Photo backup for weddings [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

mediamst

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 07:10

How do you all backup the photos of your weddings for archival purposes? I have been using an external hard drive but am concerned about it crashing.

I am considering backing up to a second external HD or Burning each event to DVD's which could be really time consuming and also expensive with the 4.8 GB disk capacity. Especially since I have RAW's plus edited JPG's

Any info would be awesome.

Thanks!

Rich
www.notinabox.com (http://www.notinabox.com)

Borderfox

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 07:23

Burned to dvd and archived on two seperate external HD. I also have a HD with just RAW files on it, JPEG and TIFF and PSD on others.

CyberPet

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 07:44

When I get home I copy all images to my harddrive, then I burn DVD's as a backup and at the same time also throw the images on an external harddrive as well, that is for backup alone. So hopefully at least one backup will work. :D

RobKirkwood

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 08:43

... considering backing up to a second external HD or Burning each event to DVD's which could be really time consuming and also expensiveThis is another part of why doing wedding photography properly is an expensive business - can you afford to lose any of the images you shot, or the edits? Same as most people, we use external HD and multiple DVDs, and will shortly be adding Network Attached Storage with mirroring backup as well (building our own server running NASLite 2 available from www.serverelements.com) (http://www.serverelements.com/).

Rob

Stooge_UK

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 08:46

Call me parnoid....

Originals to main internal hardrive on Mac
Copy to second internal harddrive (files never touched after that)
Sync to external harddrive from main internal drive (runs everynight around 21:00)
Sync to second external harddrive from second internal drive - This harddrive is held off site and comes in around once a month just to be updated...

I have worked to long in IT !!!!

Stu

Hassan2285

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 08:58

Ed Kanney

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 09:42

We keep DVD of complete Raw files - DVDs of edited/renumbered Raw files - DVDs of processed files (Tiffs) - processed files (Tiffs) also in PC - processed files (Tiffs) also in external HD. As a back-up, in case of fire, I have an external HD with all files (jpgs) at our local color lab (2 miles from our office) that I keep current on a monthly basis.

mmahoney

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 09:44

Backup to one external hard drive & DVD .. if that drive fails then recovery software may get it back, if not then the DVD will have it.
Mike

jamiewexler

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 10:45

I'm not sure that long term storage is a requirement. I usually tell my clients that once I deliver the CD or DVD it is their responsibility to store the images long term. I keep the online ordering gallery up for a period of one year from their wedding date, and take reasonable precautions to ensure that I have the files to be able to fulfill the orders.

Of course, I never delete wedding files from my primary and BU drives, and keep a DVD BU of the edited jpegs in addition to the two copies of the original files (one on my server, and one on a portable HD,) and another copy of the edited jpegs on a portable HD (portable HD and DVD's stored in a fire safe) once the wedding is completed, but I want to cover myself in case the DVD is unreadable in 10 years time. Also, as technology changes, it is an unweildy business practice to be forced to move all of the files to the "new media" that takes over. What happens when CD's/DVD's go the way of Zip disks? Are you willing to re-archive everything onto the prevailing media of the day? If so, you should probably charge more money for the service!

S.Horton

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 10:48

If I could afford it, I'd be using Iron Mountain class services to spool incremental backups nightly.

SuzyView

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 10:50

My Dell hard drive just died on me Monday. I have everything backed up on my external hard drive and I keep 2 DVDs or a set of CD's of everything, thank heavens. :)

picturecrazy

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 11:51

I have my working copy of all the files on my main HD on my PC. Then each night I move all the files to an external hard drive sitting by the computer. Then at 3AM every night a linux backup server in a different building grabs all the updated files and stores them for offsite security.

Sometimes, if I feel particularly paranoid (I think it has to do with the position of jupiter or something) then I'll burn them to DVD, but that is such a pain and so time consuming to sit through 4 discs of burning.

jamiewexler

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 12:04

...I'll burn them to DVD, but that is such a pain and so time consuming to sit through 4 discs of burning.

That's why I only burn a DVD of the edited files.

picturecrazy

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 12:46

That's why I only burn a DVD of the edited files.

Yup, I do that too. I burn a copy for the clients and one for me. I'm talking about the RAW files though... before I've finished processing a wedding completely. that's such a pain.

prodigiousfool

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 13:30

Stooge_UK and i are about the same. My backups consist of:

Copy to 1st internal hard drive (500 GB)
Copy to 2nd internal hard drive (500 GB)
Copy to 2.5" external hard drive (120 GB)
FTP to offsite server's 1st hard drive
copy to 2nd hard drive in server
Monthly DVD Backups

I'm looking to get a larger external. I think i'm going to get another 500 GB and put it into an external enclosure. I'm completely paranoid about something happening to something, and losing everything; hence the off-site backups.

thewavebb

12th of July 2007 (Thu), 15:07

I have mirrored Raid configuration on my main editing computer. Then I have two 500gb external drives with all my photos backed up on. I also have a second computer built up as a server of sorts with 1 terabyte of hard drives. I have external hard drive of just the Jpegs and keep that in my fireproof/waterproof/temp controlled floorbolted safe I have in the basement. I also have all my Jpegs from gigs in the past 2 years stored at Photoshelter for people to order.

