Image Storage
Keeping images safe with online storage
Securing your digital images is important. They can be left on the camera memory card, but are easily lost or overwritten. Photos can be kept on your PC, but hard disks don't last for ever. Backups can be made to CD or DVD, but these are difficult to keep track of, and there are rumours of media failure over time. A better solution is copying to another computer or something like a USB hard drive, but these can be lost by theft or fire. Another solution is to use an online storage facility, which keeps a copy of your images in a secure remote location.
The theory is simple. Images are uploaded to a server from your PC, and the files are safely kept until they are required. This is different to the function of photo sharing services such as Flickr, though to a certain extent they can perform the same sort of service.
Some typical services are listed below. Some are specifically for image storage, whilst most will store any type of file.
Box.net - Free 1 GB account, up to 15 GB for paying customers.
BT Digital Vault - BritishTelecomm's own offering. 2 GB for free, and 20 GB with auto-backup available for a price.
IBackup - Large number of subscription based plans. Free trial.
IDrive - 2 GB free storage.
Livedrive - Subscription service with unlimited storage.
Mozy - 2 GB free storage.
You may also like to consider: or these sync services, which keep local and remote folders synchronised: