External HDD for History

[EHaskins]

Originally Posted by Fletch1373

Dropbox doesn't JUST store it online, it copies the file(s) to the computers that are linked to linked to an account with access to the dropbox share. And since the files are stored locally and simply synced with the server, searching through files is actually very fast and pretty easy.

-Eric

It also replicates deletions, even accidential ones. That means that if you don't detect your mistake in a timely manner the data could be perminantly lost on all devices. This is easier to have happen than it sounds. I had this issue, but I didn't notice the missing data for over a month. Luckly I had nightly local backups of the machine I could restore the data from.

It is always best practice to keep at least two copies of the data, in different locations, and on different media (online, hdd, optical media, tape, etc.).

[Fletch1373]

Originally Posted by EHaskins

It also replicates deletions, even accidential ones. That means that if you don't detect your mistake in a timely manner the data could be perminantly lost on all devices. This is easier to have happen than it sounds. I had this issue, but I didn't notice the missing data for over a month. Luckly I had nightly local backups of the machine I could restore the data from.

It is always best practice to keep at least two copies of the data, in different locations, and on different media (online, hdd, optical media, tape, etc.).

yes it does... but the website portion of it also keeps a record of file activity as well as shadow copies stored for every file in your dropbox(including deletions)... all I can say about your problem is that it's your own fault for not noticing for over a month, but I know dropbox will allow you to recover accidentally deleted files for at least a reasonable period of time

I do agree with you that best practice would be to keep multiple copies, but that can also be achieved by a small script, an extra hard drive, and a scheduled task(or cron if you're running linux).

-Eric

[TKM.368]

This year we spent $50 for 200 GB for Picasa and mandate that all our students upload pictures regularly. For this season alone, we will have over 15,000 pictures and videos. We've also begun moving what files we have into Picasa from previous years and have a library of about 30,000 to choose from. It's turned out to be quite simple and hopefully pretty safe. There may be some reduction in quality, but even at the largest upload size, you're supposed to be able to upload over 100,000 high quality images with 200 GB. No need to worry about and HDD failures... For longer videos, however, we just bought an external drive (but will still upload stuff to YouTube).

[Tanner]

Originally Posted by TKM.368

This year we spent $50 for 200 GB for Picasa and mandate that all our students upload pictures regularly. For this season alone, we will have over 15,000 pictures and videos. We've also begun moving what files we have into Picasa from previous years and have a library of about 30,000 to choose from. It's turned out to be quite simple and hopefully pretty safe. There may be some reduction in quality, but even at the largest upload size, you're supposed to be able to upload over 100,000 high quality images with 200 GB. No need to worry about and HDD failures... For longer videos, however, we just bought an external drive (but will still upload stuff to YouTube).

I've never used Picasa, but how well does it handle all the pictures? Load times good? Is organization good?

I've got a personal dropbox and it seems to handle lots of files quite fine (though the highest amount of files I've used in a folder is like 20). It'd be the exact same structure if the files were on a HDD which can be good/bad. Good as it is consistent, though bad cause it's not too detailed. Though if you start to download the files on your computer via the dropbox app, may you have a large HDD or yank the ethernet cable from your computer.

The only problem I would have with a cloud service is that it would involve resizing most of the pictures and uploading them. It'd take a while, thats for sure (especially on 4-5 years of photos, mostly due to my effort), but it'd be more organized than a plain ole' HDD depending on the service.

Still not sure what I'd like to use. HDD is definitely the easiest. What I use really depends on what all of it will be used for. I don't know if our team would use it enough to have a online service, though that'd be nice. Lots to think about...

-Tanner

[DonRotolo]

Much like EHaskins wrote, but different: Get 2 drives, copy everything onto both. Team gets one, you keep the other, on a shelf. When other drive crashes, copy your drive onto yet another. Repeat as necessary.

This can also be done year after year - fill each drive, copy it, then put one on a shelf. Repeat forever.

Just be sure to pick a technology that will be supported in the future (such as USB or SATA), or maintain a machine just for that purpose (Consider 8-inch floppy disks; good luck finding a drive if you don't have one already)

[Chickenonastick]

SSD's could be in the horizon if you're willing to spend the money for them- they have much lower failure rates than mechanical HD's, but suffer from higher prices and lower storage capacities.