Kind of a philosophical question... How much photo backing up is enough?

I am a professional photographer and what I have in place is probably way to much for most, but I have seen what data loss can do to a company (I have an IT background).

Here is my largest concern (aside from the EMP previously mentioned ;):

Ransomware

I have seen this affect companies 4 different times to devastating effect. It goes in and encrypts all the files. All data on your network is hosed. That means if you have 3 drives plugged in to do backups - hosed. One of the backups has to be offline or in the cloud.

As a professional, the problems I have with the cloud is cost and bandwidth. I have some PSDs that are 2 or 3 GB in size alone not to mention all my RAW files. I currently have about 14 TB of data which would take way to long to upload to the cloud.

For the discussion here is my system and once again this is a fairly extreme example:

2x Dell R710 Servers with RAID 5 (RAID as mentioned before is not backup, but nice for speed and drive redundancy)
1x USB drive per server for on the network backups
2x USB drive per server for offsite backup (kept approximately 5 miles away)
Everything is transferred to backup every night via a Robocopy script
A monitoring program to monitor backup failures
All my final JPGs are kept in Zenfolio

The offline backup gets done weekly. I swap drives - put one on to backup and replace with the recent copy.

I have never had to go back to Zenfolio for files. I've never had to go back to the offline files. I HAVE had to go back to the online backup.

NOTHING is stored on my processing machine, everything is on the servers. Lastly, this backup system pertains to all my files, not just images. Invoices, receipts, tax docs, even my MP3 collection.

The monitoring program monitors for drives problems as well as backup failures. I've had about 5 or 6 drives go bad during this time. I've never had a drive fail before I was able to replace it because it almost always tells you its going bad before it does through the monitoring programs.

Also, I keep spare hard drives in stock. When one gets swapped out another gets purchased.

For my friends I always recommend 1x network or USB backup and 1x offline even if its at their work or friends. At the very least not connected to the network when the backup is not going to protect against ransomware.

I hope this helps someone. I am pretty passionate about backing up data as years ago I lost files I can never get back!
 
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LDS

Sep 14, 2012
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derrald said:
Here is my largest concern (aside from the EMP previously mentioned ;):
Ransomware

As others already wrote, a NAS capable of creating "snapshots" is an effective way to protect from ransomware. A "snapshot" - as the name implies, take a "photograph" of the files. Changes made after the snapshot are made to an automatic copy of the file. It's not very different from Apple's TimeMachine and Windows 10 backup, but it can work an a NAS on its own.

Of course, it will use additional disk space (unmodified files only need the space needed to record the snapshot metadata), but one can revert to a previous snapshot ad needed. Unlike backups, snapshots are much faster to create, and can be created more often (some systems create them hourly, or even less). Reverting to an earlier snapshot is also faster than restoring a backup (but all work done after the snapshot was taken is of course lost). Some system allow to transfer or "open" a snapshot on a different system, for single file recovery. It may also useful to protect against accidental deletes or modifications.

Actual ransomware are not capable of encrypting files before a snapshot was taken - of course older snapshots may need to be deleted, and you have to spot a ransomware before it is too late - but that's true for backup as well.

A proper backup/archiving solutions is not just a matter of hardware and disk space, but of software also.
 
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ethanz

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notapro said:
For me, backing up photos once a month or so seems to be enough--or after a shoot with 200 or more images.

I'm using modest backup storage--A Western Digital two-disk system in RAID 0 (My Book Duo), 8 terabyte capacity.

Hello, just a note for you, that isn't actually a backup if it is only on the My Book Duo. If a file is only in one place it is not backed up, its only stored. If the My Book Duo was in Raid 1, that would at least be a little better because it would be on two drives.
 
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LDS said:
derrald said:
Here is my largest concern (aside from the EMP previously mentioned ;):
Ransomware

As others already wrote, a NAS capable of creating "snapshots" is an effective way to protect from ransomware. A "snapshot" - as the name implies, take a "photograph" of the files. Changes made after the snapshot are made to an automatic copy of the file. It's not very different from Apple's TimeMachine and Windows 10 backup, but it can work an a NAS on its own.

Of course, it will use additional disk space (unmodified files only need the space needed to record the snapshot metadata), but one can revert to a previous snapshot ad needed. Unlike backups, snapshots are much faster to create, and can be created more often (some systems create them hourly, or even less). Reverting to an earlier snapshot is also faster than restoring a backup (but all work done after the snapshot was taken is of course lost). Some system allow to transfer or "open" a snapshot on a different system, for single file recovery. It may also useful to protect against accidental deletes or modifications.

Actual ransomware are not capable of encrypting files before a snapshot was taken - of course older snapshots may need to be deleted, and you have to spot a ransomware before it is too late - but that's true for backup as well.

A proper backup/archiving solutions is not just a matter of hardware and disk space, but of software also.

I've seen ransomware affect snapshots as well. It depends on how they are taken. Regardless, something not connected is always better than something that is when ransomware attacks.
 
