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taemo
01-06-2017, 04:08 PM
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking of redesigning my editing rig and backup solution.

Main PC
525GB SSD + 2TB HDD

NAS
4x2TB RAID5

I'm thinking of replacing my 2TB HDD with a 1TB SSD for photos I'm actively working on. I may use a USB drive for additional storage and local backup.

And I wanted my photos to be backed up on a remote location instead of relying on the NAS, especially RAID5.

I started looking at various cloud solutions and the one that seemed would work best was CrashPlan but then I started reading more about Amazon Prime Drive again.

When I initially looked into Amazon back in 2015, they didn't consider Fuji RAW files as photos (they obviously do with Canon, Nikon and Sony) and also they didn't have folder sync capabilities.
But now both requirements seems to be supported, although there's no official statement that Fuji RAF are supported.

NAS is uploading at 2MBps right now so I should have my ~900GB of photos backed up in a week.

So right now, I have my editing rig do a weekly robocopy of my photo directory to the NAS, then the NAS does a one way sync to Amazon Drive.
If disaster occurs, I can re-download my photo directory into my computer or NAS.

msommers
01-07-2017, 11:16 AM
What made you go Amazon after all? Was there a decent price difference?

NoPulp
01-07-2017, 11:53 AM
Let me know your impression of Amazon. I have prime and have considered using the storage as well.

taemo
01-07-2017, 12:42 PM
Originally posted by msommers
What made you go Amazon after all? Was there a decent price difference?
Main reason is price :rofl:
I used to be an Amazon Prime member and I finally have a valid reason to renew it as I buy stuff from there all the time anyway.

For Crashplan or any other cloud backup solution, expect to pay at least 5 US$/month.


Originally posted by NoPulp
Let me know your impression of Amazon. I have prime and have considered using the storage as well.

I was originally planning on syncing Amazon Drive to my computer but figured to reduce load on myPC, I'll let the NAS do this job.
Fortunately the QNAP NAS has a backup app that supports cloud.
Once I have my photos uploaded, I'm thinking of backing up some of my other stuff to OneDrive for Business as I have 1TB there as well.

I can also browse my photo directory from Amazon's website or a mobile app but I don't foresee using this at all.

When disaster occurs, I can either sync the backup cloud to the NAS and/or on my PC
https://s23.postimg.org/dm5ks66sr/1_7_2017_11_32_38_AM.png
270+ GB in 2 days, about 600GB to go

Mitsu3000gt
01-07-2017, 02:12 PM
Any catches to using Prime for backup? Is it like other sites where they gain rights to your photos and whatnot? I haven't had time to look into it much.

Also are RAW files considered photos, or are they considered "other files" which go towards the limit?

taemo
01-07-2017, 03:10 PM
Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Any catches to using Prime for backup? Is it like other sites where they gain rights to your photos and whatnot? I haven't had time to look into it much.

Also are RAW files considered photos, or are they considered "other files" which go towards the limit?
Sony, Canon, Nikon RAW files are officially considered as photos so they fall under the unlimited quota.
Fuji RAW files works too although no official statement on their site.
Im curious if TIFF and DNG are too as I have a bunch of those as well.
In terms of privacy, looking at the terms looks like it's private for your own personal/non-commercial use.
Only thing left I want Amazon to improve is to implement a multi-factor authentication

Mitsu3000gt
01-07-2017, 03:21 PM
DNG are considered photos, that is one of the workarounds I read about earlier for unsupported native RAWs. Not sure about TIFF but they are so unnecessarily huge I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't supported.

Cool I might as well fire it up.

taemo
01-09-2017, 04:34 PM
halfway there to have my backup in the cloud
https://s30.postimg.org/lp6ng8lq9/backup.png

the upload stopped a couple of times as once you go over 5GB of data/videos, the upload stops until you clean them up.
So I moved all my videos from camera, gopro and iphone to a separate directory.

another thing to take note is that there's no versioning of the images, if it matters to your backup need

Mitsu3000gt
01-09-2017, 04:53 PM
Can I just drag & drop my entire photos folder on there? Or do I need to make Amazon "albums"? I haven't started my upload yet but all my folders are already named like albums so if I could just dump it all at once that would be ideal. I have no desire to ever use the app, or view my photos through this service - strictly for backup.

taemo
01-09-2017, 05:12 PM
Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Can I just drag & drop my entire photos folder on there? Or do I need to make Amazon "albums"? I haven't started my upload yet but all my folders are already named like albums so if I could just dump it all at once that would be ideal. I have no desire to ever use the app, or view my photos through this service - strictly for backup.

are you using the program or the website?
I would download the amazon drive program and for example create Amazon Drive folder on your HDD.
Then move all your album folders in Amazon Drive, it will sync those folders to the cloud.

