how do you archive your photos

[dennisatmph]

Hi there,
I am new to dSRL. Since buying my XSi I have shot more than 10,000 shots, I was wondering you you store or archive your pictures

1. is there a particular software you use, I am currently using the ones canon gave DPP Zoom Browser
2. what is the best medium to burn it in is it DVD or CD
3. if DVD, so many types like + or - or RW , what type should I use
4. same for CD, what type
5. any particular brand for CD or DVD is the best quality ? price not an issue for me.

Appreciate some input

Dennis

[Richgsr]

2 terabit NAS on a gigabit network as my "working" archive.

I burn to dual layer DVD's as well in case the NAS breaks down.

I would burn to DVD's as they have more capacity. + or - really doesn't make a difference as long as you're reading them with a computer. Store them in a dark, cool location, preferably off site. Most DVD brands are rated for 100 years, so it really doesn't matter. You'll be switching to another media in about 5 years anyway.

As soon blu-ray burners and dics become more affordable, I'll probably start archiving to those.

[Racerman]

I would say achieve them to a second hard drive also (as well as keeping originals on your main one)
and DVD's hold more data than CD typically (any type will do the job you want to do for achieving really) and I would use companies such as Verbatim and Sony
but any would do the job
hope this helps you in some way

[Mocows]

A second hard drive and/or external is my best bet. It's the fastest as well as being rewritable is great. Most hard drives have a life span of 5-10 years (depending on usage).

As far as reliability goes, DVDs are great. Same shelf live as CDs (generally) and holds more. You could also get dual-layer DVDs as well if you find them on sale. Memorex or Maxells are the ones I use at work for backup.

[Grentz]

Second Hard Drive in my machine that runs a backup every few nights.
External Hard Drive I manually backup to.
Burn to DVDs every few months or after a big change.
Soon to probably be some form of online backup.

[kmk251145]

2 External hard drives
Smugmug

[gravity]

one external drive at the moment

[nadtz]

Hard drive or netork appliance, offsite backup via the interwebs . If cost is no concern fork out a few bucks a month for remote storage. That way immaterial of whatever life might throw at you you always have the online backup.

[mrfixitx]

I have a lot of backups just for sheer paranoia.

1. All new photos are download to a laptop/desktop PC.
2. Photos are sorted all junk photos are flagged and deleted as soon as the download is complete.
3. All photos are quickly tagged with basic information
4. Photos are then backed up to an external hard drive ASAP.
5. If photos were download to the laptop, I send a copy to the desktop computer as soon as I am home and they are backed up to the priamry and to an external hard drive. (In case my laptop bag with its exteranl had drive is ever stolen).
6. Once every few weeks(depending on my shooting volume). I copy all files to an external hard drive that is stored at my office.

[mrfixitx]

oh forgot to mention, it helps to look for a program that scans for changes, instead of just dragging and droping files to an external hard drive. I use Karen's Replicator, which is freeware and works very well in backing up large numbers of files and spotting updates to existing files.

[dennisatmph]

Thank you every one for your precious input.
What is the online storage you mentioned ?
Where can I find out more information / website ? anyone in particular that is good?
How about privacy issues ? Do you store it at somebody else's computer ?

Dennis

[Grentz]

There are a LOT of online backup services. Right now I have actually just been researching who I want to use. Lots use www.mozy.com I am going to start using www.idrive.com because I like that it keeps the last 30 revisions forever (mozy and many others only keep them for 30days). Probably not a big deal to most, but I wanted something like that.

They all are pretty similar in that they install a tool on your computer, you tell it want you want backed up, then either continuously (looking for whenever something changes) or on a set schedule (backup at a certain time, day, etc.) it will update the files on the remote storage.

Only real limitation is your upload speed, so for large amounts of data it can take awhile, but after the initial backup you just upload things as you go along.

Not too expensive either, most are around $50 a year.

[alduin]

SyncBack Pro. Automated scheduled jobs make it easy.

