Secure storage of photos and documents

Katy43

What's the best way of having secure storage for photos and documents?

I've been looking at cloud (?) storage but don't know anything about it.

Could any one advise please.

ChiefGrasscutter

Depending on how much you want to store, how valuable it is.

Lots of backups on either
1. external USB power drives such as WD elements portable
2. On write once DVD's which are then 'finalised'.

Then you should ensure you have multiple copies.
The backups should only be connected to the computer to do the backup and never left in permanently.

Finally the backups need to be stored somewhere safe.
In other parts of the house is a starting point but probbaly also you should be looking at storing some remote from the house in another location.

I personally am highly wary of the cloud and the various offerings.
1. The security of the data. I'd not be happy storing documents somewhere out of my view/control unless they were encrypted first.
2. Likelyhood/possibility of the cloud storage suddenly 'vanishing'. The story of Megaupload is instructive here. It was a cloud provider closed by the FBI/NSA due to illegal stuff stored on it and all the servers confiscated by the US government. This meant that all those who had perfectly legal stuff on it suddenly found one day that not only was it not there anymore but their data and documents were now being pored over by the US government.....and they stil have not got them back.

I'd heard it said that unless you have at least 3 copies of your data kept in separate places then your data should not be considered as safe.
I have 4 copies.

ARandomMiser

I am a huge fan of cloud storage but still believe that it should be part of a larger backup schedule and not the only backup - especially now that various cloud suppliers are removing their free storage.

The advantage of cloud storage is that you can set it up and forget it. My photos directory is in my googledrive area so anytime I save new photos to my directory or amend them they automatically get copied up to googledrive (I do nothing). I have not had to use the versioning yet but hope that google may store versions of photos for when I make a mistake.

Ainsley1

Depends what you mean by secure.
Usually two aspects:
Safely stored for confidentiality so that there is no unauthorized access
Securely stored so there is no data loss.
There is also some crossover in that unauthorised access may lead to loss through 'tampering' (malicious or unintended prodding fingers).

So as mentioned above the potential lack of security of the cloud and probably unforseen loss irrespective who provides the service.

Multiple locations, multiple methods and multiple copies as well as frequent updates might be considered best as well considering managing them all and keeping them we secure. Only you can decide the depths you will employ.

Consider your photos as data and assuming they all reside on one folder with perhaps subfolders on your PC .
Possibly still on camera cards, but they may get deleted in use;
External hard disk - like PC may be accidentally wiped or suffer failure or virus etc copied over; easy quick and fairly cheap for memory size and can be set up to just get the changes/new additions copied (differential/incremental backup). Not too prone to failure from power supply faults as only connected a short time.
DVD (s) an be stored in separate area, more limited in capacity, but several used only take up a small space and although slower to backup a new one can be used every time.
Cloud free for smaller size storage and pay for service available. Easy to use, someone else looks after it (but how well?) Software can be set up to do backup in the background whilst you are online.
First two can be done without internet connection and you have full control.
Let's not forget that printing can be done too. Good professional prints can last many a year -but rather defeats the object of digital photos for most pictures!
Be aware that the digital copies may not last a lifetime!! DVDs do deteriorate suggested archive life of five to ten years and that technology changes so even the backups may need to be copied over time (consider the demise of older technology such as vhs video, reel to reel tapes and outdated software from thirty to forty years ago)

So depends upon your need, importance attached to your memories time scales you wish to consider, but.........

Do a backup of them is the best start. Also backup the system you use in case you cannot recover them if needed. Any backup is useless if you cannot recover the data!!!

Pick something and do it in the short term and then refine/improve it? If you value your photos it is not expensive really.:T

ARandomMiser

I should have added a note about secure storage for documents.
For security I use Cubby (used to use Bitcasa and Sugarsync until they started charging)

Katy43

Thank you for all your replies, you've given me lots of ideas.

Re memory sticks, this may be a very daft question but are they affected by temperature changes and damp? I'm just thinking of places I can store them.

[Deleted User]

Katy43 wrote: »

Re memory sticks, this may be a very daft question but are they affected by temperature changes and damp?

I once, accidentally put one through a 40 degree machine wash, and it still worked perfectly.

jk0

I'm very pleased with Mozy. They have restored my documents about three times now, and cost £4.99 per month.

http://mozy.co.uk/product/mozy/personal?cid=sem-adwords-search-UK:_Search:_Branded-Mozy_-_MozyFree&gclid=Cj0KEQjwjoC6BRDXuvnw4Ym2y8MBEiQACA-jWd2iwSsu_9z9HzwnWabVOJyE5KmKhW6VDHNLaEq91JUaAoiY8P8HAQ

ChiefGrasscutter

Katy43 wrote: »

Thank you for all your replies, you've given me lots of ideas.

Re memory sticks, this may be a very daft question but are they affected by temperature changes and damp? I'm just thinking of places I can store them.

Standard memory sticks are OK for short term storage but they are not really designed for or built to the standard required for long term storage: if that is what you were thinking - cheap and cheerful is the word.
In short they are likely to fail.
Secondly as with all USB type external storage devices ensure that you always do a "safe removal" of the device the in Windows operating system first and do not just haul out the device from the USB socket regardless. this will ensure all buffered data is written to the devices and the files properly closed.
Sooner or later just yanking the device out will result in the master file table getting corrupted and your files will be very often totally lost

Long term residents of this forum have lost count of the number of times we have heard the plea of my "USB stick/USB external drive worked yesterday/whenever but now when I plug it in, it is not recognised by the computer and I cannot access it": and we all have a pretty good idea of why and how this has happened.

Katy43

Thank you, so how would I do a 'safe removal' of a USB stick?

George_Michael

Assuming that you are running Windows on your pc or laptop.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/safely-remove-devices-from-your-computer