Long term storage?

[Chris G]

What's the best long term storage for your picture files? I was going to burn them to DVD but someone told me that the DVD's will fade in a few years. I find that hard to believe.

[Sathi]

I have wondered about the longevity of DVDs myself which is my prefered backup solution. It is really the only backup solution I can think of. I mean I store my pics on 2 different drives too...but the DVDs are my only 'what if my pc caught fire' solution.

[etaf]

Its the same as CD's really and yes they do.
BUT what will the media be then and will you stil have software to read them ??
look at how floppies have gone - so I think in 5years you may well be transferrin g them onto newer media, just to keep up to date.
I also always make two copies onto DVD.
You could get into printing them withh all sorts of archival material/inks and keeping them in controlled environment.

Also I think the quality of the DVD will be imporant and how long they may last

[Longwatcher]

If you trully want long term storage then you need to either:

A. Update with the technology every 5-10 years at the current rate of progress. As in transfer CD to DVD to whatever and use best current lossless format for image files.

or

B. Buy a couple of spare computers and printers (so you have backup), make sure it has all of the software you might need to access the images later and then record your data to gold-disks (CD or DVD) since these have the best longevity and then store the whole set in an hermetically sealed crate in a cold storage vault deep underground in a geological stable region of the planet until you need them again.

I would personally aim for option A.

BTW: DVDs are supposedly more stable then CDs by there nature (not counting gold CDs) and I have personally never lost a CD to deterioration in over 15 years now (lost a few to dust, heat and bad writes (immeadiately noticeable), but not fade).

[Chris G]

Thanks. Which DVD's do you guys use?

[MadMesh]

DVD and a Computer... Just buy bigger hard drives. I have 2 computers in 2 different locations.. It just depends how anal you are about data and protection...

[Ikinaa]

Thanks. Which DVD's do you guys use?

Call me paranoid, but I burn my pics on 3 DVDs of 3 different brands.
I mostly use TDK DVD-R for most things and I never had any problem.
I also use Maxell and Sony (but not for so long, so I can't make a statement for them...)

[Poco]

Burn them on DVD now and when you get your Blue-Ray (50GB) burner copy your DVDs to that. Then, when you get your holographic crystal cubes (5000GB?) copy your images to that. etc...

Your storage discs only have to last until you get the next storage medium. I have already copied all of my CDs to DVD and I expect it will only be a couple of years before I replace those. Fortunately the size of each new media grows exponentially. Eventually you will have them all planted on a chip in your arm that can hold every photograph ever taken by anyone - ever.

[lancea]

Do a search and you'll find a number of threads on this one. The advice given by Longwatcher (point A) and Poco above is the critical one. You have to keep migrating to the current mature technology before (a) your media fails and (b) there's nothing to read your media. For example, it'd be risky to use a high-density DVD solution at the moment because there's no mature standard. I'd also avoid using dual-layer DVDs as writting them is not as reliable as single-layer DVDs.

Consider (as already suggested) using hard disc drives. It can work out pretty economical although the initial cost is much higher. You'd need (for redundancy) a couple of SATA drives of the maximum capaity you can afford. While 400GB doesn't sound like a large number of full flash cards, think about the number of DVDs it equates to.

[tim]

Don't trust DVDs, i've heard many, many times where people wrote their images to a DVD, it failed, and they lost them all. Personally I keep my images on 3 hard drives, each in a different location. Am I paranoid? Maybe. Will I lose images? It's very unlikely.

[Sathi]

My photos are now topping out at over 120 gig. Although I have been saving them on 2 different drives, this is starting to not become practical anymore. As cheap as drives are, 240 gigs for pictures is pretty steep. And everytime I go take pictures which is usually at least once a week this number grows by 2 to 4 gigs. I already have 5 drives in my computer. I can see this becomming a big problem real soon. And like Tim, I just don't trust dvds. Isn't blue-ray and hd-dvd still a long way away from mass market?

There is a 320gig sata western digital selling at monarch computer for $134, thinking about getting that...

[mdm]

I read where dvds have a shelf life of 100 years and cds may last 2-4 years. I back up everything to a external hard drive, dvds, and now I've started uploaded to a online photo store with a free unlimited storage account. It is Winkflash and I've ordered prints from them before and there pretty good. .12 per 4x6 print.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Multiple Hard drives and DVD here...

DO NOT USE CD-RW or DVD- + RW

RW media is the most prone to data loss

[MadMesh]

if you really want a good quality DVD, look into RITEK brand... I have had VERY good luck with them.. They were also reviewed as some of the TOP brand stuff. I use a Pioneer A07, 100% compatible with that media. Food for thought.... dont burn at 8x or 4x... Slower the better, some may argue, but in some DVD reader drives, it may make a difference.

