Media/Picture storage options

[Bigtanker]

I'm in need of getting a few thousand pictures off of older devices. I would prefer to use a physical hard drive. I don't feel like paying a monthly fee for a cloud service. I also don't want to use a photo sharing app like PhotoBucket or the like.

I have a Chromebook and a few Android phones, but no desktop.

What are my options? I see a 3tb backup hard drive for around $100. Is that all I'd need? Or will I need some software to go along with it?

 

[lazarus0213]

look into the mycloud devices by western digital. We have one at the house and its networked directly. It can be accessed anywhere remotely and they have models that can be hot swapped if you have a drive failure. neat interface too, tells you the health and stats of the device. Ours even has a usb port to hook thumbs in to.

 

[eldirector]

I have a personal "cloud" device. Really just a NAS. I don't use the cloud functionality, as that would require a 3rd party to access my device. But, my cell phones will sync to it when on my local network, and my laptop(s) back up to it. It can also be used as a media server, but I don't have the configured.

Mine is a Buffalo TeraStation.

If your data is important to you, get a RAID device. Less likely to lose it all that way.

 

[Bigtanker]

I have a personal "cloud" device. Really just a NAS. I don't use the cloud functionality, as that would require a 3rd party to access my device. But, my cell phones will sync to it when on my local network, and my laptop(s) back up to it. It can also be used as a media server, but I don't have the configured.

Mine is a Buffalo TeraStation.

If your data is important to you, get a RAID device. Less likely to lose it all that way.

That could be an option. I see they start at about $250 for a 4 tb unit.

 

[PistolBob]

You have to have at least 2 drives, the same size, to use RAID for mirroring. So a 4TB RAID setup will have 2 each of the 4TB drives. Your total usable space will be about 4 TB.

 

[Bigtanker]

You have to have at least 2 drives, the same size, to use RAID for mirroring. So a 4TB RAID setup will have 2 each of the 4TB drives. Your total usable space will be about 4 TB.

Thanks.

 

[OSAKNUC]

Skip on on the RAID setup to reduce complexity. You said you didn’t have a desktop and just an Android and Chromebook. Grab a couple 4TB external HDDs and copy files to each. That will give you some redundancy, but I would keep them at different locations. FWIW, Google Photos has unlimited storage for compressed photos (they aren’t compressed horribly, still good enough for even a UHD/4K display). If you want to go all out and have your own Cloud service, shoot me a PM. I have about 26 years of experience in the IT/IS field and I’d be glad to help out anyway I can.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I refuse to archive anything except on a physical drive that's in my possession. "On the cloud = on somebody else's drive", though personal clouds are an exception. Remember a couple of years ago when a bunch of celebrities' compromising photos were hacked off a cloud? Ah, what am I saying compromising, most of them have no shame anyway. I keep my drive invisible to even my own network when I'm using it, and unplug it when I'm not. I access it only from the one box, and drill down the directories manually to get to it. And I don't have anything incriminating. Remember, it's only paranoid until you get hit.

 

[OSAKNUC]

Always keep your nudies air gapped haha.

But in seriousness a cloud service, whether personal or 3rd party, is inherently insecure vs never being sent over the wire. There are a few exceptions (e.g. Box Enterprise witch exceeds HIPAA compliance).

If you believe it to be sensitive data, access it only thru air gapped means. Meaning from creation to archival, it never sees a network. Stuff like family cookout photos that you’d probably post on Facebook anyway, by all means stick them in a cloud service so you have multiple forms of redundancy. For your, let’s say more risqué photos... use a Polaroid.

 

[WebSnyper]

Always keep your nudies air gapped haha.

But in seriousness a cloud service, whether personal or 3rd party, is inherently insecure vs never being sent over the wire. There are a few exceptions (e.g. Box Enterprise witch exceeds HIPAA compliance).

If you believe it to be sensitive data, access it only thru air gapped means. Meaning from creation to archival, it never sees a network. Stuff like family cookout photos that you’d probably post on Facebook anyway, by all means stick them in a cloud service so you have multiple forms of redundancy. For your, let’s say more risqué photos... use a Polaroid.

Pretty much agreed, that said, I don't take pictures of stuff I don't want out there, so I just have all the phones auto upload pics to OneDrive once back on WiFi.

