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 5 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.

MediaMax - 25 GB of free storage or Premium/Elite/Professional plans with larger capacity and monthly transfer limits. Powered by Streamload.

MyOnlineImages - Specifically for images, up to 50 MB with the free plan.

VMN Storage - Free storage of any types of files up to 1 GB, with up to 15 GB for a monthly/yearly subscription. Comes with VNM Storage Manager (in reality a version of the excellent AceFTP) for encrypting and transferring files to and from your PC.

Xdrive - 5 GB free, which can include scheduled backups. Xdrive are part of AOL.