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Computer: Yet another hard drive or online archive service?


Jack M

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I'm at a crossroads here, all my hard drives are full. Should I buy yet another hard drive or just start paying the piper for an online archive service? I need this for photography - ~25mb per image! I am a smugmug pro user, so I would get smugvault if I go that route.

Guess I could start moving the really old stuff to DVD... but that seems like putting all my eggs in one basket, and don't DVDs degrade over time? (not just scratches, but actual material breakdown)

Any experiences to share? Thanks.

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Buy some Network Attached Storage NAS

a Pogoplug.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357421,00.asp

and some desktop drives:

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10033

is one way to go.

A full on NAS setup is also rockin'

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11118

Note: There are many other brands I just picked LaCie as I'm familiar with their equipment and I'm slack.

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It would be my pogoplug with a Drobo. Then I would have the RAID backup and expandable, able to get to it anywhere in the world, sharable AND the best part is that I don't have a monthly service charge. The cheapest way you're going to get storage bytes is with your own HDs but you want to make sure they are redundant.

Of course if you want to make sure they can withstand a fire then you need to get them offsite or make up some fireproof contraption for your Drobo. :-)

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Being able to access my files while away from home isn't really the concern, but that's a neat idea.

Right now I have NAS via my Airport Extreme wireless router base station, which has a USB 2.0 port. Hang a USB drive or a USB hub + many drives off that and presto, instant NAS. The transfer rate is not nearly as fast as just plugging a USB drive right into the computer though.

But again, not really the question. I'm trying to decide the pros and cons of relying on an online service for storage vs. maintaining my own storage. I use my Macbook's internal HD (120gb) for active and recent files, and external USB drives for deep storage and backup. But now those are full and so is my internal one.

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The average price per unit of storage is following a very steep downward curve. All the cloud storage services have a fixed price. If storage limit is upgraded regularly, it may be economically sound, otherwise you'll end up paying every month what you could get in a few days.

Only problem with buying HD's is you end up having a lot of unused ones after you upgrade to a size 10 or 50 times larger. The other day, I got a 500MO USB drive as a present for buying socks !

A friend of mine in the photo industry told me he owns a safe in a bank for his digital library backup. I love this.

A NAS server with extensions looks like a good option. You can also delete all the bad shots (too bad there is no equivalent to negative/contacts in digital photo). And you still can create a ftp server that you can acccess from everywhere.

I would reserve the cloud storage for the best of the best photos, and these don't have to be full HD res, as well.

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Jack- I'm sorry if my answer was not direct. I do not trust the cloud for storage. I have had to assist many customers who did and regretted it.

I would just buy more local storage, thereby my earlier recommendation, rather than putting the data in the cloud.

I would encourage you to use the cloud for backup (Mosy, etc).

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I think backing up to DVD is a solid option. I know CDs and DVDs are supposed to have a lifespan of something like 20 years but I've had CDs longer than that and they are fine. I think if you avoid extreme temperatures (like leaving them in your car) they they will last a long time.

There is a significant material difference between a commercial audio CD and a CD-R that you burn yourself, they don't compare.

Jack- I'm sorry if my answer was not direct. I do not trust the cloud for storage. I have had to assist many customers who did and regretted it.

Interesting, can you elaborate?

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Online backup is the only way to guard against theft or natural disaster. If a burglar breaks into your home or office, he will take your external hard drives. If you have a fire or flood, your external drives will likely be damaged or ruined.

Mozy.com is really cheap. $5.00 a month for personal use, unlimited data. The only problem is uploading your initial backup. It could take days if you have a lot of files.

Backup to CD is unreliable and difficult to manage.

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Jack,

How's Smugvault compared to Flikr Pro?

Flikr Pro slow to upload (running around 70kb/s for me) but unlimited storage including video for $25/year or so.

I think you're talking about two different services. SmugVault is an online archive (actually the back end is run by Amazon, front end is run by Smugmug), and you can put any kind of file there. I think Flikr Pro is just for jpeg/gif images...? Smugmug Pro is just for images. It is $150 a year and storage is unlimited, and you set the prices on your images. If someone buys prints/merchandise/downloads of your images, Smugmug takes their price for the item, plus 15% of your profit, and you get the rest. They handle the money and the fulfillment. I dig it.

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Interesting, can you elaborate?

I'm sure you've noticed how easy it is to get data into whichever cloud solution you like... it is not always so easy to get back out. I've also seen data breeches, prolonged service outages, connectivity issues, billing issues, etc. All of my work carries the seal of confidentiality with it... or I'd name names, sorry.

If you're willing to give up control of your data and you've got a local copy of it. Go for it. But it sounds like you are running out of room locally. I would deal with that first before moving anything to the cloud to make space...thereby my previous recommendations.

BTW- If the USB hard drive is connected to your PC Mozy will back it up.

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