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Backing up photos

How are you using your Bubba? Got ideas for a cool modification? Share!
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GettinSadda
Posts: 56
Joined: 22 Jan 2008, 06:06

Backing up photos

Post by GettinSadda »

I have a digital camera - well, who doesn't. Of course this means that I have over 10GBytes of photos!

I have backups on DVDs that I make every now and then just in case...

But, what happens if something really bad happens like the house burns down?

I have a "fireproof" safe that I keep some backups in, but I don't really believe that DVDs stored in it would still be readable after a major fire (it is designed to keep documents such as passports safe rather than for such temperature sensitive items as DVDs).

My important personal files, and some work ones, get off-site backed up using Mozy - but this is only suitable for smallish amounts.

Well, I have now found a solution. I have written a simple shell script that can be run as a cron job overnight.

This script uses epeg to create smaller, lower quality, copies of each photo. I use --max 800 so the images are reduced such that their maximum dimension is 800 pixels. These images are not wonderful, but they are good enough for a 6" x 4" print. And more importantly they are about 10% of the size on disc. Using epeg means it only takes about 5 seconds per image - I tried ImageMagick and it took nearly an hour each image (and the quality was not significantly better)! What does that program do? They are both based on libjpeg!

The directory structure of the photo storage is duplicated in the backup set, so /Photos/2006/April/IMG_123.JPG gets backed up to /backup/Photos/2006/April/IMG_123.JPG and I just set Mozy to back up /backup rather than /Photos.

My photo backup set is now about 1Gb which is quite manageable.
eeeuser1
Posts: 37
Joined: 03 Dec 2007, 05:06

Post by eeeuser1 »

I too worried about this type of issue.

I bough a cheap USB disk and backup onto it once per month.

I then keep it at a friends house.

J
mountaindude
Posts: 57
Joined: 25 Aug 2007, 11:56

Post by mountaindude »

Been working on a backup solution for some time.
What I ended up with was the following:

A USB disk connected to my PC for weekly, manual backups.
My Bubba is always online, and backup is made to it daily (if my main computer happens to be on at the scheduled time, and it usually is). Critical data is now stored in three places (main computer, USB disk and Bubba).
Another small computer (similar to Bubba) backs up the Bubba. (Fourth place...).
Finally, a regular rsync job backs up the second small computer to a friends Linux box across town. (Five places, of which one is off-site).

Yes, quite geeky. But I do sleep better at night after setting this up! :)
eeeuser1
Posts: 37
Joined: 03 Dec 2007, 05:06

Post by eeeuser1 »

mountaindude wrote: Yes, quite geeky. But I do sleep better at night after setting this up! :)
I didn't elaborate any further as I got the point across, but I do broadly similar.
digital stuff is more all or nothing as far as safety goes and well worth protecting properly.
The bubba, as it's called a server, really needs a provided backup solution as well.
J
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