Where to store photos?

[erin1715]

Hi all, I have a lot of photos that right now are just saved onto my hard drive, which take up a lot of space. Where does everyone store their photos? On a site like shutterfly, snapfish, etc? Or an external hard drive? I would like to free up the space on my hard drive, but I want to make sure I dont' lose the photos. What do you all suggest?

 

[LittleMissMagic]

I suggest backing up in two locations. I splurged on a 2TB external hard drive (not just for photos - I'm an architecture major, so if my computer were to crash, years of projects would be gone), and I also have a pro Flickr account where I save all of my photos. I start by just uploading all of my pictures to Flickr, not just my best - then I'll go through and delete that bad ones.

I do recommend backing up online and springing for an account which will allow you to upload high-quality images (many photo-sharing sites have a free account with a storage limit, but for just $6.95 every three months, I have unlimited storage on Flickr... other sites like Photobucket, Smugmug, etc. have similar pro account option) because if you were to damage your external hard drive (spill water on it, drop and break it, it gets damaged in fire, etc.), you'd be able to get your original size images offline. But, I also wouldn't rely solely on an online photo storage site because accessibility could become limited with that, as well (you could lose your Internet connection, the site could have failure, the company could become bankrupt, etc.). Always back up in multiple places, and back up often - you can never back up too often (because when the computer crashes, you almost always lose more work than you think you have).

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

I use two external hard drives and my Flickr Pro account. The external hard drives are copies of each other and Flickr has the "best of". I am looking at upgrading my externals to 3tb from 1tb. Amazon has Western Digital 3tb for 149.99 with free shipping. Also when on vacation, I bring two 750gb portable hard drives to transfer the cards, so I then can clear the cards for reuse.

 

[photo_chick]

Don't just have one place you store them. You can never have too many backups. I have multiple copies of my image library on hard drives and discs. I also have a copy stashed on a drive that I keep at another location (online storage got too expensive). You never know what will happen and all storage media will fail at some point.

As far as keeping my "main" hard drive with less, I only keep the current year's images on there (about 200 GB worth right now). Then I have a couple of external drives that are my "working copy" of the rest of my image library.

 

[meanpc]

Flickr Pro.

 

[ssanders79]

Huge external drives are super cheap. The idea of redundant backups is a great idea. I used to burn cdr copies on a regular basis, but this was becoming a burden with the increasing raw file sizes. I offload cards to my laptop to an external drive that I use for all my images. I'm going to start using a 2x2TB as my redundant backups which will be stored in a fireproof box until I can find a suitable offsite location (at a friends house).

I personal would not depend on Flickr as my online backup. I just use my pro account to share photos.

 

[photo_chick]

I personal would not depend on Flickr as my online backup. I just use my pro account to share photos.

I tend to agree as a primary form of off site storage. I do have my "important" jpegs on my Smugmug account and I do consider that one more backup. But a whole lot of other backups would need to fail before I have to use those jpegs to rebuild my library.

Something to keep in mind is that every image site, even paid sites like Smugmug, Zenfolio and Flickr Pro do change your original file. It may only be slightly, but it still changes it. Being able to download your original resolution file is not the same as being able to download your original file. The exception that I can think of is the Smugmug Vault. For online storage, if it's to serve as a main off site backup, I'd go with a service like Carbonite or Mozy that deals in files and not images because it's a different approach to storage.

 

[meanpc]

I tend to agree as a primary form of off site storage. I do have my "important" jpegs on my Smugmug account and I do consider that one more backup. But a whole lot of other backups would need to fail before I have to use those jpegs to rebuild my library.

Something to keep in mind is that every image site, even paid sites like Smugmug, Zenfolio and Flickr Pro do change your original file. It may only be slightly, but it still changes it. Being able to download your original resolution file is not the same as being able to download your original file. The exception that I can think of is the Smugmug Vault. For online storage, if it's to serve as a main off site backup, I'd go with a service like Carbonite or Mozy that deals in files and not images because it's a different approach to storage.

Are you saying that you are unable to download the original JPG you uploaded to Zenfolio and Flickr Pro? This is news to me. Link to source?

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Go buy two external drives. Back up all your photos onto both of them. Take one of them out of the house. If you have a locked file cabinet at work, or a safety deposit box, or a family members house that isn't too far away.

Then once a month, copy the new photos onto the one you left at home and go switch that drive with your offsite drive. Then, at worst, you could potentially lose a month's worth of photos.

Yes you could use an online backup strategy (like carbonite) but I don't trust those services.

 

[photo_chick]

Are you saying that you are unable to download the original JPG you uploaded to Zenfolio and Flickr Pro? This is news to me. Link to source?

You don't get back the identical file. I read a blog article a while back that pointed it out. I don't remember who posted it and I didn't believe it when I read it so I uploaded an image and downloaded it back and it was not identical to the original. I did this with Flickr Pro, Smugmug, Zenfolio and Deviantart. There were subtle changes and the services do process the files when you upload (mainly artifacting and color alteration). Might only be an issue if you're nit picky, but it is there.

If I can find the article again I'll post a link.

 

[Cafeen]

Another online option is simple webspace hosting rather than a photo-based service.

I've been using 1&1 for my hosting for several years now for my finished photos as well as other web development projects. I do have a business level account that offers me some increased "stuff" on it, but even the unlimited offers unlimited storage space and bandwidth.

Granted, they don't have the fancy photo sharing tools like Flickr or Smugmug (which I do use for my sharing of "finished" stuff), but for a raw storage solution would work out quite well. They don't edit your files either like the photo sharing tools do, so they'd be good for the RAW stuff as well. Of course, it's probably a bit more complex to set up, since it's all manual, but if you're so inclined then it should work out (note, they do store data in two separate locations as well, so there's more redundancy.)

You'd also get the bonus of the web development side of it, if you're into that sort of thing.

(Now, I do have to get it all setup to be a backup for my photo drive, especially since my music and movies drive decided to call it quits on me... but I've been too lazy to bother with it)

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Just make sure you adopt the 3-2-1 philosophy.

A file does not exist unless you have 3 copies, on at least 2 different kinds of media (hard drive, online, DVD / CD) and at least 1 copy is offsite

 

[Lzika]

I store on an external hard drive, and I also have photos stored on Dropbox, Smugmug, etc. My favorite is Dropbox just because it's so easy to access.

 

[ancestry]

I use an external hard drive and flickr pro. Although with flickr I only put my favorite or the best up there. With the external hard drive I keep everything.