How do you back-up your photos, my hard drive crashed.

[ilzho]

Yes, I'm one of those that worked off my laptop and my drive crashed and now will not boot up. No, I never backed anything up..... Live and learn....

I have already been told, they cannot retrieve the data Lightroom catalog (photos) from the drive. I do not believe this as I am sure someone can get in there and do a data recovery, it's just a matter of finding the right person.

Hopefully one day I will find that person.

On to my question.....

How do you all back-up your system.

I will be get getting a new apple laptop and am thinking of getting a RAID system as a back-up, but this (back-up) is all new to me.

What do you recommend?

Cloud? Third party System, RAID, other external drives?

I am looking at a few TB's.

Also, I will be using Lightroom and Photoshop from the cloud and would like to edit and store the files on a drive other than my hard drive as I used to do? Does this really slow down the editing? Or is it really not noticeable?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thank you!

[cicopo]

My personal back up system is multiple portable hard drives. I shoot large fine jpg + RAW but generally use the jpg files for my on line albums.  When I download from a memory card I also copy from the built in drive to a portible drive. After editing (these are my event photos so there are a lot of files) I copy the edits to the 1st back up drive & another one too. After that I downres the jpg's to 1600 pixel low res files which get copied to all 3 drives & once I know they are there I delete the full file jpg's on the back up drives but not on my desktop. I keep them there until the season ends before deleting them just in case I want some more images from the event but don't feel I need to edit & convert the RAW files.

Re your laptop. Can you remove the hard drive from it. If your problem is the laptop the hard drive may be fine & there are several ways to recover data on it if it's not damaged. You can buy docks most current drives fit into or cable adapters etc. Do not give up on the drive until you have tried it as a stand alone drive.

[kvbarkley]

If you have an Apple you have one of the best backup systems in existence:

Time Machine.

I use a Time Capsule at home to back up all our computers, but you can get a couple of portable HD's to take on travel.

(It appears that time capsules are no longer available new.)

[ebiggs1]

"My personal back up system is multiple portable hard drives."

Me too!    USB drives are cheap. I have four, each in the 2TB range. I have three 2TB drives in my computer. One is kept clear just for LR and PS scratch/cashe use, no photo or program storage on it at all.

[shadowsports]

2 NAS's that replicate.  Then a 3rd back up to an external USB Drive.  Some Cloud storage as well. 

I don't know about Time Machine being the best back up in exsistence (LoL)  Only if you are a Crapple fan.  Mr Cook is not the man Mr Jobs was.  But to each his own. 

[kvbarkley]

I didn't say "the" best I said one of the best.

When attached - like in a home network - it regularly backs up in the background all day, and the interface allows you access to any one of those backups. Once the backup disk fills up, it will remove older backups as necesary to make room for new ones.

Also, Time Machine was released in 2007, during Steve Job's tenure. 8^)

[cicopo]

I meant to say in my original post that my back up drives are copies. They are not made by using the back up software most come with nor any other software that changes the file system. If I plug a back up drive into any computer that can recognize it you explore it exactly the same as a C drive. Jpg's are still jpg's & file names are exactly what they are on my desktop & arranged exactly the same too.

[RobertTheFat]

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@shadowsports wrote:

2 NAS's that replicate.  Then a 3rd back up to an external USB Drive.  Some Cloud storage as well. 

I don't know about Time Machine being the best back up in exsistence (LoL)  Only if you are a Crapple fan.  Mr Cook is not the man Mr Jobs was.  But to each his own. 

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DO NOT rely on cloud storage as your primary backup. Companies that provide cloud storage have been known to go bankrupt and leave their customers with no way to recover their files. They may tell you that they're so big and financially secure that it can't possibly happen to them. Don't believe them.

[shadowsports]

kvbarkley,

Yes you did Sir.  I know exactly how it works.  I won't admit that I have two Mac's in the house unless I have too.  I'll never be a fan though. (grin).  Steve Jobs was a brilliant guy. 

Bob, 100% agree.  I have (multiple) physical in my hands back ups and at more than one location (off site).  This is in addition to cloud which I use for my most frequently accessed data.  Like a "Best Of" of things that are also backed up elsewhere.  

All hardware fails, gets lost, stolen or burned alive.  Protecting from this is fairly easy.

[ebiggs1]

" Protecting from this is fairly easy."

Yes it is.  It is the doing that seems to be difficult.