Backing up photos

JustBen · 4 Jan 2013 at 19:40

Hello,

Just wondering what's the best way to backup photo's? I have some on CD/DVD, External Drive and on a couple of internal drives.

As the photo's are quite important i want them to be un-loosable! Was wondering if anyone puts them in fireproof safes in the house / stored externally / put online?

For the safe idea i'm guessing DVD's are the most reliable?
Stored externally - is there anywhere that does this?
Online storage - is there any sites that are recommended which are secure? As there's pictures of my kid i don't want any site that may end up leaking them etc.

Sliver · 4 Jan 2013 at 19:49

always4lora said:
Hello,

Online storage - is there any sites that are recommended which are secure?

Yes. I use Dropbox. It's one of many forms of cloud storage. In other words, all your files are kept safely online once you have an account. Most accounts are free with cloud storage unless you want larger storage solutions, in which case you pay. I think my free Dropbox account gives me 2GB of storage.

CaptainCrash · 4 Jan 2013 at 19:56

Hava a look at Crashplan, it's very reasonably priced and does client-side encryption: http://www.crashplan.com/consumer/crashplan-plus.html

I wouldn't go with Dropbox for very sensitive or private stuff - they don't have the best track record when it comes to security, although they're probably OK for most people's needs.

JustBen · 4 Jan 2013 at 20:05

Cheers for the response, crash plan seems reasonable at 36$ a year for peace of mind. Will wait for a few more if any recommendations and take the plunge on that. I have a drop box free account but have more then 2gb of stuff that i need backing up.

theheyes · 4 Jan 2013 at 20:57

Skydrive gives you 7GB free. If you're worried about security use an encrypted container (use Truecrypt) and just upload the blobs but watch out for file size limits i.e. you'll probably have to encrypt your files in batches. If it's just for storage/retrieval purposes then you can't do much better really.

DVDs are a good, cheap solution but I would never store anything critical on discs and discs alone. They do deteriorate over time. You ideally want two backups on two different media, and one should be off-site.

Paul11 · 4 Jan 2013 at 21:03

DVDs are not the most reliable

depending on how many and how big you are talking about

external hard drive, is probablly the easiest , cost effective way