Back Up Disks?

[Eagle]

OK I know this is going to start a big debate but this is bugging me a bit. I keep reading threads about backing up pictures to Cds or DVDs. Doesn't matter which at this point. Every time I see some one say "make two copies and keep them in different locations, one at home, one somewhere else" I just think to myself, what did you anal people do when you shoot film? Now you have a copy on one or two hard drives and two or more disks. What did you do with film? I bet you had a picture printed and a negative in a box in the same room. So why so anal with digital? OK let the fun begin. As for me now it's a copy on a hard drive and one on disk, both in the same room.

[René Damkot]

Same here. Then again; if the possibility exists, why not use it?
If I weren't filling up more then 2 DvDs a week, I might be doing it allready. Now I think I'll wait till HDD space comes down a bit more.

[chris.bailey]

As one of those who has paranoid anal tendencies to me the big difference is with digital you can loose a whole lifes work at the press of the wrong button or with the failure of one piece of complicated electronics. In relative terms now storage is cheap and getting cheaper so why not have the peace of mind of knowing you have everything backed up a couple of times. Try explaining to a client you are going to have to re-shoot because you screwed up.

ps I now have ALL of my film scanned but have still kept all the negatives.

[ankurpatel]

I just buy good quality CD's or DVD's ...and burn 2 copies ... 1 that I use ... 1 that I keep in backup. I have a bunch in a folder that are backups and I spend a day every few months just duplicating them ... to make my life easier ... I bought an external drive that had 2 drives in it ... and it works as a standalone duplicator also ...

I have always found DVD-RW's are better than DVD-R ... because they are made of better materials ...

[PEACHMAN]

I have film that I took as a kid kicking around in drawers and boxes, pretty much at the mercy of the elements and other than some dust specks and scratches, they would produce good , usable photos....I have CD's and DVD's that were left in cases but not well stored that the coatings are coming off already...no more than 3 or 4 years old....bargin priced disks are not a bargin......I see there are now archival quality "gold" disks available for that long term storage .... If I had been shooting as seriously as a youth, I would have wished for a backup for my better photos, even if it were a second set of prints stored off premisis...however it would have been relitively expensive....now , with the price of backup of hundreds of photos at one dollar (price of one good disk) why on earth would you not protect your favorite photos from any of one hundred possible attacks ..?? All I have to do is think I might have deleted a single shot inadvertently and I go pale...

[Tdragone]

Working in Technology; we have all our data on RAID arrays to prevent some small glitch on a hard drive from becoming a catastrophic data failure. Also weekly full and daily incremental backups stored offsite. This is all to preserve bits saved as electrons and magnetic polarity on a spinning Hard Drive platter.

Film (Negatives) have to be PHYSICALLY damaged to ruin them. This means if you store Negs reasonably well; 20 years from now they should be okay if they were developed/fixed properly and stored in a manner agreeable to the medium.

Hard Drives could die EACH time you turn on a computer; or while a drive is at speed spinning in your computer. As I personally have experienced quite a few times in the last 10-15 years.. So yes; I make 2 DVD backups; 1 stays with me; the other goes into the Safe Deposit box at the bank in case San Diego is the epicenter of the next 'big quake'. It makes ME feel good; and in the end; I guess that's the most important thing :)