I'm paranoid about losing files to corruption/fire/5-year-old-son accidents/theft.

(Aren't we all?!)

So, I've been researching a few online storage solutions. My fave that I'm considering is http://www.elephantdrive.com/. (1 TB of remote storage for $350 per year.)

I like that the files will be stored FAR away from the studio, or even my whole town... (Back-up DVDs won't do me much good if my studio is blown away in a tornado, now will they??)

Is this reasoning folley? Or is this something that you all are already doing, and I'm just slow on the uptake? Is there a better solution?

I use Pictage. My rep said that dozens of photographers had wedding files saved when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that would have otherwise been lost (equipment with water damage).

Recently, the motor in my hard drive failed and all my data was lost (unless I wanted to invest $2000 for recovery). Fortunately I was able to download my processed wedding files from Pictage directly, and everything turned out fine.

It something to check into. Its not for archiving RAW files, but you can archive very large JPEG files.

Hey Carrie!

That is a great question, and one that we struggle with on a regular basis...are we doing enough? How much is too much backup?

What a great resource!!! My only concern is that the overhead would get to be a bear after a couple of seasons. We have about 5 TB in total storage right now on our servers. Here is what we use:

http://www.mnmsystems.com/index.asp?PageAc...&ProdID=542

Cost wise, you can just about BUY one of my servers for the cost of their hosted server for one year. And I'm sure there are cheaper options out there for buying! We like this server because it has the Seagate Barracuda hard drives...very good quality drives.

I had a friend in the website business that did this thing called co-locating. Basically, he lived in Tallahassee, and bought a server, and had it hosted in a huge fancy data center in Tampa. Of course, the idea here is that the data center had a raised floor, security guards, steel walls...the works.

Then through the internet, he was able to login to his server, store data in Tampa, etc...but without the crazy overhead.

That might be a good approach too!
Charles

Wiki says...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colocation

~ Charles

Erik~

I am very interested in this. I am wondering how simple it is and how much data is actually stored.

Are you storing original raw files as well as the edited jpgs? And on average how much space are you using per wedding. I know that this will vary, but I am trying to get a general idea.

As for everyone else. I want to ask about backing up on 2 seperate discs. And keeping one at a different location. What is the best way to store these and typically how long do these last?- The DVDs I mean.
I am thinking about including that images are kept on file for one year.

This is always so stressful. I just need to get my system in place to make myself feel better!