Storage forum: Are memory cards a good media to back up your data on?

Well there seems to be many ways people do back up and as well as they should - and most will work - cloud backs up are flaky - several people I know have had problems - now local back up are the best in my eye but having an off site for a back-up to the back-ups is not a bad idea - now as far as the media they all have there good points - I never just back up just one way - I have a C drive clone on an ext drive bay - a data Back Up via a byte by byte with no commpression - I all also make a Acrons disk BU (with commpression turned off) and I use Microsoft Synctoy to ext SSD via a plug in ext drive bay - (I got a 60 gig Intel SSD for belive it or not for 50$ on sale) - for Outlook which changes daily (I do a lot of businees via Outlook) - the main point here is to have more back ups than just one and maybe to have one some where else off site - the last words are back back and back up - now back programs can be a pain - if the C drive fails you have to have that program loaded to get your data back and you may not be able to move it to another computer - and don't forget a CD or DVD boot disk made to help you come back up and recover - now for a USB thumb drive they work great but have more than one - and they can be slow on big back ups

Whatever media you choose for backups, consider where you store that backup media. The backup media is only of use if you can get to it.

If your house or apartment burns down or if your equipment is stolen, what's the alternative?. The easy answers are store a copy of your backup data at,

1. A relative or friend's house.
2. A fire safe. They are relatively inexpensive. But please bolt it down with the included hardware.
3. A save deposit box at your bank or credit union.
4. A waterproof can buried in your back yard. Of course you'd have to dig it up everytime you needed to backup. Maybe not a good idea.

Whatever way you choose, insure that you can easily retrieve the media for your daily/weekly/monthly backups.

A lot of responses recommend "external hard drive" as the backup medium of choice. I have that and use it, but my external drive is permanently attached to my system (i.e. to my home router). I still want my data backed up on media that I can store safely outside of my home or in a fireproof, waterproof safe within my home. Some portable external drives could be used in this way, but more modular media (discs, flashdrives, SDcards, etc.) fit the bill better.
And I DO want redundancy and periodically (every couple of years) check that both (or all) copies are readable..

Today there is a lot of talk and advertising of facilities for backup storage "on the cloud." Sounds like a good idea, though I have not used it, and am a bit skeptical about security out there.

The cheaper memory chips are not to be trusted and the more expensive ones, in the size you would need, are just too expensive. Get yourself a 1 or 2 T hard drive with a SATA to USB3 adaptor (they are about 25$ but make sure you have a USB3). There are also other types of adaptors. Why not just an external drive,no reason except this is more flexable, you can use one adaptor for several drives and save some money.

If you really want to do it correctly you should store your backups onto more permanant media, like DVD or Blueray. It takes longer and will cost more but that is whe way to go.

If you are lazy and don't care that you are placing your trust in others you can use an online service and backup to the cloud.

Memory cards, like all media, are not immune to failure. No matter what you do, it's not inconceivable you could end up without your data and without a working backup. You want to make that as unlikely as possible, balanced against how valuable your data is to you and how big a hassle it is to achieve the level of redundancy you need. Do you run a business from home and have data that would result in major revenue loss if lost? If so, off-site backup is essential.

Regardless of what media I have used, my usual strategy is to have two or three backup media and rotate through them, say weekly. If last week's backup failed I could go to one two weeks old. The chances of all 3 failing are pretty small. In my case, if my house burned down the stuff on my computer would be among the least of my worries.

For my photos, I periodically download files from my cameras' memory cards onto both my computer (which gets backed up) and my NAS. When the card fills up, I simply replace it, and keep the card with the original photos. That makes it pretty unlikely to lose all my photos while my house is standing. If it did burn down I'd also lose prints and negatives from about 40 years of photography. I could make electronic copies and store them off-site (I have a very good Nikon film scanner) which would be a major project, or I could simply store the photos off-site and probably never look at them again. Backup strategies are always a balancing act.

I prefer to use online backup, as well as, other media for storage. There are a lot of cloud storage providers available to choose from. In fact, there are so many you may have a difficult time choosing. You can check out some good reviews on what is available at Top10CloudStorage.com.