 

[Dead Duck]

Just so you know-
Some of the bigger porn companies will pay you a descent amount of money for some of your older photos.






















......wait...... what kind of pictures did you say you have?

 

[brentlacy]

The Buffalo Units are good. Synology has some good units depending on your budget. There are some pretty nice cloud options out there now that have "snapshot/rollback" options that help guard against accidental deletions, ransomware, and the like as well. They can also be configured with 2 factor authentication as well.

 

[Cameramonkey]

My setup:

ReadyNAS 2TB (usable) RAID system with a pair of 4TB 3.5" USB3 drives for backups.

All important stuff goes onto it directly via a network share.
Stuff that just cant and must stay on the laptop is instantly copied using a program called memeo instant backup. Essentially its a private dropbox sync. As soon as a file is modified the software copies the changes in real time to the NAS.

One 4TB drive stays plugged in and receives an automatic backup every night.
The other is attached monthly and a full backup is made to it. (readynas has a cool backup button so you can initiate a backup with a single touch) That drive is then taken off site for remote storage.

Between the two external drives, ransomware authors get a big double middle finger from me. I dont need to pay ransom. Ive got my data backed up.


And dont rely on optical discs for backups. Those things will fail quickly. (10-20 years)

Safest storage is solid state. (thumb drives, etc) because there are no moving parts. a thumb drive or memory card is best, followed shortly behind by SSDs.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

We use a basic nas from zyxel. has way more ftp/streaming features than we use, but holds 1tb currently (can be upgraded easily).
The pics we have total less than 10gb, so easily backed up on sd card and stored in the safe.
Redundancy and scalability is key. While sd cards and thumb drives ain't perfect, they are accessible from just about everything... and they usually get upgraded every couple of years (1 because they keep coming out with more storage, 2 because I've had SD & thumb drives fail)

 

[OSAKNUC]

And dont rely on optical discs for backups. Those things will fail quickly. (10-20 years)

Safest storage is solid state. (thumb drives, etc) because there are no moving parts. a thumb drive or memory card is best, followed shortly behind by SSDs.

Archival CD, DVD, and BR have a much higher “shelf life” than that. Tho they still need to be kept in controlled conditions, much like film (which they’ll last about as long as).

Solid state storage is not good for archival. They have the potential of self erasing after time without power, and if the controller fails you can’t recover the data unless you spend many freedom bucks; at least with a mechanical disk you can swap the controller with an identical drive.

Currently one of the best high capacity consumer archival storage solutions is the Seagate IronWolf Pro drives. They are built to run 24/7 under temperature extremes and come with data recovery in the event a drive failure occurs.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Archival CD, DVD, and BR have a much higher “shelf life” than that. Tho they still need to be kept in controlled conditions, much like film (which they’ll last about as long as).

Solid state storage is not good for archival. They have the potential of self erasing after time without power, and if the controller fails you can’t recover the data unless you spend many freedom bucks; at least with a mechanical disk you can swap the controller with an identical drive.

Currently one of the best high capacity consumer archival storage solutions is the Seagate IronWolf Pro drives. They are built to run 24/7 under temperature extremes and come with data recovery in the event a drive failure occurs.

Average optical discs do not have archival properties; that is where that statement originates. It is based on the assumption that the bargain basement 50pk spindle picked up at Staples has a serious shelf life, only because they dont even think about longevity.

 

[OSAKNUC]

Average optical discs do not have archival properties; that is where that statement originates. It is based on the assumption that the bargain basement 50pk spindle picked up at Staples has a serious shelf life, only because they dont even think about longevity.

I did say archival discs. But I would still say the same with even the average staples ones. I have a CD book full of the cheapest of the cheap CD-Rs coming up on 20 years old and they all work fine. You spill liquid on them or leave them exposed to UV all bets are off.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Yep. Hit or miss. I too have copies of 10yo games that Ive tried to read and they are toast. And hell, burned copies of new discs from a vendor that wouldnt install because the burner screwed up. In that case I sat and listened to the heads seek constantly while progress was non-existent. They shipped us a new DVD and it installed fine. So its more than just media, but also how good your writer was as well. But we both are on the same side of the argument.