Backing up Files - How do YOU do it?

[Buchinger]

I'm wanting to start archiving files for storage in the event of a drive failure. I currently have 1 external hard drive for file storage. I've contemplated buying another backup drive, or possibly a RAID system. I guess I have two separate questions.

Firstly - if you use a backup drive system (or RAID), what do you have, and how do you like it? Anyone have experience with the "Click Free" products? How about any of the "disaster proof" drives?

Secondly - what files do you backup? Do you cull unusable shots to save space? Do you save all RAW or just JPEG? This question is geared toward CUSTOMER files, my personal files I will save all the RAW's. I planned on culling losers and burning full resolution JPEG to Archival DVD's.

To further complicate things, I'm contemplating moving over to MAC with my next computer purchase...

[StephenAndrew]

I have two external drives. One I use to manually backup my photos with two main folders. One folder has all the raw photos from every wedding/session/etc, and another folder for finished projects in jpegs. The other drive is used in conjunction with Time Machine, which backs up my computer's hard drive and the first external hard drive. After I import my photos from a shoot, I export them to drive 1 in their original format, then do a time machine backup. So the photos are now in four places: the CF card, my computer's HD, and both external HDs. Then I delete them from the CF card. I'm looking into off-site backup though, just in case of a fire/theft/accident/etc. Storage space is getting cheaper by the day, and I try to shoot selectively anyway, so I never cull before backing up.

[Erik S. Klein]

I'm looking into off-site backup though, just in case of a fire/theft/accident/etc.

This is the key, I think, to any backup system.

The details of how you keep multiple local copies are "in the noise" for most of us. RAID versus redundant independent drives versus internal versus external are all going to get the job done for you.

But then the house burns down or floods or gets robbed and you're out all of it.

My "system" has me loading everything onto an in-system RAID 5 array with an internal backup drive mirroring that with really important stuff dumped to DVD as quickly as possible.

On top of that I have two off-site external drives used to back up the in-system storage. Every two weeks or so I bring one home, copy anything new onto it and bring it back to my office. That way I'm reasonably disaster-proof.

And I copy everything. All raw, jpg, PS files, etc.

[Red Tie Photography]

I have my main hard drive with my all of my images on it, backed up on to 2 two tb harddrives (both the same). I keep on at my house, and the other in a safety deposit box in the bank, switching them out once a month or so.

[DirtyMax]

I back up the RAW files to 2 different external drives. Then after I post-process, I upload the jpegs to a website and back them up to both drives as well.

[the_weird_one]

Scripted Echo backup using SyncToy when I shut my PC down for the night which copies my internal array to a single desktop hdd, then once a week I do a manual backup using SyncToy to a second desktop hdd that gets stuck in a data fire safe at work.

[Talley]

off site storage is a must.

1. storage on pc with raid 5 setup and one spare
2. back that up to external drive(s) and keep off site
3. backup to online server.
4. any additional drives is a plus.

really guys server space is super cheap. I would .zip all of your photos for a particular shoot into one file and have it uploaded to a server. Most servers claim unlimited space and that is true but alot do limitations like 50,000 files. thats why you should zip them into one :)

[veritasimg]

This is my workflow each time I get back from a photoshoot.

- Download all files from CF card to workstation hdd
- Run Synctoy to copy all files from hdd to external hdd
- Sleep. Eat. Drink. Shower. Water plants....
- Run Synctoy again to copy all files to backup internal hdd for quick recovery
- <some time later>
- Work on post.
- Daily back-up routine ensure all metadata files are backed-up
- Export completed files to server
- Backup everything again.

Once a month, copy files to DVD. Shipped off site. My current SLA is to ensure customer files are kept for only 1-yr because I am not a museum. ;)

[jra]

back up to two external hard drives.....one I keep on site, the other I keep off site

[Picture North Carolina]

Dual external drives.

For each pair:
1 - is a work drive with raw images and processed images
2 - is a backup of that work drive, and is stored at another location

Images are never stored on the PC internal drives.

[umphotography]

Good Thread. Interesting to see how everyone does it. Bryan from Red Tie. I'm pretty close to what you do as well.

1. All files loaded into LR in raw format

2. go through files, dump the bad ones export full size raw files to a folder and immediately burn a DVD with raw files backed up before in format card.

3. I had a backup system installed by my computer guy. Synology cube system with 8 TB capacity. It backs up the LR catalog.

4. once I'm done with the job, every 6 months, i clean up the LR catalog. Any files that the client purchased is saved to a full size JPEG. Any file that i wanted to keep is also saved and exported to another 2 TB western digital hard drive.. That drive is also backed up by the Synology cube. At that point i burn a full size JPEG DVd and it is stored in our fireproof safe. I have 4 yrs worth of full size JPEG files stored with no issues.

