Archiving Software?

Once upon a time, there was an image archiving application called "Archive Creator". It was [SUPposed to allow you to]:

• backup images to CD or DVD, spanning disks where necessary.
  
• create indexes.
  
• create slide shows.
  

There are many different backup software packages. This Wiki page has many of the packages. Best to poke around until you find something that suites your needs.

gjl711 wrote in post #18293546
There are many different backup software packages. This Wiki page has many of the packages. Best to poke around until you find something that suites your needs.

I'm well aware of the various programs which do generic data backups.

What I'm interested in is something which does what Archive Creator did, which goes well beyond just backing up data files.

Archive Creator wasn't like Backup Exec or other generic data backup utilities. It actually created IMAGE archives which had their own indexes, slide shows, and could span disks. With it, you could create a multi-disk archive with its own graphical index.

You might consider Photoshop Elements for its built in Elements Organizer. Some discussion at http://www.pcmag.com …le2/0,2817,2369​933,00.asp.

John from PA wrote in post #18293568
You might consider Photoshop Elements for its built in Elements Organizer. Some discussion at http://www.pcmag.com …le2/0,2817,2369​933,00.asp.

I have Elements 15. Do you know if it'll span DVDs while archiving a catalog?

I'm at work and don't have access to it right now, and haven't been able to find a definitive answer on line.

Thanks.

That sounds like an older approach.

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Presentation of your images, or backup? Those things tend to be mutually exclusive. You may have to use a more modern technique / piece of software.

tim wrote in post #18293663
That sounds like an older approach.

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Presentation of your images, or backup? Those things tend to be mutually exclusive. You may have to use a more modern technique / piece of software.

Both, actually.

Archive Creator gave you a backup that was also easily accessed. I'm not seeing anything with the same functionality, or at least that obviously offers it. I want something which will archive my images to DVD, spanning the disks rather than forcing me to manually calculate which files to burn to any given disk, and which doesn't require the software to access the resultant archives.

I'm seeing a lot of software that either doesn't do what I want, only partially does it, or does it in a way which would be horribly cumbersome.

Most people stopped backing up to DVD years ago. They're too small for most practical backups. I have 10TB of disk space in my computer.

If you want to make slide shows, great, make slide shows, but don't confuse them with backups.

For backups your two most common options are:
- Cloud backup. There are many providers, CrashPlan, Backblaze, Amazon S3/Glacier, etc
- Backup to hard drive, using a proper tool that includes incremental backups - this protects again viruses, corruption, etc.

I use both - I have multiple hard drives, I use CrashPlan, and I also upload customer images to AWS S3. You can read more about my backup strategy here.

tim wrote in post #18293750
Most people stopped backing up to DVD years ago. They're too small for most practical backups. I have 10TB of disk space in my computer.

If you want to make slide shows, great, make slide shows, but don't confuse them with backups.

For backups your two most common options are:
- Cloud backup. There are many providers, CrashPlan, Backblaze, Amazon S3/Glacier, etc
- Backup to hard drive, using a proper tool that includes incremental backups - this protects again viruses, corruption, etc.

I use both - I have multiple hard drives, I use CrashPlan, and I also upload customer images to AWS S3. You can read more about my backup strategy here.

I back up to multiple hard drives, including on my RAIDed Linux server.

I still prefer to have DVD backups. I don't want to back up JUST to hard drive and cloud, especially having to pay for the latter.

Temma wrote in post #18293762
I back up to multiple hard drives, including on my RAIDed Linux server.

I still prefer to have DVD backups. I don't want to back up JUST to hard drive and cloud, especially having to pay for the latter.

Yeah, I used to do that. I had hundreds of DVDs. But as Tim said, most stopped doing that many years ago. The only advantage I can think of for DVDs is that once written, the data can't change. No worries about accidental deletions or viruses.

But for me, it was a big problem managing and updating collections of DVDs. Also, DVDs have unstable dyes that you need to worry about. Back in the day, I used to archive files together with recovery volumes so files were recoverable even when a few sectors failed.

If only they had 1TB DVDs with permanent dyes. But they don't, so now I use hard drives exclusively (almost).

Archibald wrote in post #18293783
Yeah, I used to do that. I had hundreds of DVDs. But as Tim said, most stopped doing that many years ago. The only advantage I can think of for DVDs is that once written, the data can't change. No worries about accidental deletions or viruses.

Being that I'm sixty, a good quality DVD is going to outlive me by quite a bit.

I don't have enough images that archiving the best of them to DVD would be all that much of a chore.

I'm still looking for something that will do that as well as Archive Creator did before it crashed and burned.

DVDs can fail to be readable within a few years.

tim wrote in post #18293922
DVDs can fail to be readable within a few years.

I've heard the opposite regarding good quality ones.

I've got DVDs that are going on ten years old that are perfectly readable.

Temma wrote in post #18293950
I've heard the opposite regarding good quality ones.

I've got DVDs that are going on ten years old that are perfectly readable.

Which ones are good quality?

Temma wrote in post #18293950
I've heard the opposite regarding good quality ones.

I've got DVDs that are going on ten years old that are perfectly readable.

Yes, some can be. The problems tend to come up when you try to read them on another computer. I had a few DVDs that were good quality that failed.

The trick is not to trust any one media. All of my files are backed up to at least two hard drives, and I prefer three. They're all in different locations as well. Plus, of course, many are in a cloud backups system as well.