Backup storage of photos

[6F2]

Aside from a local back up where do you hold your copies of shots?? I'm aware that if someone steals my PC (and I've had my house broken into before) or there is fire damage and the back up is not co-located I'll lose piccies....was just wondering what other people do to avoid those eventualities??

[PaulG]

Hi

I back my images up on to a USB (mass storage) hard drive and also on to a re-writable DVD. I do store the DVD away from the computer but it is still in the house.

Paul

[Dotty.c]

I back up to external HD plus copy on CD and with 3 dogs think i'm safe from intruders.....in case of fire 1 copy stays at different location

[Roger S]

I use 2 separate computers. The lappy is where I do most of my work, then transfer to the PC. From the PC, I do a DVD copy and that goes to the fire safe in another storage location about 50 meters from the house.

So far, things have not gone wrong. (fingers crossed) I'm on the PC now, and have access to as far back as my 2004 shots.

[adenough]

But...
If life of a hard drive is only 10 years or so where does that leave one. Constantly backing up and moving files around. The beauty of a neg was that once you were done you stored it away and that was that. I know you have to have them in a fireproof waterproof secure environment but thats not so hard. You were not constantly taking it out of it's sleeve to copy it. Move it. Digi is still quite an unknown quantity as regards longivity.

J:)

[MickT]

Same as others on here - backed-up to portable hard drive plus cd - both kept in different locations. Do know what you're saying 'adenough'....I've got files & files of negs stored...but wherever you store them it's only one location..if something like a fire happens or they get stolen - that's it..gone forever. At least with digi you can make as many copies as you like & store them in different places....must admit I feel much more confident with digi because of this. Also, file back-up isn't really that laborious...especially for the reassurance it gives.:)
Cheers
Mick.

[BarryM]

images taken into lightroom, on my terra drive, then synced onto a second terra drive in the same pc, once a week i take my portrable terra in and sync second drive to that drive, then get home, and backup once more to external drive, and in process of burning each job to dvd.

[Cryomorph]

I suppose another option to consider is online data storage & backup companies - although I'm not sure how viable it is for the very large images and hence volumes of data produced by some cameras. It all depends on how worried you are about losing your data.

I keep 2 digital backups. One on my laptop and one on my NAS (network attached storage). And every so often I'll back them up to dvd (2 copies). As others have said, it's a good idea to keep a backup off site or away from the house/office in case of fire and theft.