How do you archive?

[cwilt]

I'm curious as to how everyone else archives or protects thier digital images. My method is to back up and archive to external removable hard drives.

 

[Chris101]

DVD, a copy of the DVD and save it on a hard drive. So far I've only lost images on the hard drive (which I got to replace from my working set of DVDs.)

 

[cwilt]

That would be a lot of DVD's.

 

[TOLady]

Separate hard drive, and two sets of DVD's, different brands, different storage location (in case of fire).

 

[Chris101]

That would be a lot of DVD's.

55 CDs cause I started with CD backup in my coolpix years, then 44 DVDs which include all my Raw files. I only have backups of the DVDs.

And yes, I always dread the backup hour... :\

 

[fks]

cd's for me. i have a dvd burner, but i don't like the idea of storing a lot of files on one dvd. i'm planning on backing up the cd's to dvd's for easier access and to have a second backup.

 

[jgrove]

I'm curious as to how everyone else archives or protects thier digital images. My method is to back up and archive to external removable hard drives.

I have 2 hard disk, one internal SATA drive and one external firewire 800 Lacie drive, i use a program called mirror folder that works as a raid substitute so i always have 2 copies of th drive.

My older film based scans are in a folder called archive with sub folders with descriptions,

my digital work is stored by description in folders and then IPTC captioned

the whol elot os catalogued in IView so i can search via IPTC for files i need. I have 2 catalogues, one ofr the older film scans and 1 for the new digital work. but that will soon have to be split as well.

I gave up on portfolio 7 the support drove me mad!

 

[jklofft]

First I copy the files onto a second harddrive. I have an external one the I only spin up for back-up purposes. After I have enough, I burn 2 DVD copies.

 

[cwilt]

What is the expected life span of a DVD?

I built 2 external drives with removable trays and so far love the setup over my old CD's and DVD's. Much faster and with extra trays is quickly expanded. These drives mirror what is on my internal drive.

I don't see a clear winner yet on archive systems for todays digital photography.

 

[celia bule]

I use CDs and DVDs, but with the DVD I create Slide shows with music and effects to show to family and friends and they pay much more attention to pics than if they are in a album.

 

[F15Todd]

xfer the pictures to my RAID drive set up as a mirrored drive (data is put
on two different hard drives). When the folder on the hard drive fills up
to DVD size I burn the folder on to two DVDs. One stay in the house and
the other goes to work with me and is stored there.

 

[jkamphof]

I first started CD-R but that got limiting pretty darn quick. I then bought a external 60GB Notebook-HDD case (small little sucker, just an aluminum case for a notebook HDD with USB). After a goof in the case chip system I freaked out and bought a 120GB normal desktop HDD and case (USB 2). It turns out my images were perfectly safe but I unplugged the case wrong during transfer by accident (always disconnect USB from the PC via Windows I found out).

That worked fine and has given me zero problems as I am a bit less careless. Nonetheless I bought a DVD burner also so I have it backed up 3 ways now.

I use the hard-drives on a daily basis (because it is easy to delete, add and edit images constantly) and the DVD's as a more solid backup (because it is pretty difficult and wasteful to always be making and tossing DVD's).


Joel.

 

[sbuttrick]

So far I have only backed up to my external 300 gig Seagate HD. Next step is to burn DVD's.

 

[mcampos]

I use a dual backup approach. My 2 computers have 2 hard drives, I all the working files reside in one drive, but I regularly backup the files to the other 3 hard drives. I use a program called Folder Synchronizer which is part of PowerDesk a software utility that replaces the Windows Explorer software.

I also make DVD copies of the files and put them off site in the garage.

You can never have too many backups, but you have to have a system to manage them. I have seen people "backup" an older file on top of a newer one by mistake.

 

[Vernon t]

1. Always put everything in original state on DVD prior to in-cam CF reformat.
2. I cull the obvious junk at the first sitting(keeping most near junk, you never know). Then drag at across my home network to another hard drive.
3. Once every month or two I drag everything new to an external 250GB harddrive I keep at the ofice.

 

[TexIndian]

I read some studies last year that were kind of scary about the shortness of dependable lifespans of files stored on CD's. DVD's were worse, plus the lack of a unified industry standard makes long-term use kind of problematic.

I use an external 320 GB HD to store all my images, then two backups on CD.

 

[Chris101]

Long term storage is problematic no matter what. In the old days you had your negatives and you took as good care of them as you could. Now with digital data - that is data that can be losslesly copied, the questions revolve not so much around the type and mintenance of your storage methd, as they do about the frequency of your backup.

 

[IxLr8]

Being a computer geek as well, I have a mini network at home with about a 2.5TB of disk storage. I always make it a habit that when I come back from a shoot i'll catalog what I have done and put them to CD immediately. Then I'll do 2 copies, one to my NAS and the other to my RAID storage where I do my workflow.

I have an automatic backup to go to AIT every night so I have it on tape as well.

You can never be too carefull

 

[mrdinh]

i usually store my dvds/cds in the black fabric cd/dvd holders ie. from case logic..etc...what you do all think of that?...or should i store them in individual cd cases?...i noticed there is a little gap on top or bottom by the zippers...is that a big concern?

 

[Vernon t]

Being a computer geek....about a 2.5TB of disk storage. I always ..... and the other to my RAID storage

Terabytes and RAID!

You're bragging....I'm envious