe and Sam, both retired in Florida.

 

"So," Joe asks Sam, "What did you do before retiring?"

 

"Well," says Sam, "I owned a shoe store. But it burned down. So I collected the insurance money and retired to Florida. What did you do?"

 

"Well," says Joe. "Like you, I owned a camera store. But there was a flood that destroyed everything. So I too collected the insurance money and retired to Florida."

 

"A flood?" says Sam. "How do you make a flood?"

I just had a HD failure with 7-TB of images. It happened on a Thursday and Backblaze had a replacement HD to me by Monday. Excellent service. I returned the Restore HD and received a full refund of the deposit. When you consider the low cost and constantly synchronized auto-backup, it's really hard for any serious photographer not to use BB.

I just had a HD failure with 7-TB of images. It happened on a Thursday and Backblaze had a replacement HD to me by Monday. Excellent service. I returned the Restore HD and received a full refund of the deposit. When you consider the low cost and constantly synchronized auto-backup, it's really hard for any serious photographer not to use BB.

 

What a story! And what a recommendation! Thank you. I'm currently backing up to BackBlaze on their 15-day trial, it should complete in a couple of days. That kind of emergency is why I want cloud back-up. I'm so glad BB came through for you. They've been responsive to my questions, giving helpful answers.

I just had a HD failure with 7-TB of images. It happened on a Thursday and Backblaze had a replacement HD to me by Monday. Excellent service. I returned the Restore HD and received a full refund of the deposit. When you consider the low cost and constantly synchronized auto-backup, it's really hard for any serious photographer not to use BB.

Even better to do it yourself. NAS, RAID, connected to the web. And you keep uninterrupted access to all of your data when a disk fails.

Lower costs. And noone but you has access to your files.

Edited May 8, 2022 by q.g._de_bakker

NAS, RAID, connected to the web.

 

I don't understand this. A RAID array and a NAS are both local copies. What do you mean by "connected to the web"? Do you mean that you keep a copy of one of these on a server somewhere, similar to an online backup?

 

I don't recall whether it's standard or an option, but BackBlaze allows you to store your backup with an encryption key that they don't keep. My recollection is that they warn you that if you lose the key, they can't do anything to help.

 

I do agree that a mirror is handier than a backup, which is why my first "backup" is a mirrored copy on an external drive. Not a NAS; I find it works fine just to sync to a regulare external drive.

Edited May 8, 2022 by paddler4

You can install a NAS anywhere you like, and make it accessible (to only you and whoever else you choose) via the web.

Cloud storage is the same thing, just on a larger scale, and with access to your data entrusted to someone you have to pay.

 

So get a NAS, install it at home, as local storage. Connect it to the web.

Get another one, as back up, and install that at your business address or similar. Connect that one to the web too.

And attach USB drives to the NAS units, for local back up as well.

Overly redundant, at multiple sites, accessible from anywhere where you can use the internet, your data and access to it not made dependent on someone else, and cheap.

 

Mirroring to an external drive only works when there is not a lot on your computer to mirror. A NAS will become the best local option very quickly, as data amounts grow.

Mirroring to an external drive only works when there is not a lot on your computer to mirror. A NAS will become the best local option very quickly, as data amounts grow.

 

You can buy a 4 TB hard drive for $150-$200.

You can buy a 4 TB hard drive for $150-$200.

I know. I have several of those. But not in my laptop. Will not fit. And neither will i carry all of my photos on my computer, nor will they all fit. Not on 4 TB hard drives.

Desktop computers? Yes, those will take (more than one) large HDs. But those are rather hard to carry with you.

 

So an external (to your computer), network accessible storage unit is the thing. The question is whether you will arrange that yourself, or look for someone else to keep your photos on his computer and pay him to keep access to them. I don't know any compelling reason not to do it myself. But your mileage may vary, and such.

 

Again: "the cloud" is nothing but some computer somewhere. Someone else's computer. Someone you will have to pay, and have to trust to keep your photos safe, private and accessible. You reach that store over the internet.

You can be that someone else yourself. It is not difficult, more secure, and cheaper. So...

Edited May 8, 2022 by q.g._de_bakker

Sorry, I left out a word. You can buy a 4TB EXTERNAL hard drive for $150-200. I make do with w TB

Yes, understood. In the context of mirroring/backing up to external drives, the capacity of the external drive must not be smaller than that of the internal one. In my laptops, the maximum capacity of the drives is 2 TB. Two of them in one laptop means max. 4 TB.

Those 4 TB cannot be reserved for photos alone. And even if, 4 TB is not enough to accomodate all photos. So mirroring the internal storage to an external 4 TB drive is not an option after a while (how long depends on how fast your collection grows).

So 4 TB external drives are both too big (not that much internally to mirror) and too small (the entire store is much bigger, needs more space).

 

So more storage is needed. And available on NAS units. Network shares, so accessible as if they were internal drives when in the home or office network. Over the web from anywhere else.

 

In my latest laptops, i use a 1 TB SSD for programs, and a 2TB hard drive for those data in use locally (and that means as a store to dump the contents of memory cards in, as a store for recordings, and as the place for data that will be processed using those programs on the SSD). As soon as possible, data will be transferred to the NAS. The laptop is not a long term storage device.

 

Not different from what you would use 'the cloud' for. Read 'cloud' where it says NAS, if you wish. Same procedures. The difference is in what and where that cloud is, and who has access and control over it.

My point is simple: unless you have too much material, mirroring to an external hard drive works well and costs very little. I've been doing it successfully for years. If you have to much material, it won't work. I'm not close to that point.