Hi All,
Sorry for the newbie question but totally confused.
I am looking for an online backup solution for all the photos I have (around 200 GB).
I was thinking of getting a dropbox account but it seems expensive given that I am only planning to use about 20% of 1TB.
Is there any better solutions/options? I don't quite understand that some of the newer hard drives have cloud storage as well??
My current mechanism is multiple hard drives stored at various locations.
Thanks.
SmugMug? Only heard about it last week, but apparently gives you unlimited storage.
I've been using SmugMug for a couple of years now, it's a great product and I like the fact I'm buying a product rather than being the product. I think I've got about 300GB there now, it's great not to worry at all about limits. It's sharing is the best I've seen, no matter what device people access it from it just works. I pay a bit more so I can share videos as well. You can set different security on each folder if necessary as well, personally I just share everything with a single password so it's not too hard for the grandparents to understand.
I combine SmugMug with EyeFi cards in my cameras, so as soon as I take a photo on my DSLR or video camera they are sent via my home wifi to SmugMug and my server.
They have a referral program which I think saves you (and me) 10%, so PM me if you want a code and I'll work out how to generate one.
Last time I checked Flickr you couldn't get the images back in the same resolution you submitted them. I found if I uploaded a 8MB file the image I got back was a 2MB compressed version of the image. If it's truly a cloud backup you're after this doesn't cut it!
But this was a couple of years ago, so may no longer be true.
There are other providers you could look at: have a look at this comparison of 7 different options
http://gizmodo.com/dropbox-google-drive-and-more-whats-the-b…
and see which is best for you.
OneDrive IMO is the best since it throws in Office 365 as an extra bonus. Hard to say no to that, but if you have zero interest in office software than perhaps look into Mediafire.
SPEED is another consideration. Dropbox for me syncs faster and their desktop sync software is far better than Onedrive offers.
I don't quite understand that some of the newer hard drives have cloud storage as well??
You own your storage medium, and you run your own file servers. If you buy a 2TB WD MyCloud NAS drive for example, that NAS becomes a file server that is accessible through the internet and it serves up a web page for you to access your files with. It does not however, offer off site backup. If your MyCloud device gets stolen / submerged in a flood/ burns up in a fire your data is gone; you will still to make arrangements for an offsite
I use google. Smaller photos are free, and I subscribe to their 100gb plan.
I hope you don't have any compromising images, given the spate of image theft recently. :(
I think it would be safer to buy an external hard drive. Put it in a tupperwear box and give it to a friend. Perhaps do swapsies.
Do you work at an office? You can simply just leave a hard drive at the office and take it home over the weekends to back up your data and take it back to the office on Monday. Smaller stuff such as work and documents can be backed up over Dropbox for free.
Better yet, leave two hard drives at the office, take one home over the weekend to copy over and on Monday, copy over to the one permanently in your office. If your house burns down over the weekend, at least you still have the one at the office.
This is what I do - leave a portable hard drive in my desk at work. I bring it home overnight if I need to update it, then take it back.
Make sure you have your name clearly on it. If the company ever went into administration you'd have to prove that it was yours.
There's no chance of it going into administration (government) and if it did, we'd be living in a lawless society ;) but that is a good tip, in the event I need to prove it is mine.
Don't forget to encryption your hard drive
Definitely recommend Backblaze. Unlimited backup, competitive prices. Don't think there is a better paid option out there
http://www.backblaze.com/partner/af6814
+1 and I use them myself to backup, after reading their story you would want to back up with them.
Flickr does 1tb for free, but I haven't found a way to easily upload a back log of images.
Anybody have any suggestions?