Digital Photo Storage and Backup Structure

[ejg1890]

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What digital storage and backup approaches do people currently use?

I am sure I'm not the only one who regularly explores and examines their digital storage and back up approach. as I examine mine approximately every 18-24 months. It is now that time again that I explore if there are any better affordable options vs what I use currently. Currently I have 3 portable 4TB hard drives; 1 drive is the primary photo library for Lightroom and Photoshop, while the other 2 drives serve as backups. The 2 backup drives are rotated for backups and in the past I have tried to keep the latest backup offsite out of the house. However, the photo storage is now 3TB in size and while that is not too large for any of the drives or for Lightroom performance, it has become too large to do regular backups as each full backup now takes 2 days to complete. As stated I currently use portable hard drives, but in the past I have attempted to use: 1)NAS with a RAID configuration for backup - but that proved to be too slow to pull photos up in Lightroom or Photoshop to work on. Additionally it maintained the backup in the same unit as the primary storage unit. If something happened to the unit it could destroy both the primary and backup copies. I know NAS devices as will as home networking have improved over the years. However, the prices have increased substantially with the NAS device costing $500 plus the cost of drives; 2)Cloud storage - the options examines are Adobe CC or iCloud, but either of these would be expensive as well, maybe not as expensive as a NAS however; 3)SSD drives - This could be as expensive as the NAS as a single 4TD SSD drive as almost $400. However unlike the NAS those drives would not be expandable as I am now over 3TB and RAW file sizes are increasing not decreasing so that next 1TB will probably go quickly (the last 1 TB was used quickly).

As stated above I am invested to know what approach people use for digital storage and backup. I haven't found much on the internet or YouTube on this topic. There are a number of items on review of storage devices but not on approach or strategy of digital storage and back up.

Thanks

[LocalHero1953]

Plenty of threads discussing this subject - it's well worth doing a search.

In the end it comes down to how obsessive or paranoid you are.

My Lightroom catalogue and images are stored on one internal 4Tb SSD. That is backed up every now and then (mainly when I add a large batch of images to the catalogue) to an external 4Tb spinning disk using Microsoft's Synctoy. That in turn is backed up to the cloud using Backblaze.

[Guest]

My current year’s image library and Lightroom catalog are kept on my laptop, as is anything I’m working on, backed up to iCloud after I finish an editing session. Previous years image-libraries, my archive, are kept on iCloud. 

Once a month I copy my iCloud drive to a spinning HDD 200 miles away, when I visit family.

I use Chronosync to do copies and backups etc. so it’s fairly automated.

If anything goes “belly up” I should, in theory, only loose the current editing session.

EDIT: iCloud isn’t too expensive, I’ve got 2TB with my Apple One account.

EDIT: Forgot to mention 2TB iCloud isn’t too much, but I’m not an excessive shooter over the last few years and the older image libraries are compressed (losslessly). 

Edited November 1, 2022 by OThomas

[M11 for me]

This is a pure Microsoft discussion I presume . . .

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, M11 for me said:

This is a pure Microsoft discussion I presume . . .

No it is not just restricted to Microsoft. iCloud is Apple product, Lightroom is Adobe and, in my case Chronosync is Econ Technologies Inc.

The OP asked “What digital storage and backup approaches do people currently use?”. Feel free to add any input to this.

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by OThomas

[M11 for me]

Well if that is the case why not talking about the standard Apple solution Time Machine? What is the reason?

I use 2 separate 8TB drives that do 2 Backups. All automatic: Every ½ h a backup on one of the drives alternatively.

[Guest]

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7 minutes ago, M11 for me said:

why not talking about the standard Apple solution Time Machine?

Because I do not use it, simple as.

EDIT: it’s also a single point of failure, if it’s your only backup.

Edited November 1, 2022 by OThomas

[MarkP]

I've just upgraded my storage as my last system was quite old.

My main photography hard drive at home is an external LaCie 10TB 1big Dock which is backed up to two LaCie d2 10TB Professional USB-C external drives. These backup drives are alternated weekly between home and work so I always have one off site (which is never more than a week out of date.) Some data is backed up to another drive (not worth explaining why). This backup system has served me well for years.

I've recently started using Chronosync for Mac. Very impressed with this excellent and versatile programme.  I need a number of different backup scripts including those mentioned above, backing up my computer drive to another smaller external drive, and to another external drive to share files for a photographic project I'm working on. Econ contacted me a week after I'd bought the program to ask if I was satisfied, were there any matters they could help me with, and to contact them any time with any questions or problems. Very responsive.

I used Time Machine for years but it's just not versatile enough now for my needs.

Edited November 1, 2022 by MarkP

[M11 for me]

.

Edited November 1, 2022 by M11 for me

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, MarkP said:

I've recently started using Chronosync for Mac. Excellent and very versatile programme.

My sentiments exactly, Chronosync is a brilliant product (no affiliation by the way). It can detect when my laptop is attached to the network, both at home and 200 miles away (yes, it’s set up on my family’s system too) and automatically starts backing up and copying to the various locations, both iCloud and HDDs

I'm sure other products can do what Chronosync does, but this was my first experience of this sort of product and I’ve have been happy with it.

Edited November 1, 2022 by OThomas

[Cattoo]

I use Carbonite for Mac.  Set it up once and forget it. It backs up regularly.  And you can access the files from your smart phone.  

[ejg1890]

18 hours ago, Cattoo said:

I use Carbonite for Mac.  Set it up once and forget it. It backs up regularly.  And you can access the files from your smart phone.  

Curious which Carbonite subscription you go with?  With my files on an external drive I probably need to go with either the plus or prime, the only difference is files are delivered via carrier.

[ejg1890]

All,

Thanks for the feedback. My thinking currently is to use Chronosync to sync my main files with a local backup portable drive and Backblaze to sync a back up to the cloud. I did consider Carbonite but after the first year Carbonite is almost double the price of Backblaze for the higher-end/premium subscription. 

[Stevejack]

I keep all current images on an external SSD drive (Sandisk 2TB). My Lightroom catalogue is stored on the same drive. This way I can swap between editing on my main desktop + the portable macbook easily. 

The SSD is backed up to a NAS which is attached to my desktop, and I have a separate NAS at another location which I use to make a second backup of the SSD every month or so.

It takes me around a year to fill an SSD and when I do, I copy the Lightroom catalogue across to a new SSD and the images on the old one are left there as an additional backup. 

The NAS which is connected to my main desktop is used if I ever need to go back to edit a file older than a year, but all my current editing is done on the fast SSD drive. 

[jaapv]

On a Mac you can set up multiple drives in a RAID configuration without buying a NAS.  I guess this works for external drives just a well:

https://macfinder.co.uk/blog/set-software-raid-mac-os-x-achieve-super-fast-read-write-speeds-raiding-multiple-drives-together/

Disclaimer: I did not try it out.

[Guest]

@jaapv I like the sound of Raid 10 😂

Quote

RAID 10: Striped Mirrors and Mirrored Stripes, the best of both worlds

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by OThomas

[LocalHero1953]

Other things being equal, internal, for speed.

But you may want to take the disk and contents away to use on another device; you may want to take the disk and store it in a safe - there are other reasons why an external drive might be preferable, but for immediate use I would choose internal.

Edited January 14, 2023 by LocalHero1953