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Google is killing unlimited storage for non enterprise users – don’t move away from G Suite

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If you have been using the unlimited storage feature of G Suite to back up your photos and videos, wait before moving into Google Workplace. Google Workspace only has unlimited storage on enterprise plans.

Google made some big noise about replacing the G Suite with an even better Google Workspace. Among the many changes that may or may not be incredible for you, one change is clearly not in favor of high storage users.

If you or your team were using G Suite Business, you would get unlimited storage for $12/user. If I recall correctly, you needed at least four users to enroll in that level of service.  Now Google Workspace will only give you 2 TB of storage for your $12, 5TB for $18, and according to Android Police, you can move to an Enterprise account for $20 ($30 for enterprise+) and get the same unlimited storage. However, it will be at least 50% significantly more expensive.

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How I store and backup my photography

 

Storing and backing up efficiently and securely more than ten years of photography is a complicate technical task.

At the center of my setup I use a Synology DS1515+ NAS, with 8 disks configured in Raid 6 for a total of 14.54TB of available storage.

I wrote about this set up a year ago, but I recently updated it to be more streamlined and secure.

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Deal alert: Western Digital Elements 10TB desktop drives are only $159 until the end of today

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Update: If you’ve missed this deal at B&H, then Amazon currently has the 10TB Western Digital Elements for $159.99.

B&H currently has the Western Digital 10TB My Book Desktop USB 3.0 external hard drive on massive discount until the end of today. With $100 off, they’ve been reduced from $279.99 to $179.99. That’s only $10 over the regular price of an 8TB drive.

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Backblaze report shows larger hard drives are more reliable than small ones

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Hard drives are something that all of us have. Some of us just have the one our computer came with, while others will have a whole mountain of them. I’m in the latter camp, although I do try to keep things to a minimum. Every few years I replace all my storage drives as faster, cheaper, larger capacity drives are released.

So, every few years I’m in the market for new drives. So, I look at large consumers of hard drives. Consumers like Backblaze, who just released their Q3 2018 report, showing their hard drive failure rates and they’re quite surprising. At least, they surprised me. It seems that those huge 8TB, 10TB and 12TB drives are actually far more reliable than smaller drives.

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BluDomain Killed My Website and Email – What’s Next?

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A few weeks ago I noticed that I had not received any new emails for a day or two. Odd I thought, but it’s summer and maybe people are just on holidays.

This was a day before I was leaving for a trip, so I was in the process of checking in my family for our flight, and making a number of last-minute AirBnB reservations…using my email – which I quickly realized was offline.

What was a minor inconvenience became a major problem – I thought maybe my account had expired or something had gotten disconnected in my email settings. OK, that shouldn’t be much of a problem, so I opened a support ticket with my website hosting service BluDomain…which is when I learned that not only was my email offline, my entire business website had been permanently deleted, and was unrecoverable.

This is now an emergency.

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Is losing your camera the worst end to a trip ever?

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My family and I recently returned from a week-long early spring backcountry camping trip.

This trip involved canoeing in snow squalls and an extended portage where the lake was still frozen solid. Physically, it was a challenge, but it was also an amazing family bonding experience with my wife and our 9 and 12-year-old kids (the golden years when they are useful humans but not yet teenagers).

At the end of the trip I sat my trusty old Fuji X100 (the original model) on a post in the parking lot to snap one final family portrait in self-timer mode.

Then we drove home…

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Liked the GNARBOX? V2 adds better video editing, Dropbox, Premiere & FCP support and one Terabyte of storage

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The GNARBOX (pronounced narbox) solved a major issue for many: How to work in the field with no laptop. A decent laptop that supports backing up, exporting short bits for social media, handle RAW files and similar tasks, cannot be a weak small laptop. But many times, you don’t actually need a laptop, you just want to backup some files, or post a short shot to social media, and a laptop is too much to carry for that. Not to mention the weight and extra care a laptop demands.

Now, the GNARBOX 2.0 SSD takes that concept and turns it into an eco-system. The new GNARBOX 2.0 SSD has more storage, is definitely sexier, and supports four apps or workflows to enable working in the field. The only caveat I have with the box is that it is launching on Kickstarter.

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Google Drive offers unlimited storage to students and alumni

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You already know how important it is to back up your files, and cloud storage should be a part of your backup system. If you’re a student or alumni, I’ve got great news for you: you can get unlimited Google Drive storage, for free. I know it sounds too good to be true, but it’s real.

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If you don’t want to risk losing your data you need a good backup workflow

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There’s one simple fact about hard drives. They’re going to die. It’s not a question of if, but when. And when it does happen, because it will, there’s two things you can do. The first is that you could panic, research data recovery services and spend a small fortune trying to get the data back. Or, you can simply replace the dead drive and restore from backup.

Personally I prefer the latter option, which means having a good backup workflow in place. Photographers and filmmakers create a lot of data. So, you really do need a good backup solution in place if you don’t want to lose weeks, months or even years worth of work. In this video, Caleb Pike from DSLR Video Shooter talks us through his backup workflow.

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