So if I had a major fire/flood and somehow my safe failed. I'd still have high res jpegs of the photos.

overclock

13th of July 2007 (Fri), 10:13

When I have my house built I am going to see about putting in a shelf above the communications box and install a NAS.

tim

13th of July 2007 (Fri), 19:40

This thread comes around every few months or so... but I change my procedures every now and then so here goes :)

All images are copied to a working drive in my PC, and they stay there in RAW while i'm actively working on a customers files. They stay there until maybe 6 months after the wedding, in case there's print orders.
After culling and renaming files whatever's left gets backed up to offline hard drive storage in a different part of my house.
Images are converted to DNG and stored on a hard drive that's kept in an offsite location. I'm not 100% sure i'll keep doing it in DNG as it takes processing time to convert them, but it doesn't hurt.
Until the offsite backup's done the cards are kept with me.

Remember a fire can burn an external hard drive as easily as an internal one. My contract also says images are only kept for one year.

MrsOpie

13th of July 2007 (Fri), 19:53

I burn the raw files to dvd before editing, I dont clear the originals off the compact flash card until I have a copy on dvd and hard drive. Then for final copies I have a copy on my hard drive, burn a final dvd, and upload all of them to a server at a different location. If our house caught on fire and we lost the computer and DVDs then my husband can pull the editied files off the server. The next step is to add an external hard drive that I put the files on as well.

fdi

18th of August 2007 (Sat), 23:39

GertS

19th of August 2007 (Sun), 01:34

These special archival CD storage pockets (http://www.framedestination.com/showitem.aspx?productid=stcddvcdpa0000000000)are useful for mounting the CD in the back of a photo album for digital copies of the prints:

There are others too, but the advertisement tells you that it has "Corrosion Intercept® Technology, increase the lifespan of your discs." :lol:

Great joke, you can't keep oxygen away unless it's completely sealed and all air either removed or exchanged by something differently which has no oxygen which is the cause for corrosion.

Another problem is the mixture of different plastics that it changes the internal structure over long time too. The industry didn't knew it when the CD was introduced 25 years ago.

The main problem is still that the production has to be "cheap" due to demand and therefore the quality suffers extremely. If you see how many products are illegally copied in Asia with absolutely poor quality, you will be shocked.

Stay with brands you know and are not "the cheapest", have multiple backups of different types and at different locations. Don't rely on such "plastic pockets".

fdi

19th of August 2007 (Sun), 13:25

There are others too, but the advertisement tells you that it has "Corrosion Intercept® Technology, increase the lifespan of your discs." :lol:

Great joke, you can't keep oxygen away unless it's completely sealed and all air either removed or exchanged by something differently which has no oxygen which is the cause for corrosion.

True, but the same can be said of photographs. Nothing lasts forever, but there are items you can store photo’s and CD’s in that reduce deterioration and items that that will increase it.

Here is a link to an extensive study of CD archival storage with corrosion intercept technology performed by Jonathan Farley, Senior Conservator at the Royal Botanic Gardens:
CD-Insert Test Report (http://www.conservation-by-design.co.uk/corrosioninterceptpdfs/CD-Insertfinalreport.pdf)

Cheers, Mark
Picture Frames Destination, Inc. (http://www.framedestination.com)

Bobster

19th of August 2007 (Sun), 20:06

1st copy to WS - name to wedding, backup on external HDD, backup to DVD/s
2nd choose keepers - backup to external, DVD

when editing, each edited photo is backed up on external HDD
project finished, backup onto DVD's
photos deleted from WS and kept on external for 6 months before deleting

Bobster

19th of August 2007 (Sun), 20:09

True, but the same can be said of photographs. Nothing lasts forever, but there are items you can store photo’s and CD’s in that reduce deterioration and items that that will increase it.

Here is a link to an extensive study of CD archival storage with corrosion intercept technology performed by Jonathan Farley, Senior Conservator at the Royal Botanic Gardens:
CD-Insert Test Report (http://www.conservation-by-design.co.uk/corrosioninterceptpdfs/CD-Insertfinalreport.pdf)

Cheers, Mark
Picture Frames Destination, Inc. (http://www.framedestination.com)

i have CD's from 1996 that i've not bothered about storing in specific location etc, that still work today 100% but saying that i've never bought cheap CD's/DVD's