Photo storage and backup solution

[mattyjim123]

Hi again guys,

As a family, we've decided its about time to get all the old photos out, sort them, and scan them all ready to be stored digitally.

What I'm at a loss about is, after they've all been scanned, where can I store them that will be secure enough, last for a few decades (at least), and in the event of a disaster (house burns down etc) is still safe and accessible.

I was thinking of a two options:
- Files backed up to two HDD's each (SSD's would be better maybe?) and stored in a fireproof safe in the house. My concern is whether the drives will survive with the temperatures of a house fire.
- Back up all the photos online, on websites such as dropbox/Amazon S3. My issue here is whether I trust the companies or the future of them to keep my data safe for decades.

What do I do?!
Any suggestions/concerns are very much welcomed.

Cheers

 

[ianh]

Why not do both, just to give you the widest range of persistence against failure?

I have both a physical (2x external HD) and cloud-based back-up of all my important docs, mainly for my company but for most of my personal stuff too.

 

[slinxy]

why don't you store the media at your work? copy them on to external hdd and just keep them in your draw at work or some other offsite location.

me personally, I just keep the photos on the sd card, by the time I fill one up, media is so cheap now, I just get another likely bigger than the one I just filled for cheaper. Thou I don't take many photos.

 

[ci_newman]

As above, do both. I have all my photos regularly backed up to an external HDD and auto-sychronises to Googledrive every night from my NAS

 

[Minstadave]

Flickr will give you 1TB of free space, or if you use office 365 Microsoft is soon to be offering unlimited storage and is a pretty safe bet.

I wouldn't bother with a fireproof safe, sounds more hassle than needed.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

stored digitally.
What do I do?!

stored digitally.

Is this a call and response thing because you asked the question and then answered it yourself. HD and/or any of the major online digital storage sites.

 

[stopper]

I'm the opposite. I have all my photos backed up on the PC, a USB, the PS3 and google drive, but I want them all printed to real card so I can get rid of the digital copies.

 

[flame696]

I have stored them on a server where i have 2 disks running in RAID1, then i have 2 disks running as back up 1 and 2 then i have 2 external hdd which i use for monthly back ups one of the hdds i store at a family members house

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

why don't you store the media at your work? copy them on to external hdd and just keep them in your draw at work or some other offsite location.

I do similar to you. 1TB 3.5" for on-site backup in the house running off a NAS, then 1TB 2.5" for off-site backup which is in a backpack that is always by me.

I'm not sure if it's relevant nowadays, but I was told around 2004 that optical media is by far the least destructive form of backup... the least likely media to fail after x number of years, where hard drives and USB sticks are likely to fail earlier.

 

[Antony101]

Amazon Cloud Drive?

 

[ajf]

If you get a fire safe it MUST be rated for digital media. Standard fire boxes for paper will not protect disks.
I have a small one that holds about 4 2.5" hard disks.
I also keep another external disk at my work in the fire safe there and finally keep the real favourites backed up to Google Drive too.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

All of that seemed overkill until I saw your sig.

 

[ajf]

All of that seemed overkill until I saw your sig.

Yeah, I guess you'd call me a serial snapper
I can't help it!

 

[quackers]

I have two usb HD's for my backups, one here and one at my dad's. I use Rsync to run the backups every couple of weeks, you can get it for Windows as well, highly recommended.