Google drive

[Mike Anderson]

Cloud storage. 5GB free, 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month. I tried to sign up but it's not ready yet. They'll email me when it is.

[Jack Dahlgren]

Microsoft's skydrive gives me 25GB for free...
Ready now.

[cdholden]

Microsoft is happy to have access to all of your data for free.
Why not just get an external drive for backing up? They're fairly inexpensive these days and don't allow others to snoop/mine/share your information at their will.

[Greg Miller]

Microsoft is happy to have access to all of your data for free.
Why not just get an external drive for backing up? They're fairly inexpensive these days and don't allow others to snoop/mine/share your information at their will.

Yes, Google has a global privacy policy that covers all of their services. It would be wise for people using Google Drive to review the policy to be sure they are comfortable with the rights that Google asserts in using the data of their customers.

But having offsite backups, in addition to onsite backups, is highly recommended. Local data can be lost many ways. Fire, burst water pipes, tornado, theft, lightning strikes, dropping the drive, ...

[toyotadesigner]

There is no such thing like a free lunch. You should know that. Free in regards to 'clouds' could mean someone grabs your data.

There are many companies who offer data storage deep in mountains etc. Most of them are reliable and have an excellent reputation.

The better alternative is to invest into an external HD, make a backup when it's connected to your computer, and then send it to a relative and make incremental backups via ftp. Offer the same service to the relative as well. Oh, you don't trust your relatives? But you trust google? Hm.

On the other hand: we already talk about a generation with a lost memory, because most images of the digital age went to Nirvana. People just dump their cell phones and old computers, never caring about 'the obsolete stuff'.

A nuclear disaster would destroy all data anyway. Some disasters are like bush fires: they clean a lot of things, enable a new start and development, and after 10 years the landscape is nicer than ever before.

I've lost all my data twice. But not my chromes. After the first shock I started over again - and felt better than ever before, because I grabbed the chance.

[Greg Miller]

Google would actually be OK from a privacy standpoint if they allowed data to be encrypted with a key of your choice. The good offsite services allow this. They are using caves in the mountains - they simply have redundant and appropriately equipped data centers in different geographic locations.

There is no reason to lose your data (or twice) if you have a proper backup plan. If there is a nuclear disaster, I think we have bigger problems than losing data.

[Mike Anderson]

There is no such thing like a free lunch..

I think there are lots of free lunches (but there are lots of lunches made to look like they're free but aren't). Sometimes there might be ads printed on your lunch, but sometimes it's as free and clear as anything. I use free software regularly for work and play. This BBS is free.

[Mike Anderson]

Microsoft is happy to have access to all of your data for free.
Why not just get an external drive for backing up? They're fairly inexpensive these days and don't allow others to snoop/mine/share your information at their will.

I have external drives, but I don't have a good strategy nor good backup habits (and I know simply getting cloud storage won't fix that ;)).

I've been trying to get a workflow that puts info in manageable clumps that I can zip easily and move off and easily access if need be. I think having the cloud and my own physical drives will be comfortable system.

[E. von Hoegh]

This is something I do not understand, how one could need this storage? In all the years I've had a computer - 6 years, I've filled 8gb on a 250gb harddrive.

Aside from images, what are people storing that takes up so much space? I can understand a business, but not an individual needing so much storage.

[Mike Anderson]

This is something I do not understand, how one could need this storage? In all the years I've had a computer - 6 years, I've filled 8gb on a 250gb harddrive.

Aside from images, what are people storing that takes up so much space? I can understand a business, but not an individual needing so much storage.

If you don't have 100's of gigabytes of garbage you're not using your computer properly.

[E. von Hoegh]

If you don't have 100's of gigabytes of garbage you're not using your computer properly.

Mea culpa. I guess I should think of moving into the twentieth century, someday.

[sully75]

This is something I do not understand, how one could need this storage? In all the years I've had a computer - 6 years, I've filled 8gb on a 250gb harddrive.

Aside from images, what are people storing that takes up so much space? I can understand a business, but not an individual needing so much storage.

Seriously? My photo files take up 1.04 Terrabytes at the moment. And I've been fairly inactive the last couple of years.

When I was doing weddings, a wedding would be 30-60 gigs.

100 gigs here, 100 gigs there, pretty soon, we're talking a lot of bits.

[sully75]

350 or so gigs of music too. That's crazier. A little OCD on that front. But I enjoy what I have.

[Kirk Gittings]

Plus backups, I have about 11TBs of images stored. And that is just since I started digitizing film or shooting digitally 6-7 years ago. If I went to digitize my entire film library...........Images are both my hobby and profession-no way around needing serious storage that I have control over.

Search the web it appears Google will have repro rights to your content. http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/25/2973849/google-drive-terms-privacy-data-skydrive-dropbox-icloud

google services contract:

"Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones."

Draconian...........