Mitsu3000gt
01-09-2017, 05:20 PM
When I launch the program it had me download it appears to do nothing - the window comes up and the little arrows just spin indefinitely. There is nothing I can click on, or no way to set a target folder that I can see anyway. When I go through the amazon website it looks like I can actually do something there. I haven't had a chance to spend much time with it - I'll try spend some time on it tonight.

yellowsnow
01-09-2017, 10:38 PM
I've been using amazon prime to backup my photos for the last month. So far it's been great, no issues whatsoever. I just dragged my folder to the desktop application, and everything uploaded.

You can also download the prime photo app on your phone, and it will sync your camera photos too in full image quality which is great. Easy to browse all my photos on my android app, it's similar to google photos where it arranges by year/month. I haven't really tried any other feature though.

Great bonus since I already subscribe to amazon prime

blitz
01-09-2017, 11:43 PM
I'm surprised you guys backup your RAW photos online. I've always just done the full quality jpegs once editing is complete.

I'm horrible at cleaning up old photos though, I have 3.2 TB of photos in my Drobo

Mitsu3000gt
01-10-2017, 10:48 AM
I back up RAWs because sometimes new photo editing processes, techniques, tools, etc. become available years later, or maybe I learn something new I want to try on an old photo that I can't easily re-take because of where it was. Unlimited storage space these days it's basically free, so there isn't a downside really.

I can't get the Desktop App to do anything though, it just sits there and the little arrows spin. No log-in or anything. Maybe I'll try reinstall it.

msommers
01-10-2017, 10:50 AM
Originally posted by blitz
I'm surprised you guys backup your RAW photos online. I've always just done the full quality jpegs once editing is complete.

I'm horrible at cleaning up old photos though, I have 3.2 TB of photos in my Drobo

Yeah I was trying to clean things up too...then WD 4TB Black drives were on sale :rofl:

D'z Nutz
01-10-2017, 11:11 AM
I think Ryan's actually talking more about backing your RAW photos online than backing your RAW photos online -- emphasis on the online part, not the RAW. Nobody in their right mind would (or should) delete their RAW files after processing to JPEG.

I dunno, I'm a little uneasy about backing up my stuff to the cloud where I don't know who or where it's going to. I'm perfectly fine with backing up to multiple hard drives and storing them at off-site locations.

msommers
01-10-2017, 11:12 AM
How about both! :D

taemo
01-10-2017, 12:33 PM
Originally posted by D'z Nutz
I think Ryan's actually talking more about backing your RAW photos online than backing your RAW photos online -- emphasis on the online part, not the RAW. Nobody in their right mind would (or should) delete their RAW files after processing to JPEG.

I dunno, I'm a little uneasy about backing up my stuff to the cloud where I don't know who or where it's going to. I'm perfectly fine with backing up to multiple hard drives and storing them at off-site locations.


for me it was more the automation and convenience that online backing can do for me, and curious to see if I could actually do this without spending a dime lol

I thought about buying multiple 2TB drives (which I have a couple already) and backing up my photo directory on a monthly basis and then storing off-site but I'm lazy and might as well let technology do that :rofl:

security and privacy is still a big concern for cloud storage and other solution will probably be better than Amazon but I figured since I'm a Prime member with unlimited photo storage, might as well utilize it.

blitz
01-10-2017, 01:19 PM
Originally posted by msommers


Yeah I was trying to clean things up too...then WD 4TB Black drives were on sale :rofl:

Tell me about it, I have 5 x 3 TB in my Drobo, with dual disk failure redundancy turned on it gives me 8 TB of available storage :nut:



Originally posted by D'z Nutz
I think Ryan's actually talking more about backing your RAW photos online than backing your RAW photos online -- emphasis on the online part, not the RAW. Nobody in their right mind would (or should) delete their RAW files after processing to JPEG.

I dunno, I'm a little uneasy about backing up my stuff to the cloud where I don't know who or where it's going to. I'm perfectly fine with backing up to multiple hard drives and storing them at off-site locations.

I just export full size jpegs to Dropbox monthly, and I only do it for my 4 & 5 star rated photos. I'm probably negligent in doing that, but I can't think of one time when I've gone back to re-process a RAW images.