Also, if you have data you cannot afford to loose, you can always FTP that data on to a web server and call it a day. Also keep a DVD and hard drive backup. Soo many different ways to protect urself, all you need is time.

[Spirit]

Right now all my pics (and other important files) are on a secondary drive (all programs go on a partitioned section of my windows drive), and also backed up on a drive tha's not connected to my computer at all. I do have burned copies, but like people said above, I just don't trust them.

Im waiting for some sort of USB stick (like zip, but usb) to come cheap, then I will likely use those. What happened to zip drives anyway? Does anyone still use those?

[Sathi]

Food for thought.... dont burn at 8x or 4x... Slower the better, some may argue, but in some DVD reader drives, it may make a difference.


This is a good point. I have read that this does make a difference for reliabilty as well. I think the idea is that the laser has more time to burn a deeper pit onto the surface.

[MadMesh]

Thanks for the 2nd Sathi, I prolly have more experience on computers and graphics art than photography.. but I have been burning discs since CD-R drives first came out. (im only 22 years old) I actually purchased one of the first SCSI CD-R drives when they first came out (well dad did =) lucky me... , Along with the first DVD Drive. I know there is a lot of perference played in brand, but i REALLY vouch for Plextor or Pioneer drives. Pioneer was the first company to produce a DVD-R. As for your media... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I burn on Ritek 4x disc (burning at 1x), but i rather store data on 2 computers in 2 differnt locations, If you have a fast internet conneciton, upload ur most important photos to a FTP server. I try not to buy rebait media or ANYTHING from Frys electronics... they sell a lot of stuff that didnt pass Factory QC. Ive been burnt in the past with failed arcive discs.

[mdm]

I've tried just about every brand of dvd blank for movies. I know from experience verbatim is the best. It has given me the least problems and no quality loss. This is why I use these for backup for movies, music, and photos.

[GPR1]

Go on to the MAM-A website. They sell archival DVD and CD material. It's spendy, and I still make 2 copies, but I'm confident the data will outlast the technology and will still be there when I need to migrate to a new format.

Greg

[calgaryphotographer]

i use DVD...

I use cheap ones for most everyday ****, but when it comes to baking up my pictures I have always turned to high-quality DVD's!

[scott stokes]

I was in photo barn today and they have dvd that say they last 300years.they were not cheap.

[Slaggie]

Read a pro photographers article on this subject a while ago, sorry, cannot remember where.
Rewritable CDs and DVDs should not be depended on for longer than 3 years.
A high quality CD or DVD should not be depended on for longer than 5 years.
Always use quality CDs or DVDs
Burn at a slower rate.
My own opinion- you can always burn a new CD, DVD from an old one every 2 or 4 years, getting around the longivity problem that way.
Those of you storing images for long term on hard drives, I had a hard drive fail, a recovery firm could recover data most of the time but NO guarantee, also somewhat expensive. George :)

[chris.bailey]

Multiple Hard drives and DVD here...

DO NOT USE CD-RW or DVD- + RW

RW media is the most prone to data loss

Ditto. High capacity external hard drives are getting pretty cheap and using software like Karens Replicator its quick and cheap to copy your picture directories over to a hard drive backup solution.

[EOSAddict]

DVD RAM has supposedly a better life than the other formats. I use that for prime off-computer backup with one-off DVD-R for a second off-site backup.

[BobL]

. . . A high quality CD or DVD should not be depended on for longer than 5 years.
I have dozens of 10 - 11 year old Kodak CDs at work and at home all burnt at X1 and X2, all are fine.

Always use quality CDs or DVDs
Burn at a slower rate.
Agree, I have lost 2 cheap (no -name) CDs that were heavily used and some of the metal layer flaked off inside the container. One still reads except for a couple of files but the directory is shot on the other and it is useless.

My take is the more you access CDs and DVDs the greater the chance of damage. I used to burn 2 sets (one for home and one for work) now I burn 3 and make one a working copy.

[EricKonieczny]

I just bought one of this yesterday


I woke up this morning took a look at the newspaper and the Best Buy advertisment and saw the Western Digital 160 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive on sale and have a $70.00 rebate. Regularly 159.99, now 89.99. It is 7200 RPM.

I know Firewire is preferred, but for the price, can't beat it.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...d=1093467860020 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6843614&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat33200050002&id=1093467860020)

Plus I picked up a 25 pack of Memorex DVD +R, for only $9.99 after the $10 instant rebate.



For the price of this backup storage you can't go wrong. Better safe than sorry.