It syncs my local Lightroom library to an external hard drive every 6 hours, to my network file server every 24, and does weekly offsites to my Amazon S3 account.

[JelleVerherstraeten]

I use iPhoto and make a backup of my iphotofile on a external hard disk.

[Mike R]

I use a 1TB extrenal drive to backup my internal HD. I also have a 1TB drive to archive photos on when I think I'm through with them such as at the end of a school year.

[LostShootingStar]

I have a linux box with four 1 TB drives in a raid group setup as network storage. http://m08o1124znfu179.imageshacknow.info/img/2465/o09a0208gstn/POTNsmile.gif

[Wilt]

quote=dennisatmph;7431328]1. is there a particular software you use, I am currently using the ones canon gave DPP Zoom Browser
None at all, simply copy files to somewhere. You do not want to use any software that creates proprietary versions of files that would require the same software to access the files!...it might not run on some PC that you own in the future.

2. what is the best medium to burn it in is it DVD or CD CD is better than DVD simply because the dyes used have to be more easily written for the higher DVD rotational speeds. CDs use one of three organic dye families. azo or cyanine or Phthalocyanine are all claimed to be 70-100 year dyes. Taiyo Yuden uses the cyanine based dye and are considered to be one of the best CDs to use.

3. if DVD, so many types like + or - or RW , what type should I use
DVD+R have better error detection and resistance than the other types.
DVD+R uses a superior ‘wobble’ laser tracking system, a far better error correction method, and the media quality itself is typically higher

CD+R are considered even better to use.

Under NO circumstances use DVD+RW/-RW or CD+RW/-RW

4. same for CD, what type
More dependent on the type of dye used.


5. any particular brand for CD or DVD is the best quality ? price not an issue for me.
In CD, the Taiyo Yuden CDs are considered to be the best, as they use the right types of dyes in the burnable CD.

Among the manufacturers that have done testing, there is consensus that, under recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more

[Grentz]

I agree with what you say Wilt, and myself use Taiyo Yuden as well...great discs!

I use the Taiyo Yuden DVD+Rs personally.

[Wilt]

There have been multiple stories about people using CD or DVD for 'archival' purposes who later discover an inability to read those disks. Who knows what CD type or DVD type was used by them. It is not merely dye degradation but also substrate issues and protective coating issues that affect the readability, even mold/mildew.

[Grentz]

Yup, definitely not the end all and not rock solid forever.

I still have 2 copies on drives as well, the copy on the DVDs is just another version for backup. ;)

[keener]

I have a linux box with four 1 TB drives in a raid group setup as network storage. http://m08o1124znfu179.imageshacknow.info/img/2465/o09a0208gstn/POTNsmile.gif

+1 !! Ubuntu file server FTW ! Drives are so cheap. I also back everything up to DVD from the file server and stash the DVD into binders.

[alduin]

Just remember that however you archive your photos, you're never really safe unless you have copies in multiple physical locations. ZFS, RAID, and their ilk are great, but what if the server takes a power surge? What if your house burns down? What if...

[RRitch]

I have a 1TB internal drive that I store online copies. Then I have a 1TB E-SATA drive that I backup to once per week, or after uploading any important files. I store the external dive in a fire safe when it is not in use. I may get a second E-SATA and store it off site as well.

[5teve]

I download all my photos onto one machine and then use SyncToy to copy these files onto my Ubuntu server. My Ubuntu server then runs rsync every night to copy new files over to another Ubuntu server running at my friends house (50 miles away). By doing this I have 3 copies. Two of the copies at my house and one at my friends. I feel I am fairly protected this way against failure and feel safer knowing that a copy is offsite. I have heard from 2 other friends who know people who've had their homes robbed and the common factor on what gets stolen seems to be their computers!

[bohdank]

Your setup sounds ideal.

I'm going to be reviewing my backup routine since I am not happy with not having offsite storage that is reliable, up to date and convenient. At the moment, all my pics are stored on 2 drives (RAID1) and backed up to an external drive once a week. During the week I run SynchToy, if I feel it's necessary.

