Checking all my backup files after the external drives had been in storage for about five months and the long sea voyage.
I did bring one drive home in hand baggage which was fine, two others packed separately from my computer (PC) along with two 1TB hard drives which hold a complete ghost image of everything on both my laptop & PC. not taking any chances with lost boxes.
A lot easier with my negatives; a good thing because I have rather a lot and all filed (not very logically 😉 ) in ring binders & archival storage sheets.
David A Lockwood 
Digital data are said to be trickier to keep safe, but negatives are unique things, hard to duplicate, unless you scan everything in very high quality. The chances to lose them are small, but when it happens… (fire, theft) all is lost.
For digital a sound backup strategy rules. I always have local backups with Time Machine on my Mac, I have a copy of everything in iCloud and about once a month I rotate two disk drives to my office with a monthly backup….
Thanks Frank, I did similar with external drives, in the office safe. Now I am retired, that option has gone.
Cloud storage still makes me apprehensive, old security habits die hard.
My negs are almost certainly going into the cellar when I need storage.
Cloud storage is fickle. Most people can’t tell between cloud backup and storage. They upload their stuff and then delete the local files…. and cry bitter tears when they see their online stored files getting deleted too.
But online storage is great when you swap computers or work on multiple ones. Everything in sync.
A real online backup is too slow for my taste. Did a trial once and Backblaze said the initial backup would take 32 days…
Apples’s iCloud has been. working flawlessly for years for me now. As for privacy… you have to believe them and pray… and not use Google 😉
My suggestion:
Do never use Toshiba external HDDs Canvio devices! I’ve lost all my PSDs and my entire stock of images accumulated during more than a year in less than 15 days of use after having been acquired in the shop; and nobody wants to know nothing about it; nor the dealer nor Toshiba either.
Sadly, after more than 30 years being a multimedia designer it seems that… indepently the normal storage in internal and external hard disks, one is being obliged to store the data in DVDs too. That’s my conclusion.
Edited the last bit but like the idea, keep me posted.
This is the whole problem with modern media storage; even dvd’s & cd’s have a finite life, unlike traditional film.
I have cloud back up and external hard drive. So far so good.
Acronis True Image for the PC/laptop and continues backup onto an external drive then once a week or so, I do a manual b/up on another external drive that isn’t connected when I am online, for fear of viruses.
But as Murray said – Fire or even house theft is a real problem for my negatives.
It’s probably no consolation, but what will be (will be). Do you have everything out of storage yet?
Good morning – or in your case, evening.
Yes fate has a lot to do with these things; there are only a finite number of solutions without spending a lot of money and even then it’s not possible to cover every eventuality.
Everything is now safe & sound in our new home, although not everything is unpacked, just a quick look into boxes incase of damage. I was very pleased with the Oman packers & shippers, not so with the UK ones but hay ho.
Still a potential problem though in terms of backup. For example, Oleg Truchanas, Tasmanian wilderness photographer and mentor to Peter Dombrovskis had most of his slides, including Lake Pedder before it was flooded, destroyed when his home near Hobart burned down in a hugh bush fire.
It is something that needs some thought when I finally get sorted. Famous last words !
Cloud storage (cost), negatives other than home, (I don’t think I have a solution for the negatives) just a fire safe that is well insulated and in the cellar.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.