On top of any local thing you do, you should strongly consider some type of cloud backup. (BackBlaze has a good price.) Even if you have 2 redundant drives at home that you backup to, what happens in the event of a fire while you are out? Those drives are now equally roasted. If you care enough and can take the cost, you should always try to have a backup thats at a separate location from your home/primary storage.
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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Actually, the main reason I'm doing this is so we can switch away from our Verizon plan, which includes cloud storage. All the photos are there now, but Verizon has been fucking us over for like 10 years and I'm sick of paying for a bunch of bundle bullshit I don't use.
Noted, though cloud storage and cloud backup aren't the same. BackBlaze is $70/yr for unlimited backup. Regardless, the main point was just to make sure you're aware. Many people try to use an external drive as backup for data they really care about without realizing how vulnerable that setup can actually be. As long as you know, then anything after that is your call.
You don't need to splash for an SSD if it's for back up.
Rather get 2x 2Tb HDD external drives, and nice waterproof cases for them. label one as back up, keep it as a clone drive that you can update every few months
Keep you main drive with you with your computer at home, and keep your clone drive somewhere else, maybe at your office or parents house or in a steel box hidden elsewhere in your house. This will help keep your photos disaster proof
On top of this, in your drive keep a folder where you have a copy of your selects and best bits. If you have Google drive or photos, you can set up the software on your laptop to sync that folder to the cloud. That way the best photos and memories are stored off just your two drives and whatever you drop into that folder gets synced automatically.
I keep my raw photos in folders organised by 'date - occasion', In a master folder. When I go through a folder and make my selects for my album I put the selects in a subfolder called 'date - occasion - processed'. I copy the processed folder and paste it in my cloud folder which I have on my PC, sometimes I delete a few processed images to keep it small. These will go in the cloud. That way I have 2 copies of everything, and 4 copies of my favourites.
This is the cheapest and simplest solution IMO.
The best place to store it is more than one place. No product can replace this essential procedure.
There are multiple options
- Cloud storage is popular these days (has it's disadvantages)
- External HDDs (portable, but needs care when moving as simple drop can damage it), I had good results with WD drives
- External SSDs (overkill for cold storage like you described)
- Internal HDDs (depending on your PC configuration, can be the best solution, if portability is not a requirement)
Also, for any storage, the 3-2-1 rule is recommened.
It states that there should be at least 3 copies of the data, stored on 2 different types of storage media, and one copy should be kept offsite, in a remote location (this can include cloud storage).
@selfhosted may be a good place to ask. Can run your own "cloud" photo backup on a computer so photos taken on phones can automatically be saved. Would also recommend a second drive at friend/family house so you can back-up off-site to follow the 3-2-1 rule (3 copies, 2 different types of storage, 1 offsite) for backups. For even better redundancy for drive failures you could run a NAS running multiple drives in RAID. Basically, RAID combines multiple physical drives into a single "logical" drive with different speed, capacity, and redundancy capability and the NAS allows you to access that over your local network or internet.
Have a look at an nvme ssd and an enclosure for it. I’m using a icy box one for mine. This way you can get 2tb storage for about 130€. There are a ton of options regarding enclosures. If your budget allows you should get two for additional backup security.
Seconding NVME with an enclosure. These don't take up a lot of physical space and they're fast. I just got a 1TB Samsung that was a return from Amazon for $38. Worked perfectly. In the US the 2TBs can be had for around $120.
You're going to need to figure out what your storage needs are before you can choose a drive - 10 year's worth isn't very quantifiable in data storage terms. Find out the size in gigabytes of your image directory(ies) and then go for half again to double the storage capacity. Storage is cheap and you can never have too much!
Just be careful not to leave them unplugged for too long. An SSD can forget data if it's not powered up for a very long time.
To get a good answer you’ll need to tell folks how much space your current photos are taking up, and what your budget is.
It depends a lot on how much space you're using, how much you need, and the conditions that you're storing the drive in.
10 years doesn't really say how many photos there are. It could just as readily be a very small number of photos, or a very big number of photos.
If it's just going to be sitting in a box on the shelf, an HDD could still work reasonably well, but if it's going to be in a bag/bumped around, you might want the tougher SSD. The HDD still has the best price per TB value (may differ depending on your country/local market), but for 1TB, the difference is negligible (you'd be looking at maybe $10 - 20 total difference).
Hello.
Your post is breaking rule #1. Could you please paraphrase it as a question?
Just buy two of anything and do regular backups. If one shits the bed you haven’t completely lost everything. They’re all going to die eventually, you just don’t want to get caught with your pants down.
I guess it really depends on how much space you need. You also want to decide if you want to store them on a mechanical hardisc or volatile media. For basic storage, you could get a 3.5 inch HDD. I have always relied on Western Digital but brand is your choice. The best advice I have. If you absolutely want to make sure your data is backed up properly, you need redundancy. 2 drives.
What is your budget and how much space do you need? I'm seeing 1tb external drives on amazon for about 50 usd.
If you really need a budget option, you could get a sata usb cable and make use of any old hard drives laying around.
I also recommend backing up to a cloud for reliability.
Is a single physical drive enough, or maybe a NAS is a better alternative?
Samsung 2tb external drives can be had for 80-120$ on amazon. Their X6 and X8 models are nice. The price difference is the X8 is a metal case and comes with a USB-C to USB adapter. Also look into Amazon Glacier storage for long term use; it's cheaper than the cloud, it's written to blu-ray disks and put into storage. It's the cheapest long term off site option I've found.
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I'm going to make an unconventional suggestion. For archival-level storage, you can try an optical disc technology called "M-Disc". It's supposed to keep its data on the order of centuries, and the discs have no moving parts (the drive does, of course). The largest size available is 100gb.