File Back Up System for long term storage

Thank you all for the comments...

I hadn'the thought about the off site storage much past the cloud. I am going to my parents this weekend which is out of ststate. I'm going to see if he cares to keep my off site back up data there.

I like the external hard drive idea and I think I will get an external HD but I am really leaning hard towards optical disks as well.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

FIrst, great question that too many don't ask until it's too late.

Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy. The rest depends on how much date you need to backup but should include onsite and offsite. I have 500GB of photos alone and they are one of my most prized physical posessions.

My backup is concerned with two things.
1. Whole computer backup
2. Documents and photos that I might want to access.

For whole computer backup,
I use an external drive with Time Machine and Carbonite as primary onsite and offsite backup. Additionally, I clone the laptop using SuperDuper before any OS updates. A clone is the easiest way to restore and I can run the old OS off the external.

For user generate files, I use another external drive and copy documents and photos to it. Since my documents change, I just delete and recopy to update this backkup.

For photos, I used folders for each year with subfolders for individual shoots (ie. 2012-10 Yosemite). This makes it easy because I just need to copy new folders to the external unless I made edits to old photos. I also use the free storage from Microsoft OneDrive.

Finally, when I go to my in-laws (once every year or two), I back-up photos to a hard drive that I keep there as a physical off-site backup not tied to the cloud.

I use Macrium Reflect (they have a free version) to image my C: drive or partition (depending on which computer) and store the images on my main data drive (or partition). Imaging is much like creating a photo negative of the drive that can be used to restore the drive to the state it was at when the image was made, much like using a photo negative to make a print.

I use FreeFileSync in Mirror Mode to back up my data drives (or partition). This works by comparing the source drive to the destination drive then it copies and pastes data from the source drive to the destination drive and deletes data on the destination drive as needed to essentially make the destination drive a clone of the source drive. FreeFileSync has a feature called Versioning that allows you to send deleted data to a Versioning drive or folder. I use a dedicated drive in my desktop computer for sending deleted files to.

For my desktop machine, I have a set of four backup HDDs for each HDD onsite in my computer (I have three HDDs in my computer). I keep two from each set at home and update them frequently. The other two in each set are kept offsite in my safe deposit box at my credit union and get swapped out with the home copies no less than once a month.

Since the offsite HDDs will not have any data that was changed or added after they were put in the safe deposit box, I also have a basic account with Carbonite.com. Carbonite works in the background to upload new and changed data to it online servers. It will also retain deleted data for 30 days. While it would take forever (weeks to months) to download my data if my computer and onsite data should ever fail, I can relatively quickly recover most of my data from the offsite HDDs, then get what little is left from Carbonite.

This all may seem like overkill but HDDs, etc. can fail without warning, including backup HDDs, and my data is valuable to me. It would cost a fortune to replace any that got lost and much of it can't be replaced at any cost.

Multiple external hard drives. Two copies at my house and a third copy in another family members house. This third copy gets updated only once a year.

My family lost everything in Katrina. I know how important photos are now. Don't put it off or skimp on backing up.

Guess it depends how much you have to back up. I just use large thumb drives. Easy to store in a safe place, and easily moved computer to computer, no extra cables to lug around. Disadvantage is amount of space on them although they are getting larger for their physical size.

I think the cloud is great!... I use Dropbox... The one drawback is that it can eat data so I keep it off until I get to somewhere where I have wifi...

My Mifi has a micro sd card slot that has a 32gb card in it... I have software that mirrors my recent work folder to that...

And every 4-6 months I do a complete drive backup to a DVD using my Apple Superdrive

I'm uncomfortable with anything cloud. Like Trackrig, I use an external hard drive, and keep it someplace other than my laptop location. I would do whatever makes you feel comfortable and confident. Sounds like you have a good plan.

I have a Seagate 3Tb backup drive attached to my desktop that automatically backs up everything. I also back up all pictures again to a Western Digital 2Tb Passport drive because I sometimes like to travel with it so I can work on pictures while traveling in the MH. Both are available at Costco very reasonably.

If the house burns, both the desk top and the Seagate would go as they're very close to each other. But usually when you loose data it's not because of a house fire.

Before our neighbors moved, we would store one of the WD Passports at their house in case there was a fire. Now I think we'll put one in the shed.

I may start using some of the free storage on Amazon, but in general I don't like the cloud. It seems I can never access it when I want to.

Bill