Rachel Foster
New member
Has anyone used them? Recommend them? Which ones?
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On line storage services
- Thread starter Rachel Foster
- Start date
Charles L Webster
pro member
Given that hard drives are so cheap these days, I'd suggest just getting a couple of external hard drives and using them instead.
You have no assurance (other than that of the company) that they will actually still exist if you need your files.
And you need to consider upload time. I have about 40GB of photos. At my usual upload speed, my initial backup would take a month to complete.
Redundant local storage, under your own control, with one or more copies stored off-site (friend, relative, safe deposit box) and a rigourous backup schedule will cover you better, faster, and even cheaper ;-)
You have no assurance (other than that of the company) that they will actually still exist if you need your files.
And you need to consider upload time. I have about 40GB of photos. At my usual upload speed, my initial backup would take a month to complete.
Redundant local storage, under your own control, with one or more copies stored off-site (friend, relative, safe deposit box) and a rigourous backup schedule will cover you better, faster, and even cheaper ;-)
John Angulat
pro member
Hi Rachel,
I agree with Charles.
And he brings up a very good point regarding success/failure of the actual on-line company.
Companies come and go these days with disturbing regularity.
I also ran your question past my IT guys.
Their response was essentially no company worth its salt utilizes on-line storage (regardless what the adverts tell you).
1. Back up on a disciplined schedule
2. Create 2 back-ups, one kept locally (for immediate recovery if necessary) and one kept off-site.
Off-site for me is simply my desk drawer at work.
There's a large selection of back-up s/w available. Once you get past the initial back-up, which will take a bit of time you're only backing up changed files from that point forward.
I agree with Charles.
And he brings up a very good point regarding success/failure of the actual on-line company.
Companies come and go these days with disturbing regularity.
I also ran your question past my IT guys.
Their response was essentially no company worth its salt utilizes on-line storage (regardless what the adverts tell you).
1. Back up on a disciplined schedule
2. Create 2 back-ups, one kept locally (for immediate recovery if necessary) and one kept off-site.
Off-site for me is simply my desk drawer at work.
There's a large selection of back-up s/w available. Once you get past the initial back-up, which will take a bit of time you're only backing up changed files from that point forward.
Edward Bussa
Member
I agree with Charles and John (even though I didn't read Charles' post and barely skimmed John's!)...
I'm more of a DIY, use my own hands type, so I got one of these and a few cheap 1tb hard drives... it makes swapping hard drives a breeze... behold, the terrafloppy...
http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=HDD-ESATADOCK
I'm more of a DIY, use my own hands type, so I got one of these and a few cheap 1tb hard drives... it makes swapping hard drives a breeze... behold, the terrafloppy...
http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=HDD-ESATADOCK
Sandrine Bascouert
Member
Can you describe exactly what is it, I mean what have you DIY'd in this combo...And where did you find the rest. thanks...
Alain Briot
pro member
Ed, that's a great option for HD storage. Thank you for the link. The only thing missing is a firewire connection.
Charles L Webster
pro member
By way of explanation, what Ed's showing is a dock for a bare hard drive so you can swap individual drives in and out easily. It isn't really do it yourself, but you do have to figure out volume naming etc. for yourself, which a packaged external backup drive handles for you.
With a bare drive, you must provide static-safe packaging while the drive is out of the dock, but that's a simple case of reusing the original drive packaging.
Since my backups rotate to someone else's house for storage, I use USB enclosures for each of mine.
With a bare drive, you must provide static-safe packaging while the drive is out of the dock, but that's a simple case of reusing the original drive packaging.
Since my backups rotate to someone else's house for storage, I use USB enclosures for each of mine.
Edward Bussa
Member
Great explanation Chas. I have lost site of how scary this thing looks. I was skeptical of it when I first got it myself!
The 1TB drives come in an electrostatic bag. Keep the bag. When it comes out of the BlacX, put it back in the bag. I put the bag in a styrofoam "box" that the drive shipped in, and then I put that in a paper bag and carry it offsite that way.
I've been using it for over a year now, I use a PC and have developed my own batch file to do backups.