[Moopheus]

I just signed up with cx.com, not for backup but for file transfer. I occasionally have a need to send someone a file much larger than can be emailed, and sending disks is a pain. This seems to be the main advantage of cloud-type services--being able to easily move stuff around. If you don't want to easily move stuff around, but just want to stash stuff somewhere relatively secure, there are better options. And yes, always read the TOS carefully.

[Mike Anderson]

Draconian...........

Google has to walk this back, or somehow be more reassuring as to the protection, control and privacy of people's content they get paid to store. No doubt the legalese in their Terms of Service is raising many eyebrows.

From this page (http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-cloud-privacy-rights-20120424,0,3469998.story?track=icymi):


[Updated at 11 a.m. April 25: A Google spokesman issued a statement via email affirming users' ownership rights.

It reads: "As our Terms of Service make clear, 'what belongs to you stays yours.' You own your files and control their sharing, plain and simple. Our Terms of Service enable us to give you the services you want — so if you decide to share a document with someone, or open it on a different device, you can."]

[D. Bryant]

Microsoft's skydrive gives me 25GB for free...
Ready now.

But file sizes are limited to 100K and mapping a local drive letter to the Skydrive is a bit convoluted.

[D. Bryant]

Mea culpa. I guess I should think of moving into the twentieth century, someday.

Ah, we are now in the 21st century.

[paulr]

Services like dropbox and google drive are primarily about synching, not backup. If you have files you want to keep in synch on different devices (workstation, laptop, iphone, etc.) they work really well. I use dropbox right now for a subset of my files, including writing projects. Generally ones that are small, and that I work on a lot and don't want to have to worry about the version mismatches that are inevitable if you have manually synch things from multiple machines.

Backup is a fringe benefit of these services. None of them is really adequate backup solution for anyone working with big files, unless you can afford the space and the massive bandwidth. I suspect in ten years or so this will be common but it's not ready for most people yet.

I have an eye on some open source projects that promise to give you dropbox-like versatility using your own server space. This would be ideal ... nearly unlimited storage, and no privacy concerns. The ones I found didn't seem quite ready for prime time yet.

So far dropbox has worked pretty well. I'll take a closer look at the google version soon. I'm surprised google only offered 5 gigs. They're usually more disruptive than that.

[Jack Dahlgren]

But file sizes are limited to 100K and mapping a local drive letter to the Skydrive is a bit convoluted.

What are you talking about 100K file limit? I just tested out uploading a 30MB file - no problem.

[E. von Hoegh]

Ah, we are now in the 21st century.

I'm well aware of that. (winking smiley)

[E. von Hoegh]

Seriously? My photo files take up 1.04 Terrabytes at the moment. And I've been fairly inactive the last couple of years.

When I was doing weddings, a wedding would be 30-60 gigs.

100 gigs here, 100 gigs there, pretty soon, we're talking a lot of bits.

I have perhaps 10 photos in my philes.
My music is on vinyl or CDs, my records are on paper, my notes in notebooks. There's really nothing to put in the 'puter memory.

[Mike Anderson]

I have an eye on some open source projects that promise to give you dropbox-like versatility using your own server space. This would be ideal ... nearly unlimited storage, and no privacy concerns. The ones I found didn't seem quite ready for prime time yet.

My server service (bluehost.com) doesn't allow for for general storage, the stuff you put there needs to be part of a website. They have interesting wording in their TOS, saying basically that bandwidth and space for content is unlimited, unless it's too much.

[Mike Anderson]

I have perhaps 10 photos in my philes.
My music is on vinyl or CDs, my records are on paper, my notes in notebooks. There's really nothing to put in the 'puter memory.

Sad. And irresponsible - you obviously don't care about China's economy.

[Darin Boville]

This is something I do not understand, how one could need this storage? In all the years I've had a computer - 6 years, I've filled 8gb on a 250gb harddrive.

Aside from images, what are people storing that takes up so much space? I can understand a business, but not an individual needing so much storage.

8GB would only be a few LF scans, a few large stitched images, or a short video. I have five or six *terra*bytes + back-up here. Music files add up quickly, too.

--Darin

[E. von Hoegh]

Sad. And irresponsible - you obviously don't care about China's economy.

Well, I forgot to mention that I have some music on tapes, too. But it'a an Akai reel-to-reel, and the tapes themselves are from Japan. Japan is near China.

I guess I'm just not a very good Amurkin.

[jp]

25 Gigs would be easy to fill with some short HD video clips. Or the contents of three compact flash cards from my DSLR, which is ancient by current consumer standards. I don't store music on the computer at all. My photos and a little video do exceed 1TB though; a little pricey for online backup. I got my own backup cloud; a computer in another building with a 2TB drive I back things up to over a lan; don't need no steenkin terms of service.

These 25 gig drop boxes are handy though for transferring files. Most people don't have an easy to share big files over the net. Email is only practical for a few megs.

