What should I buy in the future to back up my stuff?

[applefan289]

And I know it seems impossible, but you will someday get close to having 1TB of files on your computer.

I download a few songs a month, take a few pictures a month, and write a few Word documents a month. I'll be 80 years old when I hit 1TB. I've had my computer two years, and have 982.5GB left on my hard drive. I don't download any videos, because I rely on Comcast for that. :-O

 

[trip1ex]

Yeah if you don't store video then 1TB is a ton of space.

500gb of the 750gb of storage space I've used on my 1TB hard drive are movies and tv shows.

Another 40gb are home movies.

And mind you this is sd quality video.

Without the two I barely scratch 200gb. And I have some garbage in that 200gb that could be whittled down quite a bit, but haven't gotten around to it.

PHotos occupy 35gb and music - 30gb.

 

[ChrisA]

Although compared to the OP's current method of backing up, TM is overwhelmingly better.

I would argue that what you list as 'common causes' probably end up being less than 1% of total data loss issues. The most common would be that the internal hard drive crashes and needs to be replaced, hands-down with the TM or CCC backup easily readable as a backup...

That is simply not true. The most common cause of data loss is operator error. (deleting data you want to keep) after that it is loss of the equipment.

People think it's a failed hard drive but really, how often does that happen?

Also it really depends on the value of your data. It it is iTunes then you can always replace it. But if it is video you shot for a client you are in a bad way if it is lost. Bad enough that you'd think nothing of buying three external drives at $100 each to back it up.

I'm pretty certain that 100 years from now there will be VERY few 100 year old photos. Hardy anyone uses a backup system that can survive for decades.

 

[cyclotron451]

Re:What should I buy in the future to back up my stuff?

the answer to the deep 'future' part of the question is to write all of your data on the 1 inch holographic permanent storage cube.....
As this doesn't yet exist - the 'laws' of system resilience suggest that you need to back up your data regularly to a external hard-disk or 32GB flash AND THEN STORE IT AROUND 60 METRES (200 feet) AWAY FROM YOUR additional local BACKUP.

for some reason, statistically, whatever might hit your original data, theft, floods, thunderstorms seems to just have a range of around 200 feet.
I keep one backup HDD at home and one at the office and rotate them and cross backup the data.

 

[mstrze]

I'm pretty certain that 100 years from now there will be VERY few 100 year old photos. Hardy anyone uses a backup system that can survive for decades.

Mine will. I transfer my data to a new backup drive every 2 years or so. I have some files from the mid 90s residing on my drives.

I wholeheartedly agree that no backup method will last long and having a seperate offsite backup is ideal.

 

[zhenya]

I'm pretty certain that 100 years from now there will be VERY few 100 year old photos. Hardy anyone uses a backup system that can survive for decades.

I agree. This is a difficult problem. Even for those of use who religiously back up to multiple places, keeping digital data safe requires constant maintenance of moving it from one medium to another over the years. It turns out that paper is an incredibly durable, cheap, low-tech medium.

 

[zhenya]

Mine will. I transfer my data to a new backup drive every 2 years or so. I have some files from the mid 90s residing on my drives.

I wholeheartedly agree that no backup method will last long and having a seperate offsite backup is ideal.

Who is going to do that for you when you are old or no longer here though?

 

[mstrze]

Who is going to do that for you when you are old or no longer here though?

I assume that family photos/videos/etc will be passed on to my kids and their kids to be caretakers. Surely someone will be interested enough in our family history to want a copy of those files.

My other files can disappear, since they were only important to me.

I actually think that the current method of using iPhoto to store my files will be a HUGE help in the future, since Faces will let people viewing those photos know who was in those pictures and in many cases GPS will tell them exactly where those pictures were taken. Currently, I have shoeboxes full of old photos filled with faces that look somewhat familiar, but I have no idea of the names or relations. And in many case, unless I can recognize a location, I have no idea where the pictures were taken. The only saving grace is if someone labelled a picture and wrote names and location on the back.

 

[zhenya]

I assume that family photos/videos/etc will be passed on to my kids and their kids to be caretakers. Surely someone will be interested enough in our family history to want a copy of those files.

My other files can disappear, since they were only important to me.

I actually think that the current method of using iPhoto to store my files will be a HUGE help in the future, since Faces will let people viewing those photos know who was in those pictures and in many cases GPS will tell them exactly where those pictures were taken. Currently, I have shoeboxes full of old photos filled with faces that look somewhat familiar, but I have no idea of the names or relations. And in many case, unless I can recognize a location, I have no idea where the pictures were taken. The only saving grace is if someone labelled a picture and wrote names and location on the back.

That's a big IF though. Someone will have to be smart enough to think to go through your digital collection AND be able to flesh out where you kept things, and then take on the task of keeping those digital files and continuously moving them to new media every 5-10 years.

I'm not saying it's impossible - I'm just saying that this is far more difficult than keeping a photo album on the bookshelf, where it will most likely stay in the same condition for 30-50 years even if it is completely forgotten about.

 

[mstrze]

That's a big IF though. Someone will have to be smart enough to think to go through your digital collection AND be able to flesh out where you kept things, and then take on the task of keeping those digital files and continuously moving them to new media every 5-10 years.

