am wondering best place to store external hard drive?

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

Friend's house burned down by a fire a few days ago . They are all fine, but they lost everything including all their photos which actually is the only thing in similar circumstances I wouldn't be able to replace.

My friend says they did back up, but the external hard drive was in the fire too .

Any ideas how preserve photos?

Dh is quite anal obsessive about keeping back ups. We've got 2 hard drives at home and he also updates one monthly (ish) which he stores at his work, locked away. I guess they could be stored anywhere else though, a relatives house?

It isn't something I think about, but god your poor friend. Must be horrific to lose all photos.

Have you thought about cloud storage? If you're an Amazon customer you should get some free storage.

Amazon cloud storage

thank you! Amazon Cloud storage is a great idea.

makes me feel ill just thinking about losing all the photos of the kids. Obviously am pleased my friend and her family weren't injured, but to have your entire house and contents ruined is so so .

Have 2 drives or even 3 (historically 3 was common, naming the backups grandfather, father and son in terms of age) used alternately (2) or in rotation.

Only 1 at your home, 1 at work, or relations, one with friend?

These days big drives are getting cheaper but a 16 or 32 GB USB stick can be has for under 15 quid, so 50 quid should cover you for three x 32 GB.

If you really have more than 30 GB of photos, then prioritise them so the best 30 GB are saved.

Write a collection of DVDs, too, every 6 months or annually. Ten quid should get you enough DVDs to save 100 GB of photos/ video clips.

Using online is fine, but even paid-for services probably have small print terms absolving them in the event of data loss!