5. My big issues were weddings and i was keeping all those raw files on a drive in the lightroom catalog. after 3 yrs of 20 plus weddings i was at capacity and needed to do something. Guys on the wedding forum gave me some invaluable advise. I took all the raw files in LR and exported to a full size JPEG file and put in a folder to match the LR catalog. They were exported to a 2 TB hard drive because we keep wedding files for 5 yrs. At that point I was OK to dump the raw files out of the LR catalog. Freed up a ton of space.

6. Tried to backup online with the storage companies. It worked well but here is the issue i ran into. They get you into their system with a low ball price. I exported 85k files to 3 seperate companies over the past 4 yrs. Every single one came back after 6 months and that low price yearly unlimited storage fee was changed and they tried to rope you into a more expensive system. Was more hassel to me than it was worth. Everyone always says what if your house burns down. what if this and what if that.

Well it happened to me.

we moved to Minnesota from southern California. Our moving truck caught on fire and it burnt to the ground. we lost everything we had, except for the family photos and heirlooms that we carried in our car with us. I lost a lot of work that we had on film that was to be used when we reopened our business in Minnesota.

So what do you do? You start over. a lot of that krap i was hanging onto really didn't matter in the long run. May have been a blessing in disguise. The insurance company gave us a nice settlement and we had a unbelievable month writing checks and replacing everything we needed to get. You would be surprised how fast 60K goes when you have to completely start over. Clothes, furniture,bed, towels, dishes, Cameras:cool:. It was crazy

I'm pretty confident lightning wont strike twice. I think what i have done with our back up system is reasonable and you just do what you can. You are definately protected if you store everything off line and away from the house so brian i may open a safety deposit box and put the JPEG files in there.

But what if

1. the bank burns down-- it happens

2. the on line storage company burns down-- It happens

anyway, that's what we do.

[n0w0rries]

removed

[n0w0rries]

But what if

1. the bank burns down-- it happens

2. the on line storage company burns down-- It happens


If the storage company burns down who cares? It's your backup, not your primary.

[umphotography]

If the storage company burns down who cares? It's your backup, not your primary.


I guess the point i was making is Nothing is 100%.

[helloagain36]

But what if

1. the bank burns down-- it happens

2. the on line storage company burns down-- It happens

anyway, that's what we do.

The bank/online storage company may burn down...but isn't that why another backup is kept at home?

The likelihood of both your home and the bank burning down is probably pretty slim. Possible of course...but pretty dang slim.

In reality, no option is ever going to be absolutely completely 100% safe.

^Beat me to it :)

[sandpiper]

At that point i burn a full size JPEG DVd and it is stored in our fireproof safe. I have 4 yrs worth of full size JPEG files stored with no issues.



Just one point, a fireproof safe isn't "fireproof" for DVDs, they are intended to protect paper. The fire won't get into the safe, but DVDs melt at a much lower temperature than paper will catch fire. In a fire, your safe will get hot inside and melt the DVDs. Once the fire is out, the safe will still be intact but when you open it the DVDs will be solidified puddles of plastic sticking everything else together.

Obviously, that isn't going to be your biggest worry (your building has likely burnt down!) because you know you still have your offsite backups. It is just worth noting in case you have important paper documents in there too, as the melted DVDs can ruin them, when otherwise they should survive the blaze.

Oh, and to respond to the thread in general. My files (everything except shots deleted as crap) are stored on three sets of external hard drives. A main and a backup set at home, so if a main drive fails I have instant access to backups. The third set is stored offsite at a friends house. Whenever I go round there (typically a weekly occurence) I stick any new files on a portable drive, take them with me and transfer to the backup drive.

[PhotosGuy]

There are a lot of variations on a good system to use for back-up. Here's mine:
First, what happens if you have a power outage while you're working? Think about a UPS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply). They're only about $40 & will save your hard drive if it's writing & the power has a glitch, so you have time to shut your
computer down. Some have software to do that automatically.

Second, I've added a internal hard drive & use the free Karen's Replicator (http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp) to back up to it.

Third, I have an external HD that I back up my 2nd drive to & I try to keep that at a different location from the computer.

Finally, I just learned about this in a newsletter: Crashplan - FREE for personal backup (http://askbobrankin.com/free_online_backup_with_crashplan.html?awt_l=E1bYN&awt_m=InEhm93sq8P6SL)
http://www.crashplan.com/

[13inches]

http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4b1fd79c00000000000d489d/floppy-disks-pile.jpg

[Talley]

Once a month, copy files to DVD. Shipped off site. ;)

Worst thing to do EVER. for long term HDD is the only safest way to back up media. I've used CD and DVD only to come back a few years later with them never being touched and they won't read anymore.

[n0w0rries]

I guess the point i was making is Nothing is 100%.

This makes no sense to me.

