Author Topic: Cheapest option for cloud storage?  (Read 3344 times)

lifejoy

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Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« on: November 12, 2017, 09:19:17 AM »
I have a new baby. We are taking lots of photos and videos! Our drop box and iCloud storage accounts are full. I really don't want to pay a monthly subscription (FOREVER) in order to safely and privately backup these photos etc. But are there other options?

Thanks in advance!

Systems101

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2017, 10:52:18 AM »
I really don't want to pay a monthly subscription (FOREVER) in order to safely and privately backup these photos etc. But are there other options?

Define "safe"? :)

How many backups of the data do you have now (are you resilient to the copy becoming corrupted on Drop Box, for example?), and what are you trying to protect against (presumably theft or house fire, among other things?)

Maybe just a thumb drive and a safe deposit box?  I have pictures of my house and stuff for insurance purposes, on thumb drives.  Even good ones are silly cheap per GB and they are likely to be even more so in the next 60 days.  Now I turn those pictures over every year or two, so I don't bother to do additional backup of those particular pictures.

For other pictures which I'm trying to have survive, I have multiple copies, on multiple devices, and those copies are also supplemented with par2 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchive).

...but even then, you are taking on the burden of ensuring the systems on which you store the data don't become bad/obsolete/etc.  Part of the monthly subscription is because they are doing that conversion of hardware in the background.  So far I've done DIY (mainly because the volume of what I'm backing up and it's true life significance isn't that huge in the grand scheme)

Goldielocks

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2017, 10:58:20 AM »
I bought a portable hard drive, that stays in one specific location at home for photos and tax backup. 

lifejoy

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2017, 11:05:06 AM »
Thanks, Systems 101!

I'm trying to protect against fire and data corruption, I guess.

I'm not sure. I just know I want these baby photos to survive, and I also do not want to be beholden to Apple.

lifejoy

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2017, 11:05:52 AM »
I bought a portable hard drive, that stays in one specific location at home for photos and tax backup.

We've already filled one of those ;) and aren't keen on buying another...

Goldielocks

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2017, 02:52:33 PM »
I bought a portable hard drive, that stays in one specific location at home for photos and tax backup.

We've already filled one of those ;) and aren't keen on buying another...

IDK... ours is not used for pc backup, video, music, only for very specific items I want to keep for 15+ years.  Which is pretty much JUST photos and taxes, so it does not fill up quickly.  I put it into a fire-safe box. mini vault.   I use free cloud storage for the rest..  I guess I just don't keep many files, preferring to declutter anything more than 5 yrs old ruthlessly.

For kid age photos, I also had the photo store print the top 100... that's only 10 per year, but the best 10.  Makes a nice album, easy to look at in short time frame.

ketchup

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2017, 02:58:16 PM »
The minimum I'd do for anything remotely important.

Two external hard drives, one stored off-site (at work, friend or relative's house, bank deposit box, etc.).  Rotate the two however often makes sense.  Sync your files to it with something like SyncToy.  Replace each every five years or as they fail (whichever is first).

Syonyk

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #7 on: November 12, 2017, 11:10:49 PM »
Google Photos.

Proud Foot

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2017, 09:02:04 AM »
Google Photos.

I second this.  With the right upload setting you have free unlimited storage. Plus it is very easy to share photos with others and access anywhere.

zinnie

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2017, 09:12:45 AM »
Google Photos.

I second this.  With the right upload setting you have free unlimited storage. Plus it is very easy to share photos with others and access anywhere.

I've been using this too and I really like it. Automatically backs up your photos from wherever you want it to. You don't have to even think about it. It also has really impressive search capabilities. I've been able to quickly show friends photos of the kitchen table I built, a party from ten years ago, and photos from Italy by just typing key words into the search function. (I don't even know how it knows the difference between kitchen table and coffee table, but it does...)

jeromedawg

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Re: Cheapest option for cloud storage?
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2017, 09:18:01 AM »
I have a new baby. We are taking lots of photos and videos! Our drop box and iCloud storage accounts are full. I really don't want to pay a monthly subscription (FOREVER) in order to safely and privately backup these photos etc. But are there other options?

Thanks in advance!

Congrats!

Third on Google Photos. Just don't upload the "original size" photos as it will use up all the "free" space/storage. The hi-res uploads they offer are good enough anyway if for casual viewing. You probably will want to keep the originals (like for prints, etc) and for that I might recommend anything from an extra hard drive or two, to something like Crashplan, to even a NAS (if you or anyone in your family is slightly more 'tech-savvy'), or a combination of all those. What you want with your pictures, and especially the originals (as with any important doc) is redundancy. I know it sounds a bit wasteful but the more copies you have of important docs in various places, the higher likelihood that you won't lose any. And since these are all electronic copies, space shouldn't be a huge concern.

Currently I upload photos to Google Photos and also dump them on my NAS. I have a pretty crappy system as far as regularly transferring photos over to the NAS though - I really need to get on that. If you are taking photos on your phone there are apps you can get, besides Google Photos, to sync your pictures to a NAS or network-attached hard drive too.

There are a number of options out there - it just depends on how paranoid you want to be about backing your stuff up.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!