/!\ hardware failure /!\ help /!\
Last week I experienced my first hard-disk failure ever (in fact my first hardware failure in more than 10 years of using computers ... maybe something to do with the fact that I'm using Macs).
My external backup hard-disk died on me, suddenly, silently, without even saying good bye ...
Even my knowledgeable friends couldn't revive it (and they know what they're talking about you know, they are able to tell if a disk is broken just by listening at the first few seconds when it boots).
Since then, I'm even more paranoid than I was before about loosing digital files.
I was paranoid alright, but I guess just the right amount, now I've taken the leap into pure insanity... there no telling what I'll be up to next.
Kidding of course. But seriously, what do you photo-enthusiasts do to ensure your photos are safe? Do you copy your photos regularly to 6 different hard disks and store them at different friend's places? Do you print all of them? Do you pray every day? Or do you just live in ignorance, a happy and worry-free life?
For my part I first download my photos to my computer, then copy them to my other computer, then I back them up on an external hard disk (the one that died) and on top of that I burn DVDs every now and then. Add to that some uploads to Flickr and some print outs as well.
But is it enough? What if I get robbed, or the flat burns down, or a gigantic magnetic field erases every data I ever had? (did I mention I was paranoid?)
So anyway, lately I was trying to convince my friends that only the CLOUD could keep my data safe from harm. You know, uploading photos to online backup services that are specializing in just this.
I was (still am to some degree) convinced that this is the best option yet. I mean, those companies are making money on this, they've got to be good at it, right? .... Right ??
Somehow I imagine them having fire-bullet-thief-spilled cofee-proof rooms filled with professional servers, doing data replication all over the place. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they just have the usual Windows PCs lying around in the dust of an office, stacked on top of each other (we've got some of them at work). Maybe the company is running out of money and will just go bankrupt in 6 months. There's no telling.
And this is exactly the problem with this kind of service, you don't know what they are doing with the data. You don't know if it is really safe and for how long.
Also, there's the big debate on confidentiality, but really, I don't care as much about this one. I'd be ready to copy all of my data to Google servers (I already do to some extent) for example. Even keeping in mind how much of a giant multinational group they're becoming.
So anyway, if you had the energy to read all of this, maybe you'll be so kind as to answer my simple question: how do you keep your photos safe?