Backing up workflow...

[brisa_main]

Hi
I'm curious about other peoples work flow when it comes to backing up files as i have just started shooting raw on a 5D mkII.

I just shot a yoga class and had about 100 raw files so just saved them into my work folder on my desktop. Then copied them onto my external hardrive.
It looks like i will have a lot more work coming up and that seems to be using a lot of memory and time.
What do other people do? From the point of putting the card in the card reader...

Many thanks

[tvphotog]

After uploading files to a folder on the computer, I immediately copy them to an external 2TB hard drive. I update to a second external folder as I make changes in any of the originals. I never touch the original backup folder. When I've completed changes on those photos, I move everything to the second backup folder and off of the computer.

[brisa_main]

Thanks for the response!

Makes alot of sense as my computer is really slow now.
If you have them all on your external drive do you not worry about it breaking or will that never happen?

[tvphotog]

Thanks for the response!

Makes alot of sense as my computer is really slow now.
If you have them all on your external drive do you not worry about it breaking or will that never happen?

Never say never. I should say that I use a Western Digital 2TB My Book Mirror Edition USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=8726375). It has two 1 TB drives in a RAID 0 configuration, meaning that it uses one drive to store the data, and makes a mirror image copy of any material on the second hard drive. So it makes a backup of the backup.

[Molnies]

I currently have a 500GB drive in my Mac Pro that is a dedicated photography drive. I use Apple's Aperture, and after I've imported my latest photos I simply click the back-up button to have it backing up on a Firewire 800 external 500GB drive. Every once and again I back up to another external drive that is stored off site in case of burglary or fire etc.

I might soon need to migrate to a larger drive, but for now I'd rather stay away from the 1+TB drives since their failure rate seems to be higher than previous drives.

[richwood]

All my files get copied off the card into a "raw" directory dated for when the photos were taken, these files in this are never touched directly. A copy of the directory goes into "working" for processing, then "processed" when it's finished, and the whole lot is mirrored across onto a seperate server, and from there onto an external USB drive periodically.

All the "processed" files are mirrored onto my laptop as well.

This should give me three copies of all original files, and four copies of any processed ones I keep, split over two seperate computers, a laptop, and one external drive.

[sdsviet]

i am also just starting off myself and i am preparing to set up my back up workflow. picking up a drobo with at least two 1tb drives and back up my 400, 300, 320 from laptop and other misc files. then im going to reformat all of them and start fresh. after that im gonna be culling out all the old crap im have that i dont need anyomre. i bet that will get rid of 30%-50% of the space i have now. then move all the misc files onto the reformated drives. then all photo and raw files goes on the drobo with straight backup only folder and then folder for changes and final images. i will also be burning each event especially the wedding stuff on dvd for a second backup and try to keep those off site.

p.s. i forgot to mention i havae a 100gb, 360gb, and anther 20gb with tons of other crap. haha might have to go above 2tb for this.