Hey friends! It's been well over a year since I have sat down and scrapped due to health issues. I'm hoping to get my self organized and back to scrapping soon. In the mean time I need some suggestions concerning EHD. One of my EHD's bit the dust last year. The one I'm currently using is hanging on to dear life and needs to be replaced. My question is... in your opinion what is the best EHD to use? Do you use one EHD that has too partitions and backup to each other? Do you use a cloud based EHD? What works for scrapping and photo storage. I'm open to most ideas on this, but recommendations should be for a PC. I'm hoping you all can get me straightened out before I lose all my pics and kits! Thanks for the help!
I use three EHDs, two of them Intenso and am very happy with them. I am not very particularly demanding when it comes to hardware and speed, so what I find excellent you might fine completely insufficient. For Backup I use Backblaze which is inexpensive and seems to be reliable. I have never had to use them for a complete restore or anything, but just retrieve the odd file I deleted. Never had a problem with that. The initial backup takes forever though, but depending on the amount to backup I think that is nothing unusual.
I also use BackBlaze as well as 3 EHDs. @Rikki we're twins! I have never had a problem with Western Digital or Seagate. I've had both portable and "desktop" versions of both those brands. I currently have a portable WD and a desktop Seagate as well as a portable 2TB Toshiba, which I find to be super super fast at backing up. But...I have heard on computer sites that people seem to like WD over Seagate and I haven't even looked into the Toshiba reviews lol. Oh, and ETA: I use Amazon Prime photos as well. I just drag and drop photos into it, which is very easy to do and it can upload them while I do other things. IDK if you're a member, but Costco has some EHDs on sale right now. Like $15-20 off. There's a 6TB that's calling my name! ETA: I meant to say Hello and I'm glad to see your name on a thread! Hope you're doing well and it'll be great to see you around here again!
I only have one EHD- but I also do cloud backup through Backblaze. I also use google photos as a back up for pictures- even if they aren't quite the full size, they are perfectly scrapable & there if I lost anything anywhere else! My initial backup with backblaze was long like Rikki said- but it really was just a few days- we have pretty high internet speeds which helps!
I was just thinking of you the other day Jewelle! So glad to see you back here. I have LaCie and Seagate EHDs. I have not ventured into online backup yet ... keep saying I will but it seems daunting. I need to do this though. edited to add: I do use google photos too (mostly for my iPhone photos or photos I receive from family) and I was using apple's iCloud until I got sick of buying more and more space.
My computer is being stupid with Backblaze and I'm getting very annoyed/upset as it won't let me update to do backup. I have a 1tb hard drive too.
@jenn mccabe I was also wary of starting BackBlaze but it was super easy and didn't take as long as I thought it would. I trimmed down the initial backup time by setting up file type and folder exclusions.
Thanks Sara. Did you go back later and add those files in later? Or was it just stuff not needed? About how much is the cost?
BackBlaze is $5/month or $50/year, so I just pay the $50. It seems like a good deal if it means keeping my files off-site. As for the file types I excluded: I never added them back. I Googled all of the file types with which I was unfamiliar that I saw in the "Files to be backed up" list. I also didn't back up my Microsoft folder and some other folders, like NVIDIA, which seems to have a LOT of big files that just aren't necessary for me to have copies of IMO. But I can always remove any exclusion at any time and BB will back up those extensions or folders.
The good thing about Backblaze is also that it's 5$ no matter how much you back up. There is no limit, how awesome is that?! I left my backup as is and only excluded a few folders that I really don't need to back up, e.g. my "new stuff" folder as those files eventually get moved into my regular supplies folder (and then they get backed up) or my .psd files once the page is finished (I keep them because I am anal, but can't really see me ever retrieving them IF I ever lose them). That alone takes a huge chunk out of the amount to back up.
BB is very careful to explain that it's not an "archival service" but is instead a mirror of your drive (computer's drive and EHD(s), if you choose to back that up too). If you delete something off your drive, then that file is retrievable via BB for only 30 days after you delete it from your drive. So be careful. But that's why I have a cloud backup and my 3 EHDs: I feel like a file should be on one of those backups lol. (Plus I have 2 EHDs at my parents' house, so I technically have 2 offsite backups--BB and my parents.)
Great to see you, Jewelle!! I have 3 EHD's...2 smaller ones and a 3TB desktop one. All my photos and scrap pages are on all 3, one off site just in case, kits are on two of the 3. They are all Seagates...I had a bad experience with a WD and lost a lot of stuff, but I have heard that for others it's been just the opposite. I guess there are bad ones in every bunch. I am slowly but surely getting all my photos backed up to Amazon. I had Backblaze at one time and let it lapse...I keep saying I need to get it back again.
Every EHD I've had has died. I use Backblaze. I love how everything just gets backed up in a safe place. I even had to switch my account over when I got a new laptop & there was no issue with that. My older photos are on Amazon. My newer photos go directly to Google Photos cuz that's what my phone is happy with. I'm glad you're feeling better & can't wait to see you out there again!
Ah, OK. I don't keep a lot on my HD but rather keep most stuff on EHDs. So I'd have to backup the Mac HD and the EHDs and it would all be saved and available? Sorry for so many questions, but you sound like you know your stuff on this topic Sara. TY!
You have asked the same questions I asked lol, so really it's just a matter of us having the same thought process. And perhaps this is helping Jewelle decide too. @bestcee Courtney, you know a bit too, right? And YES, if you back up your Mac HD and your EHDs, then you'd be all good. TBH, I was more excited about backing up my EHD* because that has all of my pics and DS stuff; backing up my laptop is nice for the stuff that hasn't yet gotten onto the EHDs--and that was a big reason for getting BB as I worried something would happen to my HD before backing up, say, DS's bday or something. *I only back up one of my EHDs because all of my stuff (music, docs, photos, DS, etc) goes on each of my 3 EHDs...I figured there's no need to have 2 of the same EHD backups backed up to the cloud. If I were terribly worried that I'd forgotten to put pics or DS on an EHD, then I could understand wanting to back up a second EHD to "catch" what was left off of my backed-up EHD...but I don't worry about that because the EHD I back up is an EHD that I regularly check and compare to both my laptop and my other 2 EHDs to make sure nothing was forgotten. Oh, and I don't have BB back up my downloads folder. During DS sales that thing can get FULL, and since I move it rather quickly into its proper place on my laptop, I don't worry about it. (I try not to let stuff sit in the Downloads folder longer than a day--I try to download and unzip right after.)
Also, if you are this fast at moving, you could probably redownload if something happened in that time period .
I did the same as Sara. I started having it only update my photos, and scrap stuff. Then I went back and added in the other stuff I wanted backed up - documents and such. I was most worried about the photos, so that's why I started there.
I have 2 EHD; one for my photos and one for my scrapping kits. I have been wanting to get a new one for the photos since it seems like the cord on that one is a little loose and comes out. I also use Backblaze for my cloud backup plus I have my photos on Shutterfly, Google and Icloud.
I didn't exclude anything from my Backblaze back up when I had to start over with them a couple of years ago (when I got a new hard drive). I just turned the throttle up full blast and adjusted the setting so my computer would never fall asleep. It only took 3 or 4 weeks if I remember correctly. I have about 3 Tb of data.
All this info is great! You’ve been giving me little side answers to a lot of things too! This is exactly why I came here to get advice. it sounds like I just need to bite the bullet and get a new EHD. Hubby and I almost got one a few weeks ago but got a little confused when we saw the WD Home Cloud option. It doesn’t sound like many people are using that option though. More suggestions are welcome of course!