Comments on: Backup up, software and process

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:38:00 +0000

Marissa, the span of the book will likely include images from all of my travels, which includes 6 continents. But it is not yet complete. The writing will be short vignettes about each individual photo that relates to “a place in time”.

By: Marissa Tabbada

Marissa Tabbada — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:45:34 +0000

Thanks for the tips, Patrick. I just noticed the entry below about the book you’re writing. Having talent for photos and writing…quite a potent combination! What is the geographic span of your book in terms of subject matter?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:25:15 +0000

Jeff, it certainly takes just one time to make an ardent proponent to a regular backup system. It still seems that there is room for greater simplicity in user interface, but like much of software development, things are moving forward in that direction.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:22:13 +0000

Marissa,
Remote backups are an ok option with smaller amonts of data but become rather difficult with multiple Gigs. I think for most, that a local backup, supplemented with an occassional offsite backup is probably both the easiest and the cheapest. As far as specific brands, I can’t comment save for the few people I know that have had a problem free go with Seagate and Lacie. The user review interface at a place like Newegg.com should give some helpful comments on product reliability. Before trying anything new, i always look for a pretty good dose of positive comments in the review or feedback section.

By: Marissa Tabbada

Marissa Tabbada — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:03:29 +0000

Thanks for this…you’re quite generous with sharing info! Do you recommend backing up remotely through file transfer protocol? How about platforms like Flickr where you can do unlimited uploads for USD25/year? Aside from the brands you mentioned, any thoughts/experience on LaCie, Seagate, or Buffalo brand external drives?

By: Jeff Green

Jeff Green — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:50:34 +0000

Amen on the backups! I go with three copies in two physically separate locations. Bulk storage on non-bootable drives so they can be read from any computer. I have had a number of close calls with inadequate systems (optical storage, poor hardware, etc.), and lost a little data once. I was able to recover almost all of it, but it ruined my day. Nowadays I have a removable hard drive bay in my computer and just shuffle drives around. One lives at work, the others at home. It breaks my heart to think of all of the irreplaceable pictures (babies/kids, family events, unique shots, etc.) that are lost every day because people don’t back things up. Great post! Backing up data is immensely important.