Sync Files on Windows Folders and Hard Drives

Lifehacker covered the Five Best File Syncing Tools and within the article they mentioned two programs that can synchronize two local folders (not Dropbox style cloud-syncing).

SyncBack (free version and paid version)

SyncToy (free)

Flickr - Another way to backup your original photos

Flickr stores up to 1TB of photos and video.  If you're a photographer you can safely store photos at their original size.  The original size images can only be downloaded if you wish to share them freely with the world using a Creative Commons license.

I use multiple services (Shutterfly, Mpix, Costco) to turn photos into small prints, enlargements, and sometimes photo gifts.  Since I have my photo archive stored across multiple hard drives, it can sometimes be a hassle to track down the original image to export a full-size JPEG for high quality printing (on silver-based photo paper).




Here's the official FAQ from Flickr as of January 2016:

 Can I access my original images?

We resize your photos to more web-friendly dimensions. Each image has a 75x75 and 150x150 square thumbnail and 100-, 240-, 320-, 500-, 640- 800*-, 1024-, 1600*-, and 2048*-pixel versions (that's the length of the longest side), as well as your original file.

When you view an individual photo page, click the "More" menu and then "View all sizes".

Your original files are available for you to download at any time. You can also use the global setting in your account to specify who can download original files: Only you; your friends and/or family; your contacts; any Flickr user; or anyone.

In case you have attached a Creative Commons license to your photo indicating you're OK with sharing it, this makes the original file available to anyone on Flickr.

Amazon Cloud storage plans

As of July 2012, Amazon Cloud storage prices are competitive with other online backup services like Carbonite and Mozy.

Amazon customers get 5GB of free storage and MP3 songs purchased from Amazon don't count against this limit.

20GB - $20/year
50GB - $50/year
100GB - $100/year

 

Bob Krist on Finding a Digital Photography Archiving Solution

Outdoor Photographer
Bob Krist
January/February 2005
(Excerpted from Resolutions - Ideas to make photography better in the coming year)

Produce digital archiving and storage devices that are easy, stable and, well, archival.  Digital photography isn't still in its infancy; it's a full-blown toddler and there are shooters who have been doing enough of it for long enough that they have substantial archives of photographs. I haven't been doing it too long, and I've got a huge amount of files.

Unfortunately, CDs are too small, DVDs are too slow, hard drives are too prone to failure, and all of them are less than rock stable.  There has to be as much R&D at this end as there is on the capture side.  If it's going to be Blu-ray or multi-layered DVDs or military-spec hard drives, let's perfect it and get it out there.

The other day, I received a stock request for an area I photographed in the late 70's.  Since it was a wilderness landscape area, the views hadn't changed.  I was able to walk to a file cabinet, open a drawer, pull out a sheet of slides I had sleeved up during the Carter Administration and pull out a perfectly good chrome.  I've already had two FireWire hard drives fry in less than a year, and at times, I have more trouble retrieving digital images I shot last month than film images I shot decades ago.  The thought of migrating huge numbers of digital files from old storage technology to new storage technology as the years pass is numbing.  It makes me glad, for once, that I'm not in my 20s or 30s!

Easy Cloud Backup with Dropbox

This week my family's iMac ran into some error messages that essentially made the computer unusable. At this point, we're taking the computer to a local certified Apple tech, because one of more of the RAM memory sticks is probably bad.

We've made no backups of any computer files since the iMac computer was setup at our house in August 2010. Luckily, even though error messages prevented the computer from being usable, I was able to transfer all the family's documents to my computer with Target Disk Mode and a Firewire cable. This also reminds me that I should have setup a separate "troubleshooting" account, which would have allowed me to test whether another account was also having problems loading the Finder.

With the near minor tragedy of loosing all of our family's documents, I remembered that I had not made a backup of my own documents in a few months. In comes Dropbox. The DMG installation file is 21.6MB as of version 1.0.28. The installation and setup is dead simple and fast. You get 2GB of storage with a free account and 250MB of extra space for each person you invite that signs-up for Dropbox.



Dropbox uses a folder on your computer to sync your files with their server. Any time you copy files or folders to your Dropbox folder, they are automatically backed-up to the Dropbox server. Your online Dropbox account gives you access to all these files from any computer or mobile device with web access.

While finishing my taxes, I copied my business report spreadsheet as well as my State and Federal tax returns to my Dropbox folder and they are now backed-up in case anything happens to my computer, and in case I don't make a regular backup to my external hard drive.

Why use Dropbox:

• Backup to an off-site location protects your files from fires, floods, and other acts of nature.
  
• Get peace of mind that the important document or project you are working on is backed-up.
• No log-in required for backups once Dropbox is installed on your computer
• Access your stored files from any internet connected computer or mobile device.