[D. Bryant]

25 Gigs would be easy to fill with some short HD video clips. Or the contents of three compact flash cards from my DSLR, which is ancient by current consumer standards. I don't store music on the computer at all. My photos and a little video do exceed 1TB though; a little pricey for online backup. I got my own backup cloud; a computer in another building with a 2TB drive I back things up to over a lan; don't need no steenkin terms of service.

These 25 gig drop boxes are handy though for transferring files. Most people don't have an easy to share big files over the net. Email is only practical for a few megs.

A YouSendIt account can work for some people, though the free accounts limit the file size and other features.

The Pro/Business account is pricey but it works very well.

[CP Goerz]

GBs and TBs of stored stuff?...does anybody edit anymore?

[Kirk Gittings]

This is something I do not understand, how one could need this storage? In all the years I've had a computer - 6 years, I've filled 8gb on a 250gb harddrive.

Aside from images, what are people storing that takes up so much space? I can understand a business, but not an individual needing so much storage.

I gain about 2 terabytes a year of images.

[Frank Petronio]

If you don't need to retrieve old client raw files or obscure jobs from years ago, there is a lot to be said for deleting old junk, physical and digital. I know that I might throw away something potentially precious but the sheer quantity of images we accumulate means that no reasonable descendant will ever have the time to rummage through it all.... perhaps with key wording and meta data, plus smarter search engines and face recognition the data could be mined but I rather have some editorial control over my legacy.

My Father-in-law left thousands of Kodachrome slides behind. Most are incredibly boring but I know there is also some fantastic stuff in there but the thought of wading into it fills me with dread. Same for the stacks of old family photos dating back to the 1930s... I don't know who most of the people are now.

Had they edited their collections down, properly labelled them, and left us 100 of the best of the best, it would have been so much better - we'd probably have enlargements hanging on the wall and more of a connection with the past. Instead they all sit in boxes in the basement or attic, decaying.

Professionally it makes sense to put a time limit for storage into the contract, I don't want to dig for something from 20 years ago.

[Kirk Gittings]

Two things. On going stock sales make me want to keep all the old commercial files accessible. Also I have an agreement with UNM to take my archives when I can't handle it anymore. Family stuff is all stored separately.

[cdholden]

Two things. On going stock sales make me want to keep all the old commercial files accessible. Also I have an agreement with UNM to take my archives when I can't handle it anymore. Family stuff is all stored separately.

Kirk,
Do you also have one of the heads of UNM's Computer Sciences department ready to take over forum moderation when you "can't handle it anymore"? :)

Chris

[Kirk Gittings]

No. One of you hosers is going to have to step up.

[Frank Petronio]

Me! Haha

As a secondary backup strategy, it isn't a bad idea to take your best 100-200 images and save them as large 2048-pixel jpgs and put them on every free portfolio type site - Flickr, 500px, forum galleries, etc. as an emergency fail-safe. While you wouldn't make fine prints from them, they would be enough to suffice as a portfolio for future work after a disaster - and it doesn't hurt your search engine rankings....

[cdholden]

No. He said hoser.
His replacement will be Canadian, eh?

[Kirk Gittings]

Yeah. I think we could use a hoser or two on the moderation team. We need the international representation and POV.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I agree with paulr on this one. Aside from the copyright questions, who wants to be uploading and downloading that much data all the time? Even if the space is free, the bandwidth tends not to be. As for offsite backup, what I do is when I upgrade my main backup drive, I use the former backup drive as a working drive, and the former working drive becomes an offsite backup drive, which I leave in storage, so if I ever had a fire or something, I wouldn't lose all my work.

[Drew Bedo]

There are draw-backs to every mode of backup. I have digital backup in multiple external hard drives with CD backup as well. Another form of backup is the negatives and transparencies that are in a safety deposit box.

There is not one perfect backup modality that all eliminates risk of loss, costs little and retains my privacy. I do what I can with what I have and recognize that everything in life is transient . . . some things more ephemeral than others.

[Leigh]

As our Terms of Service make clear, 'what belongs to you stays yours.'
Let's put this in perspective, in the context of modern computer usage.

You own your files.
But you give g**gle unlimited rights to use them however it wishes.
When you upload files, regardless of what they are, you're giving them away, period.

I expect if you dig into their T&C you'll find that the license you give them persists forever, even if you remove the content.

By definition, they make copies of everything you submit, in accordance with normal computer security guidelines.
That means that even if you remove the files, they still have copies of them and can continue to use them.

- Leigh

[CP Goerz]

I think with digital images its so easy to keep even the half baked ones while keeping 'real' film takes some effort, your best friend is the trash can....

[Preston]

This solution, called Crashplan (http://www.crashplan.com/) looks pretty interesting. I haven't tried it, though.

Here's a blog post (http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2012/05/17/crashplan-a-full-featured-online-backup-solution/#more-1605) from Puget Systems regarding this solution.

--P