Well, I went and did it. I created a huge mess. I was so excited yesterday about discovering the WD My Cloudsystem. I was willing to do whatever it took to upload the files, even if it took overnight to do it.
But it didn’t work, didn’t work AT ALL!! It didn’t matter if I sent it a small folder or the entire folder. The software and cloud drive would lock up and the files wouldn’t transfer. It seems that I’m not the only one that has had this problem with this system. Looking at reviews for the WD My Cloud system, it’s a hit or miss. Mostly a miss with people unable to use the system.
So in my overzealousness in wanting to clean up what little had transferred to the cloud, I began to delete images off my hard drive! Imagine my shock and horror when I realized what was happening. Quickly canceling the deleting function, I managed to control the damage. Still, all of my images of 2012 and about 12 of my 2013 folders disappeared.
And they didn’t show up in the Recycle Bin. Thank goodness I had recently backed up my entire photo library onto a Toshiba 2 TB Canvio External Hard Drive.
Now that is a storage system I’ve been able to rely on, and it’s quite portable. Two Terabytes is quite a bit of memory and has given me room to grow on the laptop.
With my panicking of file deletion, I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and enroll in an online Cloud service. Looking at reviews, I chose to go with Just Cloud.com and purchased two years service which came out to $8.00 per month.
I really wanted to get Mosaic Archive.com as it integrates with Lightroom beautifully, but for the amount of storage I’d like, it’s a crazy $43.00 per month!
So far, Just Cloud is working beautifully. I downloaded the software and it immediately began backing up my entire system, and the transfer times are great.
I’m thinking this may just work. Stay tuned tomorrow for the next step in this journey. Perhaps there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. Bella
Categories: 2013 Project 365
Emily Carter ~ Nature as Art 
Yikes. Thankfully you had the backup, so you didn’t lose the images totally. I’m in denial myself about organizing my images and creating a reliable back up system. Your “adventures” may serve as a cautionary tale that prompts me into action.
Keeping my fingers crossed for you. Thank goodness for backups.
Oh Bella, I sure hope that all will be well. I would hate to see you losing the files as well as your mind. I can feel for you. But look at that bridge, there’s the light.
Wow, that is scary. Visiting your blog today for the first time after finding you on WordPress.org I see that you have some beautiful photos, I can imagine your distress in accidentally deleting some. I visited Namibia in 2007 and subsequently backed up all my photos from the trip. At the time I was using a Mac so some years later I burned the photos onto discs so I could access them on PC. I foolishly trusted these CDs as another back up only to try and access the files to do some work last year and discover them to be corrupt. 😦 It seems the majority of my pictures from that trip are gone although I am lucky that some of them were copied into other locations and even printed out.
Then recently my laptop warned me about “imminent failure”. I panicked and bought a My Cloud drive that was a network drive. The packaging said nothing about it requiring Microsoft Professional or Elite, so to my surprise I couldn’t use it at all with Windows Premium. I wound up then getting a 2 Tb My Cloud that works directly with my computer and said you could access the cloud as well. Maybe I wasn’t observant but I didn’t know once again until later that that didn’t mean my device could be backed up and connected to a cloud. Instead it meant I could sign up and subscribe to My Cloud online by paying a monthly fee. They gave me 3 GB from the start but that’s nothing! And a year’s worth of online storage would have cost more than buying another external hard drive!!! Quite a bummer really.
That said I’ve used the external drive itself after already having the software on my computer from my My Passport portable drive. It worked well however it took a really long time and I had to be sure to specify that I wanted my entire hard drive backed up not just my libraries. So I feel your pain, making sure files are backed up can be stressful especially when it comes to images, and even more so if you do any sort of photography work. Never mind feeling confident that you got them all and they’re going to be okay!!! I’d have to admit as well that I think my files have at least been triplicated.
I wish you all the best of luck and success in getting things safely and confidently backed up as well as organized. We just got nailed with a storm here in the Midwest; it’s -9 degrees F right now and I have to shovel. But it is beautiful what with at least a couple of feet of snow everywhere and I would like to get out and get going on some photography.. I appreciate learning about your Project 365. I’m hoping to learn more and gain more experience with photography this year and am encouraged by the idea of doing a project of sorts to get me out there.
Thank you and Happy New Year to you!
eLPy
I broke into a cold sweat of horror when I thought of you losing all of those wonderful photos of yours. Thank you for your update on cloud systems. Very much appreciated.
Yikes. Good luck with all of this!!
Oh man I’m glad things seem to be working out! Good luck with all this!
You must be so incredibly relieved that you backed up your files! Definitely something I need to take to heart – I don’t back up my work nearly often enough. I hope everything works out for you!
Glad to hear it’s all working out for you. I signed up for the free account on Mosaic to test it out. I love the ability to see my Lightroom catalog on my iPad!
I wish it would let us do more. Flagging is just a tiny step. but being able to see 2000 images for free is nothing to sneeze at.
Would the WD in “WD My Cloud system” stand for Western Digital? The write some really bad software.
I can imagine the feeling that came over you when you realized that you were deleting the originals, all those beautiful photos gone, I’m glad that you had them backed up.
Yep..Western Digital. Came to the realization last night that what I want, these “clouds” would give me. I want them to work like an external hard drive where I can work on the images with them being housed somewhere other than the computer. The answer is truly a large external hard drive.
The backup cloud is well worth it though. I think I even have those imaged backed up in at least places. Phew !!
It always amazes me that some people don’t backup their files. I work in IT so I know how important it is to backup and how fragile hard disks cane be, Someone once said that ‘a hard disk exists in only one of two states – failed, or about to fail’ and yet people trust all their digital life to them without making copies. My daughters friend owns a florists shop and she bought a new laptop a few months ago. I stressed the importance of a good backup system and she said she won’t bother as the disk is new and it won’t fail. She had her shop broken into shortly after and her laptop stolen with all her contacts/bookings and accounts on. No backup. I use Crashplan which is an online storage – just backs up files automatically. You can’t be toot careful
You’re absolutely right, and believe me this week has been a really hard lesson. Saying a prayer that my computers always stay close to my side. 🙂
OMG! Glad you recovered! Gaaaa. How frustrating.
Recovered nearly all Ilex. Hope you’re hearing my warnings – back up..back up now !! LOL