But that's the brilliance of the Apple ecosystem...it's all there in iPhoto. I don't have photos in various folders scattered hither and yon, they are all in one place and when I move to a new Mac, they will all come with me, as they have in my previous 3 platform moves.

I don't think it's a big IF at all. There is always someone in the family willing to be the caretaker of the past, those photo albums are sitting in someone's attic right now or on the shelf of the spare bedroom. In the future, sure, those albums are easily accessed, but no one may know who those people are or where the pics were taken. Which is not a problem with my photos in iPhoto.

My cousin from the other side of the country sent me multiple photos of my grandparents and grand-aunts and other family member pics for the 40s-70s that I would never had access to otherwise. There are SO many pictures of us and out family members locked up in other people's photo albums in their homes. I'm very thankful for the digital revolution, since we are finally getting to share these old pics that may be important to a few people, but were segregated due to the inability for us to have copies of said pics. I actually thank FaceBook for a lot of this which has allowed me and friends and family to share old picture I would otherwise have not gotten a chance to see.

I think it will only get easier over the next decade or two to store our files electronically. Right now, for solid backups or pics and video, we admittedly jump through a lot of hoops. Once cloud storage is popular and the norm and everyone has internet access speeds 10-100 times what we have today, we will look back on this quaintly and laugh at the multiple backups and all the work we did and how much local storage we all thought we needed.

Sure, a photo album will survive better than electronic impulses on a magnetic medium. But at least in my situation with two children and many other family members who are extremely interested in family history, I have no doubt our pictures and videos will survive.

 

[applefan289]

But that's the brilliance of the Apple ecosystem...it's all there in iPhoto. I don't have photos in various folders scattered hither and yon, they are all in one place and when I move to a new Mac, they will all come with me, as they have in my previous 3 platform moves.

I don't think it's a big IF at all. There is always someone in the family willing to be the caretaker of the past, those photo albums are sitting in someone's attic right now or on the shelf of the spare bedroom. In the future, sure, those albums are easily accessed, but no one may know who those people are or where the pics were taken. Which is not a problem with my photos in iPhoto.

My cousin from the other side of the country sent me multiple photos of my grandparents and grand-aunts and other family member pics for the 40s-70s that I would never had access to otherwise. There are SO many pictures of us and out family members locked up in other people's photo albums in their homes. I'm very thankful for the digital revolution, since we are finally getting to share these old pics that may be important to a few people, but were segregated due to the inability for us to have copies of said pics. I actually thank FaceBook for a lot of this which has allowed me and friends and family to share old picture I would otherwise have not gotten a chance to see.

I think it will only get easier over the next decade or two to store our files electronically. Right now, for solid backups or pics and video, we admittedly jump through a lot of hoops. Once cloud storage is popular and the norm and everyone has internet access speeds 10-100 times what we have today, we will look back on this quaintly and laugh at the multiple backups and all the work we did and how much local storage we all thought we needed.

Sure, a photo album will survive better than electronic impulses on a magnetic medium. But at least in my situation with two children and many other family members who are extremely interested in family history, I have no doubt our pictures and videos will survive.

I'm all for digital as well. Everyone still needs a printer, but I'm waiting for the day we can throw away our printers, and just rely on digital medium.

Don't even get me started on faxes.

 

[zhenya]

But that's the brilliance of the Apple ecosystem...it's all there in iPhoto. I don't have photos in various folders scattered hither and yon, they are all in one place and when I move to a new Mac, they will all come with me, as they have in my previous 3 platform moves.

I think your time-view is far too short. Chances are excellent that in 60 years, Apple as we know it will not even exist as a company, and that extracting photos from iPhoto will take a specialist who has access to a version of the software that can read the file format, and hardware that can run the ancient software environment.

Of course digital is great for sharing photos now - but that has nothing to do with long-term archiving.

 

[mstrze]

I think your time-view is far too short. Chances are excellent that in 60 years, Apple as we know it will not even exist as a company, and that extracting photos from iPhoto will take a specialist who has access to a version of the software that can read the file format, and hardware that can run the ancient software environment.

Of course digital is great for sharing photos now - but that has nothing to do with long-term archiving.

Again, in my case, that won't be an issue as over those 60 years, the photos will have come with my and my children's files in various data-shifts and upgrades.

File that are 'locked' into that format'? Sure, it would take a miracle to get them off a 60yo hard drive. Then again, how many millions of photographs and negatives do you think hit the landfill each year? Pretty hard to get those back too.

In ANY format, if no one is the caretaker of the items, they will not survive years down the road.

 

[applefan289]

Again, in my case, that won't be an issue as over those 60 years, the photos will have come with my and my children's files in various data-shifts and upgrades.

File that are 'locked' into that format'? Sure, it would take a miracle to get them off a 60yo hard drive. Then again, how many millions of photographs and negatives do you think hit the landfill each year? Pretty hard to get those back too.

In ANY format, if no one is the caretaker of the items, they will not survive years down the road.

No matter how you cut it, digital is still not as reliable as keeping a physical copy of something in a safe.