Storage Solutions Storing digital pics, what are the reliable options ?

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raksrules

raksrules

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I have lot of pictures on my external HDD. There are some scattered around in couple of laptops and such. But since now we all tend to almost not print pics but rather just keep them on our HDDs, there is always a threat of the media failing / HDD crashing and causing loss of all the memories.
So what are the options you all people are using to store your pics / personal videos ?

Having multiple copies ? Multiple media ? Online ?

I am trying to find best possible ways to sort this on how to organize the pictures / personal family videos etc so as to avoid them getting lost due to media failure or similar catastrophes.
 
Me too have the same predicament and "Cloud Storage" seems to be the way to go. What's your take on keeping personal data on some remote server?
 
I've uploaded most of my albums to Google Plus. The privacy settings seem to work, and syncing via Picassa is a breeze.
The only problem is that if you want an unlimited amount of storage space, you've got to allow your pics to be resized to 4MP.
Obviously putting sensitive stuff online isn't advisable, unless you use encryption. In that case you can use MEGA. They use encryption, and give you about 50GB free storage space.
 
If cloud or online is the option , Get the chicagovps.net VPS, with 100 GB space . Works as a seedbox and to download torrents with IDM from it , which you have been looking for . You can even share your data with family with ftp and username and passwords . 3TB per month good enough for normal use keeping the price in mind 190 bucks per month
 
The thing with sites like Mega is there is no guarantee they will exist after a year or so. It's better to stick to the big boys Google, etc.
 
At least the biggies warn you before they are gonna shut down (if they do) so you have time to collate your content.

Btw except online what options do i have ?
Assume i have 10-20 GB of stuff, uploading on my connection is not practical at this moment.
 
Multiple backups on 1-2 hard drives may be? Some of my friends had a lot of content backed up on Kodak gold CDs (used to be good back then) which no longer work. So optical media may not be trustworthy over the long run.

I store and backup only the good and memorable photographs as backups although I take a whole dump of the camera's SD card once in a while. This is a bit time consuming though.
 
An additional hard drive (against expensive 32GB/64GB USB pen drive) sounds like a good idea. I can just dump pics and videos on the HDD and stow away the HDD in the closet ?
Do i then need to periodically use the HDD once in a while to keep it in running condition or just keep it stowed away.
Offcouse i will use the HDD when i require to store additional media as and when i take new pics / videos.

Writing multiple single or dual layer DVDs is also an option but i am just worried that if i do not keep them properly, it may just go bad and extracting information from bad optical disc might be very difficult. But isn't it mentioned somewhere that DVDs can retain data for like 100 years ?
 
I precisely do this:

dump pics and videos on the HDD and stow away the HDD in the closet ?
Click to expand...

I have 3 2TB HDDs completely filled with content stashed away in a box. The box has provision for storing 5 nos. 3.5" hard drives using a styrofoam padding inside. It had come when I had received a drive back from an RMA request. This may not be the perfect solution but works for me.

That reminds me, I haven't checked about the drive's status in a while - I should be doing it sometime soon.
 
@raksrules , DVD will go bad after some years even if you keep it in closet. The 100 yr life is for bluray disks I think. Best option is multiple backups like you mentioned.
 
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I have kept all my personal Videos and pics in 2 * 16 GB pendrives and kept them in a closet . I felt HDD with moving parts might have a high failure than pendrives which have ICs . Now have also backed up pics on google drive and dropbox + VPS for sharing with family . Except 3G I have found upload rate quite good on Wimax even on slower connections
 
I have a two copies on dvd + two copies on the hdd.
Cloud I do have some re sized pics, but i really don't want to spend money on that based on a subscription model.
 
One option if someone wants is Box.net
It was providing 50GB free storage with new registrations some time back or with some mobiles or something.
 
These pictures will keep on piling up and later you may have vdos and stuff....