[bobbyz]

for processed files (jpegs) why not also upload to sites like smugmug, zenfolio etc. $100-$200 per yr for unlimited storage. Run the job at night and no problem loading lot of files even on a slower link.

I know we photographers like to keep all these raw files but general question how often someone goes back to raw file taken say 6 months ago and redo processing. I am talking about file which you alreAdy processed and sold prints/albums etc?

[bubbygator]

I'm not a pro. I shoot jpeg only. I download to the PC's HDD and also to a 32GB SD card immediately following. At end of each day, I backup all critical files to a separate external HDD. At end of each month I swap external HDD with a duplicate I keep in a firesafe on-site. (How does a fire affect HDD in a firesafe ??)

[memoriesoftomorrow]

1x Internal backup HDD. 2x External backup HDD's. Externals, one kept in safe at home, other in secure storage offsite.

[joeseph]

How does a fire affect HDD in a firesafe ??
depends entirely on the firesafe... looking at a Seagate drive spec it's max "nonoperating" temp is 70 deg celcius. I suspect anything that melts DVD's is going to turn HDD's into doorstops also because all the components are likely to have fallen off the circuitboard when the solder reached meltingpoint. I wouldn't bother with a fire rated safe myself, just make sure the data is backed up in at least two locales and you're going to have less risk of problems...

[j-dogg]

5x RAID array, 2TB USB backup, plus CD's for important events. I've lost data before, never again.

Plus I also use a nifty data recovery program called FileScavenger 3.2, if you haven't tried it, it is well worth the 50 dollars for a legal license.

[cabinajm]

two external drives. Use the 1tb usb drive for time machine backups of entire system and have another 500gb firewire 800 drive that I make manual backups on. Going to get a Drobo NAS

[Bananapie]

How do I do it?

On the PC side of things I used Windows 7's backup and imaging system...when I had to. Now I use a Mac for all my photo-y things, and Time Machine is brilliant. Select source disk, destination disk, then forget about it...

For my ULTRA important stuff, there is always Gmail or Dropbox. I use both for my cloud computing. All my music and videos are on Amazon's cloud player...so I don't bother with a physical library.

At work we use Carbonite. It rocks...but I trust my NAS box + Time Machine enough to avoid the subscription for my personal stuff.

[7D_Shooter]

Crashplan and a 5MB upload broadband connection. It offers versioning and fast restores for a very economical price.

[pcj]

Three drives.

I work off the FireWire 3tb drive that happens to be raid1
I use aperture vaults to archive my working library restarted yearly) to a USB 2tb drive
I use osx timemachine to back up my os drive to a 1tb USB drive.

Last thing I need to do is get my previous archives and annual library archive offsite. Need more drives to do that.

[Ralpho]

I upload photos to Flickr and save them there. For $20 a year you get unlimited storage space.

for processed files (jpegs) why not also upload to sites like smugmug, zenfolio etc. $100-$200 per yr for unlimited storage. Run the job at night and no problem loading lot of files even on a slower link.

I know we photographers like to keep all these raw files but general question how often someone goes back to raw file taken say 6 months ago and redo processing. I am talking about file which you alreAdy processed and sold prints/albums etc?

[Paparazzo]

1x Internal backup HDD. 2x External backup HDD's. Externals, one kept in safe at home, other in secure storage offsite.

Same here.

Plus I would never store files online, I am not going to rely on a 3rd party to secure my precious files.

[st3venb]

(stevenb@stevenb-mpb ~/Pictures/seeingflashes.com)$ rsync -vaz * root@192.168.1.25:/mnt/shared/archive/



The joys of having a NAS. :)

[memoriesoftomorrow]

The importance of backups...

Twas the day before Christmas so with a rush of blood to the head I decided it was time to upgrade my computer. I had had a new motherboard and case all ready to go for over a month. I had just needed a day or so to re-install Windows and everything else.

All was going great. I had re-installed the operating system drive and then went to plug in my data drives... THE PROBLEM... (Slightly techie bit) My data hard drives 2x 1TB and 2x 1.5TB used to be mirrored pairs (RAID 1). I had previously however reverted to using them as straight drives (not RAID 1) but never formatted them when I did so. They were my two internal copies of the data.

The first time the new copy of Windows booted with them plugged in it began running Check Disk on the drives. As they had the same signatures... it then proceeded to DELETE the contents of all 4 drives as it viewed the drives as having corrupted entries.

ALL THE FILES from 19 weddings which were at various stages of production GONE along with over 11,000 MP3's and about 25,000 personal photos .

Fortunately my backup regime includes a further two copies of all that data on two external hard drives. Several hours later I finally had my data back on my computer.

To be fair even if I had gone to a computer shop the same thing would have happened. But I cannot stress enough the importance of having backups and in many cases backups for your backups.