New addition to the Mark II - DVD.

I ran into a large file back-up problem. I could forsee it being a big problem, so I went looking for an external DVD burner.
Ended up with a Sony DRX-530UL, FireWire/USB2.0, 8x burner.
So far it has worked excellent adde to my Dell Laptop via the 4 pin FW connection.

I asked myself, why did I wait so long to get this thing?
4.7G on one disk is nice & matches the amount of CF I carry to a shoot.

Almost 5 gigs in one shoot You must be doing sports or something. I've shot a LOT if I come home with a 256mb card filled. 10-20 shots is my norm on an outing... unless I'm trying to capture wildlife. Silly animals won't sit still and be cooperative, like trees and rocks do :P

Do you back your images up on a HDD as well as the DVD's, or DVD's only? I would be scared to use a DVD as my only backup.

Congrats on the new burner. I'm sure it will come in handy quite often, even apart from backing up images. I contemplated the DRU-500 when it first came out, but never took the plunge. Heck, I'm still using a 24x CDRW drive

I'd wait for the dual-layer DVD+RW drives.

9 gigs per disk, readable most everywhere. Sony has one that's around $199.

But then you might as well wait for the new Hi-Def DVD's that are soon to be released.
They will hold 15-20GB of data I believe.

With technology, there is always something newer/better just on the horizon.

Crossing my fingers, not to loose data. I back up on 2 dvd's.
I just don't have the room on HDs...
I am using Sony DVD's and not the cheapo generics.
I hope that helps.
I have heard lots on the web about their life span.
Hopefully technology will bring a dependable way to archive...meantime DVD has to be it.
I think I will burn some CDs of the more important images.. To be a little safer.

Anyone got opinions on this?

I use an external HD for backup. 120GB of storage goodness. What are the chances 2 HD's will fail at the same time?

I want to set up an external RAID 0 dual HD backup system, for the ultimato in safety. But that will have to wait until I get some more lenses and stuff.

I burn all my images to CD-Rs but I also have backup copies of what I burned to CD on a harddisk. When I have enough of the CD "images" to fill a DVD, I burn a DVD-R as a backup to the CD-R.

I used to burn two copies of CD-Rs but I've stopped doing that since I started burning the DVD-Rs.

I use Princo DVD-R's. Never a problem. And they are pretty decently priced. Memorex also makes good DVD-Rs. No coasters to date.

No need to wait.. the Sony Dual layer 8X burner is in stores now.. (saw one in CompUSA last weekend.. almost bought it,..)

Trouble is.. I can't find media.. but then.. I cna't find 8X DVD-+R either?

You are right - little chance but for other reasons I would still use CD/DVD - if Jack the Lad with black balaclava and swag bag picks out your house he will certainly cherish your PC and external HD - can't see him bothering with that pile of used discs?

Having seen two HDs loose all the important data just last year.. I'd warn against trusting only a pair of hard drives

My system now has triple reduncy built in.. (RAID 1 mirrored drives and a third internal drive using delayed backup (4 days) of the data only,.. as well as two external back up systems.. a removable HD and I burn CD/DVDs

Fortunately I did NOT loose any photos last year.. but I lost everything I have ever typed... and lot of other stuff too.

Given that.. I am particular paranoid now about loosing my images!

Remote, although I can remember about five occasions when it has happened to me (in a professional capacity).

The problem with trusting disc redundancy in order to keep your data safe is that you are only protecting against hardware failure. What happens if some application decides to corrupt your data? Your disc redundancy system is going to happily corrupt BOTH copies for you... (go and have a word with the guys at "fotopic.net" who have just learnt this lesson the hard way).

When it comes down to it... your best friend in keeping your computer data safe is still your tape drive.

Tape drive? Now how is that? I used to use a tape drive (4/8 Gb travan) for my backup up until last year but now I use the DVD. DVD is faster and less expensive. Grant it, it's not reusable unless I use the DVD-RW, but maybe that's good in that it means that I inherently have archival copies of all my backups.

Of course, this may not be the case with the faster and higher capacity DAT drives but then not every body can afford those...not after spending all their hard earned money on camera bodies and lenses.

PacAce wrote:
Of course, this may not be the case with the faster and higher capacity DAT drives but then not every body can afford those...not after spending all their hard earned money on camera bodies and lenses.

DAT drives? Gawd... antiques. It's LTO and SDLT nowadays...

My take on it is fairly simple. I cannot see the sense in investing a small fortune in camera and lenses in order to take photos... and then putting the photos at risk by not investing in a competent backup strategy... CDs , DVDs etc are all very well but they are very low capacity and inherently fragile. One little scratch is all it takes *shudders*

Cadwell wrote:

PacAce wrote:
Of course, this may not be the case with the faster and higher capacity DAT drives but then not every body can afford those...not after spending all their hard earned money on camera bodies and lenses.

DAT drives? Gawd... antiques. It's LTO and SDLT nowadays...

My take on it is fairly simple. I cannot see the sense in investing a small fortune in camera and lenses in order to take photos... and then putting the photos at risk by not investing in a competent backup strategy... CDs , DVDs etc are all very well but they are very low capacity and inherently fragile. One little scratch is all it takes *shudders*

Well, you do have a very good point. If your images are very important to you, then by all means, it should be protected by whatever means is available. In all honesty, I would, too, if my livelyhood depended on those images.

And sorry about the DAT terminology. I haven't been keeping up with tape technology since I got mine.