Almost pulled my hair out again. Need help with Backing Up images

A little disclaimer first: I'm very knowledgeable when it comes to computers. I actually have built my own computers for a few years now. I have also a lot of experience with photoshop and lightroom.

Not too long ago I was using a program for my pc running Win7 called "Second Copy". The best part about it was that it would make a mirror copy of my "Media" hard drive onto my external hard drive. It would only do so when it detected any changes done to the "Media" drive, and then would make the same changes to the external drive. Long story short, one day after a "copy", I noticed almost ALL my photos were gone from my pc, and none were copied to the external. I almost lost ALL my photos I have ever taken/downloaded. That my friends, almost drove me to kill someone. Just random luck that something that crazy would happen to me.

Now today, I went to the Grand Prix here in St. Pete, FL with a friend of mine. I let him borrow my 5D while I used my 5DmkII. We took about 400 photos total. I get home, transfer the photos to a folder, then tried moving the folder to my "Media" hard drive. When I try to open the Gran Prix folder in the Media drive, there were NO photos at all. Not even in the recycling bin. My pc is running just fine, I always keep it virus free with no problems.

So anyways, my question to you guys is, what is the best way to transfer and backup all your photos? What is your workflow as soon as you get home and have to put the photos in your computer? How can I avoid random crap like this from happening again to me?

Thanks in advance!

Well first of all, files don't just magically "disappear" like this, either someone did something to make them disappear, or something wasn't copied.

I don't do anything but copy them to my Photography folder / Month on my local drive and thanks to OSX built-in Time Machine, it backs it all up to my Drobo network file share within the hour, and does it on an hourly basis.

As for PC based software, there is a pile of it out there, and tons of threads recently on it I have seen as well.

I literally placed the pics int he folder, moved the folder, tried opening that folder and the pics were missing. The really did just disappear.

Thanks.

DigiNon wrote in post #14149618
I literally placed the pics int he folder, moved the folder, tried opening that folder and the pics were missing. The really did just disappear.

Thanks.

You verified that the new pics were in the folder and not just shortcuts?

Although if they were shortcuts, they should have moved as well.

Yes, I even check inside all other folders inside my media drive to make sure it didn't just move them to another folder for some weird reason. I do this after every time I get home with new pictures and never have a problem. That's why it's so frustrating.

EG

Today I was shooting surfing at Widemouth bay

Got home opened a new folder "surfing widemouth bay 25th March 2012" and cut and paste all my images over saves deleting later.

Once a month I low level format my memory cards 60D does that.

DigiNon wrote in post #14149672
Yes, I even check inside all other folders inside my media drive to make sure it didn't just move them to another folder for some weird reason. I do this after every time I get home with new pictures and never have a problem. That's why it's so frustrating.

Just a wild guess, but did you look in the trash? May have accidentally deleted it.

gjl711 wrote in post #14149760
Just a wild guess, but did you look in the trash? May have accidentally deleted it.

Just out of curiosity, did you read his post, specifically where he states nothing in the "recycle bin" LOL?

What I do is copy my shots from my camera to a Pictures folder.
I then make 2 additional copies:
I use Sugarsync to send one copy online, and image my main internal drive to a second one.
That way I have 3 "originals," and one of those is off-site.

The recycle bin was empty. I tried restarting the pc as well but no luck.

Merlin, I think I will just go with a Drobo backup system. I have a Drobo in my living room connected to my Mac Mini. I use it mostly to backup all my movies and tv shows, about 5TB worth of data. The Drobo is so far away that I might just have to buy a second one for this pc. I have never had any problems with the Drobo setup but never got the chance to incorporate it into my photography workflow and backup. I just have too many files to backup so I try and stay away from the online backup route.

328iGuy wrote in post #14149776
Just out of curiosity, did you read his post, specifically where he states nothing in the "recycle bin" LOL?

Missed that line.

DigiNon wrote in post #14149560
what is the best way to transfer and backup all your photos? What is your workflow as soon as you get home and have to put the photos in your computer?

I useImage Ingester to copy my cr2 files to two hard drives (internal end external).

Well personally I do not trust any back up apps period. I have lost way too much data over the years by trusting some third party or built in software to save my files for me while I am not watching.
Sometimes you just have to do it yourself to be certain.

I personally transfer my files to my machine on the desktop. Photoshop/lightroom the RAW files and load them to my website.
Then I copy not move them to an external drive and additionally write each raw file to a DVD-r (only -R as plus R is not nearly as compatable over different systems)
Now I have 3 copies of my image. One in the database for my website Which gets deleted when the gallery comes offline and is located on my PC's Hard Drive, one on an external drive, and one written permanently on a disc that is good for 25-100 years depending on the type of disc and not part of a spinning platter on the fast track to crashing and losing it forever. All of it done manually during processing.

The only other option I would use would be to manually store my images on a RAID5 or higher disc array every time I processed the images so when the hard drive does eventually fail the images remain, but I would still write them to DVD-R disc every time no acceptions.
It frees up hard drive space and allowes me to store them offsite in the event that something catastrophic happens at the studio like a fire.
But thats just me.

Why move the files? Copy them first make sure they are there, then re-format the camera card....