Upload 400 GB to flickr

Forums › Spark New Zealand › Upload 400 GB to flickr

jlittle

58 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Topic # 145404 16-May-2014 21:28

I'm helping a recently widowed neighbour who is a Telecom customer. She has about 350 GB of photos and videos, which have become precious. They're backed up to an external hard drive, but putting the lot on Flickr, which offers 1 TB free, seems a good idea.

I contacted Telecom about it, but the response I consider impractical.

There is only one way to upload to a Cloud based storage system, and that is via a broadband connection.
Yes it will take a while to upload all the data but I'm sure it is not imperative that it is all uploaded immediately. You may also find that many of the images can be compressed or resized to reduce the overall amount of data to be transferred. There is also the option to change broadband plans for a couple of months to allow for the transfer of the data, then revert back to the original plan. A third option is to take the hard drive to a friend's or relative's house who has access to a larger plan on a faster connection - naturally you would need to discuss that with them first.

She has a 40 GB per month data cap. We'd be at it for a year or so.

I was kinda hoping for a service where I could take along a hard drive to some place with a fat pipe, and maybe leave it to upload at off-peak times. Any Ideas?

Regards, and TIA, John Little

jjnz1

1085 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 84

Subscriber

Reply # 1046684 16-May-2014 21:31

Or change to an ISP like snap who offer free nights...? Or use someone elses connection that has unlimited data?

plambrechtsen

1948 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 469
Inactive user

Reply # 1046689 16-May-2014 21:42

See if she can get vdsl. And move to the unlimited for a month or so however long it takes. Then move back to your normal plan afterwards.

Inphinity

2503 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 928

Subscriber

Reply # 1046691 16-May-2014 21:44

Internet cafe, or friend/family with unlimited VDSL/Fibre?

Windows 7 x64 // i5-3570K // 16GB DDR3-1600 // GTX660Ti 2GB // Samsung 830 120GB SSD // OCZ Agility4 120GB SSD // Samsung U28D590D @ 3840x2160 & Asus PB278Q @ 2560x1440
Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900I w/Spark

Shoes2468

664 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 53

Reply # 1046692 16-May-2014 21:44

Now that telecom has an unlimited plan, probably the best bet is to upgrade to an unlimited plan for a month, do the upload then change back the next month, or taking it to someone with an unlimited connection and upload it. Just note it you do change to an unlimited plan, make sure there are no tie ins for 12 months or something.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1571

Reply # 1046695 16-May-2014 21:49

Shoes2468: Now that telecom has an unlimited plan, probably the best bet is to upgrade to an unlimited plan for a month, do the upload then change back the next month, or taking it to someone with an unlimited connection and upload it. Just note it you do change to an unlimited plan, make sure there are no tie ins for 12 months or something.

jjnz1: Or change to an ISP like snap who offer free nights...? Or use someone elses connection that has unlimited data?

plambrechtsen: See if she can get vdsl. And move to the unlimited for a month or so however long it takes. Then move back to your normal plan afterwards.

guys, moving to a bigger or unlimited plan was already suggested by Telecom in the OP and the OP considers it too inconvenient (for some reason)
If a simple plan change is deemed too inconvenient, then switching ISP is going to be doubly so.

(although I am a little confused that a plan change is considered more inconvenient than physically delivering a hard drive somewhere, then collecting it again later once uploaded.)

jamesrt

714 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 227

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 1046699 16-May-2014 21:55

Where are you physically located? Perhaps there is a nearby fellow geekzone'r with unlimited internet....

eXDee

4025 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1076

Trusted

Reply # 1046724 16-May-2014 22:33

One person supports this post

I believe a few cloud storage providers offer a "send a hard disk" option. While expensive, it might be practical? Worth seeing if any provide it from NZ.

jlittle

58 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Reply # 1046727 16-May-2014 22:49

plambrechsten:See if she can get vdsl.

No, we can't get VDSL (and will be late getting fibre).

plambrechsten: And move to the unlimited for a month or so however long it takes. Then move back to your normal plan afterwards.

Shoes2468:Now that telecom has an unlimited plan, probably the best bet is to upgrade to an unlimited plan for a month, do the upload then change back the next month

In the absence of a better option, that will do.

NonprayingMantis:(although I am a little confused that a plan change is considered more inconvenient than physically delivering a hard drive somewhere, then collecting it again later once uploaded.)

A bit hard to manage for me, I don't like to intrude to often. I'll have to ask her to contact telecom to get the plan changed, and then confirm when it has happened, then visit to start the upload, and to check how it's going.

jamesrt: Where are you physically located? Perhaps there is a nearby fellow geekzone'r with unlimited internet....

St Heliers, Sayegh St.

Thanks to all, John Little

Zeon

3395 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 397

Trusted

Reply # 1046783 17-May-2014 00:48

I can upload from my work in Penrose if you want to drop them off? Have business fibre @ 1gbps..... (although no way it would upload at that rate).

timmmay

13915 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2470

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 1046818 17-May-2014 08:51

One person supports this post

Batch convert from super high resolution to moderate resolution to upload them. You don't need to upload full res. 1000px is plenty big enough for most things, even 1800px, and you can reduce the quality without it being visually apparent.

However I'm not sure flickr is the best idea. Use CrashPlan or similar to back up the photos and all important documents, then share just the best on Flickr. That way new photos will be uploaded automatically.

An external disk kept offsite is another cheap, effective option.

AWS Certified Solution Architect Professional, Sysop Administrator Associate, and Developer Associate
TOGAF certified enterprise architect
Professional photographer

ripdog

394 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 206

Subscriber

Reply # 1046866 17-May-2014 10:43

I tried to mass upload my photos to Flickr once. I wasn't stymed by my data cap, I was stymed by the lack of any good mass-upload clients. The web uploader has a limit of ~200 photos at a time, and the Uploadr client was unstable and unpredictable as hell. Never knew where my upload had got to before something went bork.

Eventually I just did what timmmay said: Crashplan. Cheap, unlimited, completely automatic. Point it at your files and let it go. Get a family subscription and put it on all your computers.

Especially do this if you don't have a reliable backup going already. Just imagine how you'd feel if a harddrive died and you lost everything!