Photo storage

[Coyote machine]

Anyone tried 'Peggybank', a transfer service for old media of all types? It allows one to send out to Omaha, Nebraska all or some of their old 8mm movies, 35mm film, VHS, CD/DVD, etc. in whatever condition it's in to then be copied into a free storage vault in the cloud, where the material is accessible, share-able and downloadable. And one can still keep the original media at home, if desired, after the uploading, UNedited is complete.
I know it's not exactly the same as the title of this thread, Re: photo storage, but it is another way to accomplish same and more so I thought I'd put it in this thread and see if people are aware of it or possibly have used it as a service. Here is a review of the service from 2012, so there are bound to be additional/improved services added by now too.

Video - Walt Mossberg Reviews PeggyBank.com, Which Transfers Your Old Photos & Movies Into Current Media - WSJ.com

 

[Fossil Farm]

Have not used "Peggybank" but a local photo shop took my brother's 8 mm videos he took while serving in 'Nam and put them on a DVD several years ago. That worked out well. They did a very good job. Was not that expensive either.

 

[dragoneggs]

Have not used "Peggybank" but a local photo shop took my brother's 8 mm videos he took while serving in 'Nam and put them on a DVD several years ago. That worked out well. They did a very good job. Was not that expensive either.

That could be priceless. Historical footage... cool.

 

[Pixguy]

I use Carbonite, flash drives and external TB hard drives on a daily basis and I've never had a pc. of equipment fail on me. We back up regularly and store in a fire safe as well. I've used Western Digital EHD's and had no issues.

 

[kco]

How is everyone storing their digital pictures? I have been keeping all of mine on a external hard drive but it has been acting weird lately and I'm worried I'm about to lose 10+ years of pictures. I guess loading them onto photobucket or something similar is an option but that seems like a monumental task. So what is the best/safest way to store digital pictures?

If the external drive is acting weird it is likely best to immediately buy a new(and likely larger) one. Copy the existing data to it and use the new one as your default external drive. It will give you a full backup and time to decide on another system for saving photos and other data.

As others stated backups should be rotated to an offsite location to protect against disasters.

Another option is to install your own Network Attached Storage(NAS) to store and backup your photos and other data. I have a Synology DS111 which stores and backs up photos and data for three Windows PC's and two Android tablets. It runs 24x7 consuming 16 watts during disk access and 8 watts under disk hibernation.

Included software makes hourly backups (from 05:00 to 23:00) of critical personal and business data. Photos are backed up weekly. The backups go to a 1TB external USB drive. The software automatically cleans the backups. Each backup is kept 24 hours and the first backup of each day is kept for one month. The first backup of each week is kept forever, unless you choose to clean backups earlier than 3 months, 6 months or one year. I keep them forever and manually clean them, keeping at least one backup for each year. I rotate the external drives to a firesafe box.

It sounds like a lot of backup data, but it isn't. The software uses the Linux/Unix rsync utility to only store copies of changed files and pointers to the rest. For example, I have 20 GB of data in our personal and common data folders. There are about 300 backups using about 430GB (instead of 300 x 20GB = 6,000GB).

The current Synology entry-level single-disk DS112J costs about $150(you need to add the internal SATA disk). An even more secure solution is the entry-level, two-disk DS213J for about $200(you need to add two disks). It gives full RAID protection. So when a disk fails the system still runs and you replace the failed disk.

The diskstation is simpler to setup than a Windows PC and central storage makes sense if your household has several PC's/tablets. I use mine only as a "plain vanilla" file/backup server which reduces risks from flakey PC applications, malware, etc. I use the DLNA feature to watch videos on the TV and the included Photo Station to view photos on the TV.

There are other NAS's besides Synology.

 

[IslandTractor]

If the external drive is acting weird it is likely best to immediately buy a new(and likely larger) one. Copy the existing data to it and use the new one as your default external drive. It will give you a full backup and time to decide on another system for saving photos and other data.

As others stated backups should be rotated to an offsite location to protect against disasters.

Another option is to install your own Network Attached Storage(NAS) to store and backup your photos and other data. I have a Synology DS111 which stores and backs up photos and data for three Windows PC's and two Android tablets. It runs 24x7 consuming 16 watts during disk access and 8 watts under disk hibernation.

Included software makes hourly backups (from 05:00 to 23:00) of critical personal and business data. Photos are backed up weekly. The backups go to a 1TB external USB drive. The software automatically cleans the backups. Each backup is kept 24 hours and the first backup of each day is kept for one month. The first backup of each week is kept forever, unless you choose to clean backups earlier than 3 months, 6 months or one year. I keep them forever and manually clean them, keeping at least one backup for each year. I rotate the external drives to a firesafe box.

It sounds like a lot of backup data, but it isn't. The software uses the Linux/Unix rsync utility to only store copies of changed files and pointers to the rest. For example, I have 20 GB of data in our personal and common data folders. There are about 300 backups using about 430GB (instead of 300 x 20GB = 6,000GB).

The current Synology entry-level single-disk DS112J costs about $150(you need to add the internal SATA disk). An even more secure solution is the entry-level, two-disk DS213J for about $200(you need to add two disks). It gives full RAID protection. So when a disk fails the system still runs and you replace the failed disk.

