Back Up Your Photos!!!!

[rileysmommy]

Well, it happened. My external hard drive crashed and I've lost all of my 2007 photos. My only saving grace is that I do have a bunch of pictures from the year on the memory card in my dh's digital frame that I gave him for Christmas so I can salvage those but all of Christmas is gone. So please, back up your photos now!!!

I also lost my iTunes and all my other scrapping info I had saved on that drive.

 

[Kim1964]

I'm so sorry that happened to you!

Over the past few months I have started saving my photos on shutterfly as well as my own computer, so that they are saved somewhere outside of my house in case anything ever happened here.

 

[Lisa]

RileyMommy, I am so sorry to hear that. For a scrapper that has got to be the the worst thing to happen.

I, too, save my digital pics on my hard drive and Shutterfly.

 

[MaryJ]

I have often thought about saving my photos to Shutterfly or Photobucket, but what if their server/hard drive should crash? Would all my pictures be lost then? Am I better off putting my pictures on CD's?

I also had a close shave right before Christmas. My computer died, but it was only the power source that was affected. Everything on my hard drive was fine.

 

[lewdyan1]

You might want to consider an online backup service. We use Carbonite. We pay a monthly fee, but it backs up the computer, not just pictures, all documents, music...

 

[MazdaUK]

My PC died in 2006, but luckily all my photos were on Snapfish. I now have a shadow hard-drive which automatically backs everything up as a copy, plus I put everything into CM Memory Manager and back that up manually as well as saving to the hard drive.

How terrible to lose those precious photos though Does anyone else have any they can send you? Not of your personal events but bigger Christmas things you may have attended (School plays, carol concerts?). I'm alwyas the one with the camera - my DSis never thinks of it (anyway, she spends Christmas cooking )so I'm always extra careful with my pics.

 

[piratesmate]

Oh I'm so sorry!! That's got to be one of the worst things!!

I have to say, though, that you've made me really nervous now! We have multiple computers here & I was copying my photos to other hard drives across the network while waiting to be able to us the one with the burner. (Mine is just a mini-drive. ) For Christmas DH got me a 500GB external hard drive & I figured I could just use that & stop worrying about fighting to use the system with the burner. I guess not, huh?

 

[PrincessNancy96]

OH, I am so so sorry... I have all but the recent 2007 photos on disc.. so I will be doing the rest after lunch...

here is big to help just a little...

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

multiple back ups re the key, disk at home, disk in a safety deposit box, a hard drive and online photo storage. It's the only way to be truly safe.

Have you tried to take the HD somewhere and see if they can salvage it?

 

[Twigs]

Sorry that happened to you. Losing your pictures has got to be so upsetting. I am always worried about that. I have never reused my memory cards and back up everything on the computer on CD's. We had our computer crash several years ago and lost everything on it, so I am paranoid about that.

 

[jdcthree]

Oh no - I'm so sorry! I would just feel sick. I try to keep up with saving photos on CDs for that very reason.

 

[KerTggr]

I have often thought about saving my photos to Shutterfly or Photobucket, but what if their server/hard drive should crash? Would all my pictures be lost then? Am I better off putting my pictures on CD's?

MaryJ - Most/all these major companies backup their data externally as well. However, I don't know what Shutterfly and Photobucket's policies are that they would support recovery of your photos (if they market themselves as a backup source). I would have to agree with BernardandMissBianca that multiple sources is best. Key thing to remember here though is 1) Data storage has a shelf life too (CD & DVD's average only 10 years) and 2) many Banks/Storage units may be set up for fire safety, but not necisarilly for temperature control like server farms are. So you may want to consider the option lewdyan1 states:

You might want to consider an online backup service. We use Carbonite. We pay a monthly fee, but it backs up the computer, not just pictures, all documents, music...

You can usually specify the specific folders you want backed up by these services (if you have privacy concerns). Usually a job runs on a regular basis (ex: nightly) and a differential backup is taken in regular intervals (ex: daily/weekly). Also, most companies will do a regular full backup on a more lengthy basis (ex: monthly/quarterly) just in case something isn't caught in the differential backup and to optimize their backups. MOST of the time, these are in a different server farm location too (as drastic as in multiple states - usually not oversees if they support US or EA countries (unless their privacy statement says so)).

 

[Queenie]

I've been there too, we lost everything on a laptop when it had an accident. Probably a year's worth of photos. Gonna back mine up tomorrow now!

 

[New England Eeyore]

I'm so sorry that happened to you! I also wonder if there's anything to be salvaged from the drive. Those Geek Squad geniuses have always impressed me.

Lewdyan/KerTggr - can you tell me more about Carbonite? I took a quick look at the website - is it really just $50 a year? That seems worth it to me. Aside from the photos, between my stuff and the kids' stuff, iTunes is getting quite bulky and I could never afford to replace all the music and video if I lost that.

 

[JandJ]

I am so sorry! The same thing happened to me last year! I now back-up on redundant hard drives and DVDs (which I keep at our house, my in-law's house, and our safety deposit box - possibly overkill but I do it for our important pictures like our wedding). I also upload almost everything to Shutterfly. I lost almost all of our pictures from July 2005 forward last year. Thank goodness I had our wedding photos and Las Vegas trip backed up on a stick drive, and our anniversary cruise was on a separate hard drive, and I'd already printed out almost everything else. But, sadly, DH lost the pictures of his trip to Bethlehem It was a sad, sad day around here.

 

[Faerie]

This makes me feel better for being crazy. I have my pictures on my laptop and my external HD. They're also on DBF's computer and HIS external. ALSO, I have them on DVD, one set at home, one at my mom's and one at DBF's moms. If that's not enough, well I'm in trouble

 

[MaryJ]

I looked into Carbonite, but they don't support Macs at this time. I did send them an email offering to be a beta tester when it becomes available though. It does seem like a very secure place to store my pictures.

 

[rlovew]

My mom has a mac and she has a backup system I think through Apple. I can ask her what she uses if you would like.

Rebecca

 

[MaryJ]

Thanks! That would be great!

 

[RLccweems]

Well, it happened. My external hard drive crashed and I've lost all of my 2007 photos. My only saving grace is that I do have a bunch of pictures from the year on the memory card in my dh's digital frame that I gave him for Christmas so I can salvage those but all of Christmas is gone. So please, back up your photos now!!!

I also lost my iTunes and all my other scrapping info I had saved on that drive.

I feel your pain.....


This just happened to me about two weeks ago....I just wanted to cry.

lettie