Backup for pics

[Glennster]

I have a ton of pics re: wedding, anniversaries, etc. and just moved them from my old PC to my new MacBook into the hard drive.

While I know a Mac is very well built, anything can happen. Therefore, what does everyone use as a backup for their pics?

I thought of using the cloud but not sure I trust it. What about an external hard drive ? How dependable are they? Any other suggestions?

 

[drewsof07]

What is "a ton"? 100mb? 1gb? 1tb?
I use a combination of two external hard drives. One is a cloned two-drive volume, so there are two copies of data on separate disks. In addition, I have a portable hard drive that I keep at work and back up critical personal files on a monthly basis, pictures and home movies.

It all depends on how much data you're trying to manage. If it's less than 5gb, I would recommend a solution like dropbox or Box, both of which will be around for the foreseeable future and offer free accounts and at least 5gb of storage.

 

[Glennster]

It's about 2 gigs of pics. I also want to backup my music which is about 30 gigs. Perhaps an external is the way to go after all.

 

[drewsof07]

It's about 2 gigs of pics. I also want to backup my music which is about 30 gigs. Perhaps an external is the way to go after all.

I would suggest buying an external hard drive as big as you can afford and use time machine. This will allow the data as well as your system preferences and files to be re-written in a case of internal drive failure.

As far as which drive to choose, the options are endless. You'll hear opinions praising/dissing each brand. Best advice: buy what you can afford with the connections you need and replace it in 3 years.

If you want to go the incremental backup route (only backup when you drag & drop files), you could go with a 128-256gb flash solution, thumb drive or SSD. This should be more reliable than a traditional HD over years, but at double or triple the cost and half or 1/3 the capacity.

 

[Ann P]

External hd's or Dropbox, Box, etc.,. I back up to both solutions just to be sure.

 

[AndyK]

External drive & use time machine, or since you have quite a small amount, a free Dropbox account with all the "getting started" stuff done would give you more than enough.

 

[thefredelement]

I use a second drive as a time machine backup, which thankfully I've never had to use but I'm glad it's there. It's also good because if it's big enough, it can backup your entire computer (apps, docs, etc), so should the need ever arise you can import your data from a time machine backup and be up and running without tinkering with every little file or app.

Secondly, I use iTunes match, which a) gives me my library in the cloud and b) lets me download it to any of my macs, so if one died and I couldn't get to my time machine backup, I just need an internet connection and at least I could have some music back.

Also, I use flickr, not to share photos, but because their plan allows for unlimited storage and it's integrated into iPhoto, I use it to backup my most important photos, I have around 50GB of photos and probably have around 20 albums up in flickr, just in case.

The cost isn't bad, it's around $50/year for both iTunes match and flickr combined. I got the extra drive awhile ago but I don't think it was a lot either. It's just good peace of mind. I lost a drive once in 2009 and I've never recovered all the recordings or pics, they're gone forever, I never want to go through that again.