The diskstation is simpler to setup than a Windows PC and central storage makes sense if your household has several PC's/tablets. I use mine only as a "plain vanilla" file/backup server which reduces risks from flakey PC applications, malware, etc. I use the DLNA feature to watch videos on the TV and the included Photo Station to view photos on the TV.

There are other NAS's besides Synology.

Well, you sound like you know what you are doing and I can follow about a third of it which simply reassures me that I'm better off letting the techies at BackBlaze handle matters for me. At about $4/month for real time backup whenever our two computers are on, it seems a deal to protect 500+Gbytes of data.

 

[jcummins]

Facing a decision on this very thing right now. I've used up to this point DVD and it's worked but getting unweildly. I like the idea of the cloud and also either a hard drive or thumb drives. My biggest problem is my Internet connection. I use Verizon broadband...a metered 20gb per month connection. I also use it all, and feel I'm a moderate Internet user. Using cloud services, I don't think my Internet connection will handle it without paying Verizon a fortune.

Others face this problem? How much bandwidth do you use with cloud backup?

 

[dragoneggs]

Facing a decision on this very thing right now. I've used up to this point DVD and it's worked but getting unweildly. I like the idea of the cloud and also either a hard drive or thumb drives. My biggest problem is my Internet connection. I use Verizon broadband...a metered 20gb per month connection. I also use it all, and feel I'm a moderate Internet user. Using cloud services, I don't think my Internet connection will handle it without paying Verizon a fortune.

Others face this problem? How much bandwidth do you use with cloud backup?

Once the initial backup is completed, there is actually very little data transfer unless you are collecting huge amounts of video, etc. as it only uploads new data.

 

[kco]

Facing a decision on this very thing right now. I've used up to this point DVD and it's worked but getting unweildly. I like the idea of the cloud and also either a hard drive or thumb drives. My biggest problem is my Internet connection. I use Verizon broadband...a metered 20gb per month connection. I also use it all, and feel I'm a moderate Internet user. Using cloud services, I don't think my Internet connection will handle it without paying Verizon a fortune.

Others face this problem? How much bandwidth do you use with cloud backup?

Internet usage is a major factor for me. My practical services are satellite or cellular service from Telus or Bell. I'm on a Bell TurboHub flex plan with monthly charges as follows:

up to 3GB $45
>3GB to 5GB $55
>5GB to 10GB $70
>10GB to 15GB $90
over 15GB is the $90 plus $0.015 per MB (i.e. $15.36 per GB)

At times we manage to keep below 5GB for $55 but more often go into the 5GB to 10GB area which costs $70. It costs $70 whether I use 5.001GB or 10.000GB.

If one goes to the 15GB limit, the cost would be $90/15 = $6.00 per GB. However everything after that costs $15.36 per GB. Talk about greed!

Telus' rates are slightly different(to give the appearance of competition) but equally greedy.

I try to keep below 5GB/month but it is usually not possible for our normal news reading, etc. We watch less YouTube/News videos than we would like and limit large software updates. However, if we see we're going over 5GB near the end of the month we download YouTube videos, large software updates, etc., being careful to stay under the next step (10 GB).

Another way I limit use is to download large files and YouTube videos at the library or a coffee house with fee WiFi.

Canada's internet rates are among the worst in the world. We need some real competition.

Anyhow, monthly data volumes are an important consideration for me.

 

[IslandTractor]

Internet usage is a major factor for me. My practical services are satellite or cellular service from Telus or Bell. I'm on a Bell TurboHub flex plan with monthly charges as follows:

up to 3GB $45
>3GB to 5GB $55
>5GB to 10GB $70
>10GB to 15GB $90
over 15GB is the $90 plus $0.015 per MB (i.e. $15.36 per GB)

At times we manage to keep below 5GB for $55 but more often go into the 5GB to 10GB area which costs $70. It costs $70 whether I use 5.001GB or 10.000GB.

If one goes to the 15GB limit, the cost would be $90/15 = $6.00 per GB. However everything after that costs $15.36 per GB. Talk about greed!

Telus' rates are slightly different(to give the appearance of competition) but equally greedy.

I try to keep below 5GB/month but it is usually not possible for our normal news reading, etc. We watch less YouTube/News videos than we would like and limit large software updates. However, if we see we're going over 5GB near the end of the month we download YouTube videos, large software updates, etc., being careful to stay under the next step (10 GB).

Another way I limit use is to download large files and YouTube videos at the library or a coffee house with fee WiFi.

Canada's internet rates are among the worst in the world. We need some real competition.

Anyhow, monthly data volumes are an important consideration for me.

Wow, those internet costs suck big time. I guess as it is cellular though it makes sense. I pay about $30 for 3GB/month on my ipad. At home we get very fast cable or optical (Comcast or Verizon Fios) for about $40/month with essentially unlimited use. I had to upload over 500gb in my initial backup to BackBlaze which took a couple weeks as I recall but after that it is only the files that change or are added that are retransmitted.

Is there any way to access a faster cheaper source temporarily? If so you could clone your HD and then backup the clone from the cheaper internet connection for the initial download. As it would be a clone drive, the subsequent backups should recognize only changes. You might want to contact a company like BackBlaze or Carbonite to see what solutions they might offer too. BackBlaze will send you your files on a USB stick or HD for a fee rather than forcing you to download them via internet. I wonder if they would permit you to do the initial upload the same way. Can't hurt to ask.