When you first use the drives you have to initialize them using Windows Disk Manager. I don't know what the equivalent is on the Macs. It doesn't do Firewire, but this product does:
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/revi...e-usb-esata-sata-hard-drive-docking-solution/
It is very similar to the BlacX and they are actually compared directly at the link.
If anyone gets one, feel free to contact me for my batch file or answers to questions...
The 1TB drives come in an electrostatic bag. Keep the bag. When it comes out of the BlacX, put it back in the bag. I put the bag in a styrofoam "box" that the drive shipped in, and then I put that in a paper bag and carry it offsite that way.
I've been using it for over a year now, I use a PC and have developed my own batch file to do backups.
When you first use the drives you have to initialize them using Windows Disk Manager. I don't know what the equivalent is on the Macs. It doesn't do Firewire, but this product does:
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/revi...e-usb-esata-sata-hard-drive-docking-solution/
It is very similar to the BlacX and they are actually compared directly at the link.
If anyone gets one, feel free to contact me for my batch file or answers to questions...
Edward Bussa
Member
I only meant DIY in comparison to sending your files to the cloud...
You hook this up to your computer via a USB cable or an eSATA cable. The eSATA is quite a bit faster, but not all computer support eSATA.
Once you get it hooked up, you insert a hard drive, up to 1 terrabyte. Turn on the BlackX and your operating system should detect a new Mass Media Storage device. After completing a few setup steps, you can start copying files to the new drive.
You can use backup software, batch files, or any other backup method that copies files to other drives.
Not sure if you have any specific questions... ?
You hook this up to your computer via a USB cable or an eSATA cable. The eSATA is quite a bit faster, but not all computer support eSATA.
Once you get it hooked up, you insert a hard drive, up to 1 terrabyte. Turn on the BlackX and your operating system should detect a new Mass Media Storage device. After completing a few setup steps, you can start copying files to the new drive.
You can use backup software, batch files, or any other backup method that copies files to other drives.
Not sure if you have any specific questions... ?
Rachel Foster
New member
Thanks so much! I'm glad I asked!
Ben Rubinstein
pro member
The cloud is very useful. But not (yet) for significant amounts of data such as a photographers hard drives. The upload speeds are too slow and often capped by the cloud provideders. I use Carbonite and have stored on it all my family pictures, all my business paperwork and stuff, my program settings, album orders, etc, etc. stuff that I want to be able to recover immediately and also access while away from home.
I do like that hard drive 'non' enclosure shown above, I store backup drives offsite and this could make it easier to access them.
At present day cloud storage is good for up to about 100gb of data, any more than that and you will pull your hair out to upload or download the data.
I do like that hard drive 'non' enclosure shown above, I store backup drives offsite and this could make it easier to access them.
At present day cloud storage is good for up to about 100gb of data, any more than that and you will pull your hair out to upload or download the data.
Andrew Stannard
pro member
Hi,
I've had a subscription to BackBlaze in the past - another online cloud storage site.
As Ben has indicated, it's upload speed that is a problem - particularly on initial backup, which can take a good few days, if not weeks. Once everything's uploaded it would work well for normal family PC usage - but if you come back from a shoot with a few Gb of data it's going to take a while.
The benefit is the offsite storage factor, but if you can work this out yourself via multiple Harddrives then I don't think you're currently gaining a great deal.
Perhaps in the future when upload speeds are much better they will become more useful for photographers - although I dare say we'll all be shooting with 100MPix camera, so our own file sizes will have increased as well!
Cheers,
I've had a subscription to BackBlaze in the past - another online cloud storage site.
As Ben has indicated, it's upload speed that is a problem - particularly on initial backup, which can take a good few days, if not weeks. Once everything's uploaded it would work well for normal family PC usage - but if you come back from a shoot with a few Gb of data it's going to take a while.
The benefit is the offsite storage factor, but if you can work this out yourself via multiple Harddrives then I don't think you're currently gaining a great deal.
Perhaps in the future when upload speeds are much better they will become more useful for photographers - although I dare say we'll all be shooting with 100MPix camera, so our own file sizes will have increased as well!
Cheers,
Sandrine Bascouert
Member
Thank you for the explanation!