[fayebernoulli]

another paranoid one here...hehe

1) download photos to macbook pro. each event has its own folder. my husband also downloads to his imac.

2) dvd (either regular or DL, depending how big the folder is) burn x3-- one copy stays with us in philadelphia, another copy is mailed off to my parents in japan, and the third copy is mailed to my in-laws in california. we don't mail the offsite copies every single time we shoot an event; once a month works well for us.

3) every few days, husband makes a backup of our computers using time machine, plus he copies all the photos off both computers onto another hard drive.

i also save photoshop files as i edit the photos. i know, a little excessive, but i've lost photos before and it was not my favorite thing in the world. come to think of it, my dad has a similar plan for backing up his machines. maybe i got it from him? =P

any suggestions in changing/improving our backup plan are welcome!

[th0rr]

I'm very forgetful so what I do is I have multiple 4 Gig cards, when one gets full I burn it to DVD using Nero. So basically when my card gets full that is my "reminder" to back it up. :-)

[YORCHI]

Hi there,
I am new to dSRL. Since buying my XSi I have shot more than 10,000 shots, I was wondering you you store or archive your pictures

1. is there a particular software you use, I am currently using the ones canon gave DPP Zoom Browser
2. what is the best medium to burn it in is it DVD or CD
3. if DVD, so many types like + or - or RW , what type should I use
4. same for CD, what type
5. any particular brand for CD or DVD is the best quality ? price not an issue for me.

Appreciate some input

Dennis
1. When I archive them for the sake of storing them I just put them in folders by month taken and burn them to DVD. Place them in cases and put them in a plastic box or something waterproof.

2. I use DVD...single layer because I really don't have much data to back up/archive

3. Use whatever kind your burner uses. Mine uses both + and - and I usually go with whatever is on sale at Fry's...

4. I don't burn on cd anymore...only thing I use cd's for are to make music cd's or when I want to just burn some data and give to someone but I don't want to waste a dvd. 1 big pack from Fry's can last me about a year.

5. I just buy whatever is on sale at Fry's. Most of the time it's "Great Quality" brand and maybe 1 out of every 30 are defective and won't let me burn onto them. Last time I bought DVD's I got a pack of 100 for 20 dollars.

[ed rader]

I'm very forgetful so what I do is I have multiple 4 Gig cards, when one gets full I burn it to DVD using Nero. So basically when my card gets full that is my "reminder" to back it up. :-)

on a good day i can fill four or five 4-gig cards :D.

ed rader

[Reminisce]

If you, at all, take your work or just the photos you take very seriously, planning your backup and restore method is the most important thing you will ever do. Its not common, and you never expect it, but when it does and you're not prepared, you will regret it. Take it from me, I'm an IT admin, and lost half of my very first portfolio several years ago when not one, but BOTH hard drives in my system crashed. Thankfully I know how to recover data from hard drives after they have even been formatted, but that is a lot of work and not foolproof. I was only able to recover about 45% of my work.

Being an IT admin, I should've known redundancy is the most important thing with critical data. I take it very seriously at work and should've done so at home then. So I do now. I have 3 drives in my system right now. 1 running the OS, one running applications, one archiving data. I have a small server system running Linux that backs up the 3rd drive on the primary system. That primary system also has a Maxtor external hard drive on it that mirrors everything happening in my Photo and Document folders, as well as images the operating and application discs every monday (in class) and Thursday.

My laptop runs Lightroom catalog backups over my network to the external drive. And I carry a 320GB MyBook with me when I am on the go to backup my photos until I get home to put them on the server. Last but not least, any processed photos get dumped onto an archive folder on my website server. This is very important, as someone mentioned, what if your house burns down for example. This is a bit much it may seem, but when you offer in your contract to people the option to maintain their data for x amount of years, you better damn well be able to :).

[dennisatmph]

Thank you every body for the lovely answers.

Dennis