200 GB photo storage

ps2659
ps2659 Posts: 530
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I have an external hard drive with 200gig of photos and I worry that should this go faulty I would lose over 10 years of pictures, my question would it be better to back up with a second external hard drive or is there a low cost way to store this amount on an equivalent to icloud.
Thanks in advance for any replies.
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  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622
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    edited 7 June 2017 at 8:55AM
    ps2659 wrote: »
    I have an external hard drive with 200gig of photos and I worry that should this go faulty I would lose over 10 years of pictures, my question would it be better to back up with a second external hard drive or is there a low cost way to store this amount on an equivalent to icloud.
    Thanks in advance for any replies.

    There's an IT saying along the lines of "if your data isn't stored in at least 3 places it doesn't exist" so i would say, do both.

    In these days of ransomware, there's also a requirement for at least one of those copies to be offline apart from when backing it up. Otherwise, its possible the other copies, be they in cloud or local disk, will be encrypted along with the originals.

    I would advise, start by backing up locally to an additional disk, buy say a 500Gb disk and once a week plug it in, copy the current disk to that, unplug it. There are applications you can buy which will just copy the difference, so if you add 1Gb they will just copy the new 1Gb and not the last 200GB again.

    There are also online services which will backup at a schedule you pick into the cloud. Mozy is one such which i think generally gets good reports. I use one called Jungle Disk.

    If you googled something like "compare online backup services" no doubt you'll get dozens. Note the initial backup will take possibly days but it will happen in the background. If you have Amazon Prime they have unlimited photo storage which is pretty good for about £80 a year considering the other stuff you get, I'd use that myself but it doesn't work well with Apple.

    You can also use services like Dropbox to sync your photos folder into the cloud, I would guess that would be maybe a fiver a month for what you want. All these online cloud services will come with a scheduler or realtime sync up to their clouds.

    It would only take you a few minutes to sign up to dropbox or Mozy etc similar to start getting backed up online, and a 500Gb USB disk will cost maybe £30 or so. (I used to use Dropbox that works well.

    Here's what I do (you may think there is possibly an element of paranoia/ overkill here) :D
    I have a photos directory on my main drive.
    Every night an app runs that sycs that to a USB disk.
    Every night an app runs that sycs that USB disk to a copy.
    Every night an app runs that syncs my photo directory (and other stuff) to a cloud service.
    Occasionally, i plug in another HD and sync all my main files including photos to that disk, then unplug it. I should (but I dont) store that disk somewhere other than my house for triple protection.
  • As an FYI - if you plan on using Amazon Prime for photo storage - expect it to take a fair while to load up 200gb

    There is also the crazy option of printing off your most important photos and storing them somewhere safe
  • hop3y
    hop3y Posts: 517
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    Use Google Photos - unlimited cloud storage.
  • TonyMMM
    TonyMMM Posts: 3,376
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    There is also the crazy option of printing off your most important photos and storing them somewhere safe

    Not crazy at all - proper printed photos will last much longer than most digital files !

    The advice above is sound - you should have them stored in at least 3 places, one of which is "offsite". I would also consider maybe spending a bit of time editing what you have and making sure the stuff you have is worth keeping.
  • bengalknights
    bengalknights Posts: 5,021
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    hop3y wrote: »
    Use Google Photos - unlimited cloud storage.

    Ditto this unlimited storage upto certain spec
  • RumRat
    RumRat Posts: 4,772
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    hop3y wrote: »
    Use Google Photos - unlimited cloud storage.
    Another vote for Google Photos. Simple and automatic back up.
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  • glennevis
    glennevis Posts: 632
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    Note that Google Photos storage is only free if you accept a reduction in quality. Original photos are subject to your data limit.
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622
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    A reduction in quality would be absolutely unacceptable to me so I'd say you should pay the extra to ?google drive? to make sure that doesn't happen.

    From what i read google photos itself is a pretty good service.

    p.s. I forgot i have an additional backup service I use, this is for an Apple phone but you can use others on Android (if you take pictures on your phone) which is an app that automatically syncs any pics I take to my computer when i get home. Once they are in the computer they then get sucked into my standard backup schedule.

    So as long as I've been home once since taking some photos they will be stored even if i lose the phone without me needing to do anything like manually copy the photos. You can also automatically sync from phone direct to a backup, say google or apple or dropbox depending what data services etc you have (and probably just when you are in range of wifi if you dont want to use up your data allowance)
  • angryparcel
    angryparcel Posts: 926 Forumite
    hop3y wrote: »
    Use Google Photos - unlimited cloud storage.
    nothing is unlimited even in cloud storage , if a drive is 5TB then 5TB is the limit
  • ballyblack
    ballyblack Posts: 5,058
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    A reduction in quality would be absolutely unacceptable to me

    I use Google photos and I find their high quality free setting just fine.

    Why don't you try a small batch and see for yourself?
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