I have stuff from my college days which I have managed to store till now... like photos and some of the work that I have done.
Some most most fav songs that I actually recorded from cassettes at that time. It was some 250MB then but now its upto 50-60GB. I generally keep all the data organized in a single parent folder holding many organized child folders which is easy to search and update. Make sure that the nesting is not too long nor the folder names. And I keep a copy of these folders on multiple HDD. I have a couple of 160/250GB internal hdd which I stopped using after upgrading my PC so I started using them as back up drives. I create 2 partitions and keep multiple copies... I am also thinking of finding a even better solution coz than my current approach its a pain to sync folders once you change few files in any of the backup copy. I was thinking of either
1) A multiple HDD enclosure box setup in Raid like drobo. (currently not willing to spend on it).
2)Setting up VSTS locally and uploading all backup these. This way I can even retrieve old versions of any file accidentally overwritten/deleted. --(Though this option is still on paper. I never tried anything like this for personal use.) Also this option has the overhead of taking backup of the VSTS db but many advt like VSTS is good at managing its DB and your files. Relatively safe as the backup is single file and encrypted so backups can be set on cloud also... and no tension of bothering of syncing multiple backups...

The safest option would be to setup drobo with 4HDD and install VSTS on it :)
(VSTS does need equal amount of space as your working area where you will extract files to use them).
 
kuduku said:
If cloud or online is the option , Get the chicagovps.net VPS, with 100 GB space . Works as a seedbox and to download torrents with IDM from it , which you have been looking for . You can even share your data with family with ftp and username and passwords . 3TB per month good enough for normal use keeping the price in mind 190 bucks per month
Click to expand...

I couldn't find any links where the price would translate to Rs. 190 a month. This seems a good option
Could you please elaborate. Either here or PM. TIA

Edit: found this in the specials. http://www.chicagovps.net/specials.html

How safe is this for torrenting? The servers are US based. Won't they be monitored?
 
IMO, online is the best option. Offload the headache of maintaining backups and the accompanying clutter and headache to the cloud fairies. If the photos are really important to you and you have a lot of them, it may also turn out cheaper in the long run.
 
have you considered services meant specially for long term archiving? google it; there are so many of them. what you are discussing here is the stuff meant for day-to-day use... high efficiency hard drives, NAS on RAID, Blu-Rays, Cloud storage, stowing away a hard disk/pen drive in closet... all these things are meant for data that we access on a regular basis.

what you need is a store-and-forget-it type solution. there are cloud storage services available that offer long term storage with almost 100% chances of data retrieval. these data centers are located in far corners of the world and offer all kinds of protection against natural calamities. same can't be said for daily use dropboxes and google drives. you can't have peace of mind with these free and low cost 50~100GB boxes. long term cloud storage gives you less bandwidth but high throughput. it works on the principle that people don't access precious data 'daily'. of course, you'll be using your regular hard drives and NAS for usual/duplicate storage. long term cloud storage saves you from the headache of device failure/fire/theft/flood/sabotage etc that you can't always avoid at home. google it (some of them are the very same companies that offer free storage).

and then there are specialty solid state devices (pen drives) that offer superior protection against damage and gives you very high data retrieval guarantee. they are different from the usual drives. imagine someone drops your hard disk (precious memories) while taking it out from the 'closet'. but the long term storage drives (i don't think they are mechanical) gives you extra assurance that your data won't corrupt even in extreme temperatures and physical/water damage... provided you don't use them on a daily basis. they are meant to be stored in lockers. search online for such drives. they may not be of high capacities because of the intricacies involved.
 
I think along with offline option like HDD (i have a 250GB HDD spare), i will utilize my box.com account which has around 18GB of pics / videos already stored and i will use that only to store more.
In additional i have a media box at home for watching movies on TV and that is housing 1TB WD Green HDD. But most of the space is free in that as of now so i shall store one copy there.
Btw for the external HDD and internal HDD how can i check its health ?
 
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