Theft prevention and backup

[surenj]

Just a thought about what would happen if thieves stole your computers (at home)....

In my case, I will lose all my images.

What can one do to reduce the risk (apart from increasing general security and applying various general deterrants)

My thoughts.

1. Kensington lock desktop (I assume this would be a deterrant to a certain extent)
2. Backup harddrive in safe
3. Obviously off site backup (but how practical is this even these days)
4. Offsite cloud! Does anyone use one?

Other issue is how you store your camera gear at home.

1. Safe?? (Or hidden safe? behind picture frame? )
2. Hidden cupboards
3. Having some decoy camera stuff so that they don't neccessarily look for more?
4. In your camera bag, so that they can just pick it up and go....
5. Having a decoy safe??

Please voice your thoughts...

[surenj]

Also please look in this thread for thoughts on backing up data.

http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=40887&p=427652#p427652

[ATJ]

I have two methods for protecting my images from theft - well, making sure I can still access them if the primary drive was stolen.

1) I have a Linux box in the basement and I back up to it over the LAN. It is unlikely that that box would get stolen if someone broke into the main part of the house.

2) Offsite backup - and I do this in 2 different ways. On a weekly basis, I backup to portable HDD and take that into the office where it gets locked up. I have 2 HDDs and I swap them weekly. On a monthly basis, I create 2 sets of the month's photos to DVD and one set gets stored under the house and the other set goes to my sister-in-law.

[Ant]

On a monthly basis, I create 2 sets of the month's photos to DVD and one set gets stored under the house and the other set goes to my sister-in-law.

Do you regularly check the viability of the DVD's? I only ask as I have had issues restoring images from old DVD's. Depending on storage method shelf life for these is something like 3 - 5 years from memory.

[ATJ]

Do you regularly check the viability of the DVD's?

Not really regularly, but I have checked a random sample from time to time and they have been fine.

[chrisk]

derek storage is so cheap nowadays i just bought a 1tb WD for $75, backed up my back up to that drive and it now sits in the bottom draw of my old mans office. easy peezy.

pretty soon i will also have the qnap located in a pretty remote place but still connected to the network where it wont be visible either so that will also sort a few things out.

[leek]

In theory, I have 2 x 2Tb external WD drives, to which I backup photos, music and other dynamic files to on a regular basis. I keep one attached to my PC and one in the boot of my car and swap them on a regular basis. This is intended to cover me against theft and fire on the reasonable assumption that either is not likely to affect both copies of my data.

That's the theory, but unfortunately it doesn't match with reality because each backup takes more than 24hours and consumes my PC for the duration.

I have to find a better piece of software to do incremental backups in order to make this practical. Any tips?

That said, I'm gonna start a new backup right now. It's been a while since the last one...

[surenj]

Thanks Boys,

I've just got myself a 2TB external which I have connected to the network. Still trying to figure out an automatic backup process. I am trialling syncbak at the moment. There are a few portable app options as well which I will trial.

Just installed a new harddrive (old one died and with it all it's data and some photos I didn't have on the desktop!) onto the laptop and trying to use the same method to make sure the vitals are backed up via the network to the 2TB.

As for the next level of backup, I'll need to think of a better way. I am thinking of installing a (network)harddrive in a relatives place and automating the backup from my 2TB to theirs in an incremental manner... I have enough bandwidth and so do they. Just need to find the right software/hardware combo. I have a feeling that they will need a VPN modem or something...

[aim54x]

I have to find a better piece of software to do incremental backups in order to make this practical. Any tips?

I use SyncBack (2BrightSparks - Freeware) to back up my computer to a WD 2TB Caviar Green (yes the ECO drive) which sits in a HDD Dock....I really should do something more though.

[surenj]

which sits in a HDD Dock...

Perhaps you should take this offsite?

[chrisk]

after many tried and failed attempts i bought genie timeline and im now very happy with the backups. reliable, fast and unobtrusive. but not cheap.

[photomarcs]

as soon as I start to do some copying this is how it goes :

card to computer

computer to hard drive portable

computer to hard drive ( 1TB)

portable hard drive to hard drive (1 TB) - kept offsite at gf's house.


Thus, everything has been backed up (:

[leek]

I use SyncBack (2BrightSparks - Freeware) to back up my computer to a WD 2TB Caviar Green (yes the ECO drive) which sits in a HDD Dock....I really should do something more though.

Ooh, that seems to work just fine. Thanks for the tip Cameron.

[aim54x]

which sits in a HDD Dock...

Perhaps you should take this offsite?

I should....but I dont really have offsite storage atm....

[surenj]

I have started to upload to adrive.com as my offsite storage. It will work well for the oldest photos which have important memories (but technically quite poor!). I hardly edit them anymore. Still look at them once in a while and will do so more now that I have a network drive setup.