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LDS

Sep 14, 2012
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ethanz said:
notapro said:
For me, backing up photos once a month or so seems to be enough--or after a shoot with 200 or more images.

I'm using modest backup storage--A Western Digital two-disk system in RAID 0 (My Book Duo), 8 terabyte capacity.

Hello, just a note for you, that isn't actually a backup if it is only on the My Book Duo. If a file is only in one place it is not backed up, its only stored. If the My Book Duo was in Raid 1, that would at least be a little better because it would be on two drives.

Actually, in a RAID0, a file is on all drives, some pieces on one, some pieces on the others. Losing one disk means to lose all files. RAID 0 is for speed and size, but it's the most dangerous one. Good for scratch space and large temporary files, but nothing critical.
 
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Orangutan speaks to something relevant with respect to one being able to decide how valuable photos are. For paid shoots, I back up the RAW files immediately so as to have an extra copy should something happen to the original set. Paid shoots aside, I shoot infrequently--sometimes not even one in a month--so my relatively infrequent backup schedule works for me.

To LDS--You offer helpful information on RAID 0. The storage I purchased was preconfigured for RAID 0, and that's the reason I'm using that. You and ethanz (below) have me rethinking the RAID 0 configuration.

To ethanz--Yes, I agree and understand about a file being only in one place not being a backup file. I think I've been imprecise in expressing myself in this thread. I have all my files on my main machine. I copy them to the external storage, and I refer to those files as my backup. With your and LDS's advice, I may look into configuration options on the My Book Duo.
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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alvarow said:
Mt Spokane Photography said:
Its going to be hard to convince me to buy anything from Sandisk. Lexar has always had 1st class customer service, too bad they are going away.

We’re going off topic, but I urge you to take a look at Crucial... not the fastest around, but reliable, supports hardware encryption on Windows and great service from support. I buy from them or Intel.
I'm a heavy user of SSD's, I have them from Crucial, Samsung, and Sandisk, maybe more. Crucial is Lexar, but I do have Crucial SSD's. Generally, their performance is slow, and I had one die about a year ago which was replaced promptly. They would be a low choice for me. Intel consumer SSD's are low on the totem as well. I have more Samsung SSD's than the others, they tend to be faster, I've never had one fail, and they cost more. I'd expect fast service from Samsung as well, I have not needed it.

I had bought a new WD SSD before I found out how slow the Sandisk service was, (They are the same now). I would have bought another Samsung otherwise.
 
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Mt Spokane Photography said:
I had bought a new WD SSD before I found out how slow the Sandisk service was, (They are the same now). I would have bought another Samsung otherwise.

Speaking of service, I have found that WD have quite good service. I had a WD Red drive (I have 6 in my DIY nas) starting to generate SMART errors, and contacted WD about it. They replied within 24h saying that it qualified for a warranty replacement, went on to suggest using their 'Advance' RMA to get the same firmware version (since it's part of a nas) and telling me how to do it.

Very good service, in my mind.
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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kaihp said:
Mt Spokane Photography said:
I had bought a new WD SSD before I found out how slow the Sandisk service was, (They are the same now). I would have bought another Samsung otherwise.

Speaking of service, I have found that WD have quite good service. I had a WD Red drive (I have 6 in my DIY nas) starting to generate SMART errors, and contacted WD about it. They replied within 24h saying that it qualified for a warranty replacement, went on to suggest using their 'Advance' RMA to get the same firmware version (since it's part of a nas) and telling me how to do it.


Very good service, in my mind.

Its possible that WD has a separate customer service from Sandisk, even though the own them. Sandisk SSD's are sold under Sandisk and WD names depending on the marketing area. On Amazon, here in the US, the WD brand sells for less even though its exactly the same unit. I've had good service from WD for the few times I needed it. The service address for Sandisk was Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. The address for WD hard drives is in Kentucky but I would expect the WD Blue SSD's to go to Sandisk.


BTW, I received a email this morning saying that they had received the drive and would be checking it. Actually, they received it on the 19th early in the AM, so they have had it 5 working days now.
 
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Valvebounce

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Hi Mt Spokane.
You have to wonder why a company would wait so long to acknowledge receipt of a returned product especially if it was a tracked delivery, they must know that you know they have had it 5 days! ::)
I'm guessing that it is carefully worded so as to not be a blatant lie, but it still stinks to me! That is the kind of customer service I don't want to deal with.

The next bit is off topic but somewhat relevant too.

We got a new gas cooker last week and it had so many things wrong you have to wonder about quality control, we contacted their customer service department and they were down right rude, after 3 working days the "engineer will call in 1 working day" had not called, chased it and they were rude again! Guess what, they now have their crappy (expensive) product back with a don't bother sending an engineer note and we have a different brand, funnily enough we had to call customer service for them too (missing shelf) polar opposite, so sorry one will be sent, had it the next day!

Cheers, Graham.

Mt Spokane Photography said:
BTW, I received a email this morning saying that they had received the drive and would be checking it. Actually, they received it on the 19th early in the AM, so they have had it 5 working days now.
 
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