Archiving RAW Files

tim wrote in post #11307760
A virus or stupid user can delete them.

Agreed...

I use an external dual drive which mirrors itself, so in theory if one drive fails I should be able to load from the remaining good copies to another drive. I keep all my eggs in one basket by saving all my RAW's and processed images on that dual drive. Probably not wise, but I don't earn a living from my images so its not life or death.

Lowner wrote in post #11307915
I use an external dual drive which mirrors itself, so in theory if one drive fails I should be able to load from the remaining good copies to another drive. I keep all my eggs in one basket by saving all my RAW's and processed images on that dual drive. Probably not wise, but I don't earn a living from my images so its not life or death.

RAID can't really be considered a backup. Depending on level it's more meant as a thing to keep the computer running all the time but not a substitute for backups. What happens if your psu shorts out and destroys both HDs at the same time for instance. RAID is good but I'd really recommend backing up

Xcelx,

I know what you are saying, but its yet to happen to me in all the years I've had computers. And as I say, if I lost the lot, it would be an irritation, but nothing more. I print everything worth printing and unless the house burns down they will always be there.

As a consumer only, not a pro, I use DNG and save those only plus jpgs. I upload jpgs to Smugmug as sharing and offsite backup. I copy hard drive to backup routinely as well and periodically copy to other drives or jpgs to DVD's for various reasons.

I've been thinking about using tar or zip or whatever and uploading to one of the cloud services for permanent offsite storage. Google has decent prices in this regard. At home, I use a G-Tech Raid 1 external drive set. Considering getting some extra drives and using them as well for offsite storage by rotating out a drive and taking it to work.

You don't gain much compressing RAW files, I wouldn't bother.

OK....I am on my way to pick up a 1.5TB external drive from BestBuy for $79. Seems reasonable enough. I will use this for main storage, then the 500GB external I already have for "sold" image backups.

Thanks for the replies!