I'm just curious.

How many copies do you keep? I currently have two copies on DVD.
I recently just merged my CDs onto DVDs.

I think I'll be keeping two copies on separate hard disks too, for the heck of it.

But I'm also curious, what do you do with .AVI files you record from your point and
shoots? Do you actually archive those? Or do you compress them to some smaller
format, then throw away the originals?

For pictures, I keep both the RAW files and the processed jpeg files (which are easier
to view later). But unprocessed AVI files can get out of control. I have 8 gig from this trip alone. And I don't even have a camcorder - this is random SD800 nonsense.

- Frank

 

External hard drives and saved to more than one location. Dan knows all the specifics...

 

My iMac with Lightroom has my main library, and I have LR make a backup onto an external drive.

I also have another separate drive using time machine, which acts as another back up for my photos as well as all my files.

 

RIght now I backup to a portable external. Looking into a NAS for automated backup with RAID, then I'll have that backup to an external for disaster recovery.

I also have been notorious for not deleting any photos. I'm starting to reassess that methodology and discarding obvious trash shot, but still keeping non-"keepers".

 

I have all RAW files back up to :d: drive and to external drive, all LR files are on :c: and back up to external. Then after LR or PS the jpegs are on :d: and then back up to external.

 

flickr plus account and external drive...

 

out of 3 internal hard drives, two of them are strictly for storage and both of them have copies of all the RAW (and processed) photos i've shot...

 

Int HD, Ext HD, DVD's.

 

depends.. if its an event I don't particularly care about losing (and I'm "done" with it, i.e. processed pics have been uploaded/delivered), one backup to DVD. If its something I want to surely keep, minimum 2 DVD backups and 2 HD copies. And for regular use (such as club pics) I export all pics to 1920x1280 and process at that size, and include those processed files in the backup.

 

I have about 150GB of vid, Curious about compressing options as well.

 

external HD

 

I advise against it. You will really destroy the overall quality. I would just suggest a separate drive to store you video footage. Drives are so cheap these days its very easy.

 

Figured. Thanks

 

I see a lot of people use external hard drives, but you always hear that storing valuable data on your computers hard drive is a bad idea cause if it crashes you lose everything.

Are external drives inherently more stable or is it just a case of doubling your insurance?

 

Considering that my wife and I shoot about 1 to 2gb of photos per month (I know, low for some you serious hobbyists) and those photos get edited quite a bit, here is how I do it.

Also I am a computer professional, it is my day job.

At 2gb a month and with changes made to those files at any time, DVD/CD backup just wasn't practical. So here is the plan I laid out.

There are copies of all of the photos on 3 different computers that are networked together. I use Syncback SE (excellent freeware) to automatically sync all the photo folders between all of the machines. On top of that my main workstation has a 160gb external hard drive with a 4th copy as well, but it is not current except for once a week (it backs up other things that are not high priority.)

For disaster recovery I remote desktop into my Dad's computer and I copy everything over once a month or when we take a slew of shots we really don't want to lose. I also copy things from his machine to back up on my network for him. He received a complete computer rebuild and a shiny new 500gb drive for this deal, plus I keep external copies of his important data. I just use FTP between our machines (he lives in another state.)

As far as HDD back up not being wise, quite frankly if you're taking a lot of photos and editing them every day I really don't see another viable back up solution. Unless you want to sit all day and copy DVD after DVD and after a while those things get piled up and lost anyway.

Hard drives are cheap. 500gb drives can be picked up for less than 19 cents on the gigabyte, buy two or three and you can keep a LOT of photos archived safely.

Another tidbit, is use enterprise class drives, such as Segate's ES or Western Digital RE/2/3 lines. They usually come with a 5 years warranty and the price premium isn't that great. The Western Digital 500gb RE2 is $99.99 and the 500gb Caviar SE16 is $79.99 on Newegg.com currently. For that extra $20 you do get a lot more drive. Just remember that it is still a mechanical device and it WILL FAIL at some point.

Also think about disaster recovery. Are your photos offsite somewhere that you KNOW is backed up? I have some photos up on Picasa, but I don't trust Google to be doing their backups every day. Having 100 copies of your photos won't do you a bit of good if your house burns completely down to the ground. Hard drives typically don't survive such things.

As far as who makes the best hard drives, that really is a Ford/Chevy, Canon/Nikon argument. Or in how I like to put it, an idiot's argument. Buy the damn thing and make sure you don't trust it with all of your eggs. Because no matter what manufacturer you buy from that drive WILL FAIL one of these days and you have no idea when.

CanopyFlyer

 

external hard drives aren't any more stable than internal hard drives because in the end, they're just hard drives...except with a case around them and a firewire/usb/esata port on the back...

now, there are factors that could make your internal drives more prone to failing...lightning hitting your electrical outlet, causing a short in your computer...had that kill a drive of mine...nothing special enough on it to care, though...

internal drives also have the OS installed on them, which means a failure with your operating system could cause corruption on your hard drive...like i mentioned above, i have three internal drives, but two of them are strictly for storage...meaning there is no OS installed on either of them...just backups of everything i keep (software, music, photos, etc.)...no OS on them makes them just about as safe as external drives...

the good thing about external drives is they're not constantly connected to your computer, which means less chance of a hardware failure..plus they're portable...

so bottom line, external hard drives are just like internal ones, except not constantly running and are more portable...if you want something more stable, get a flash drive...

 

Two externals.

 

Well, I suppose it's possible for a power surge to fry EVERYTHING on your computer,
but it's highly doubtful.

That's a pretty interesting point about keeping extra copies off site in case your
house burns down. Food for thought.

Craziest instance of losing data has to be the companies in the WTC who put
backups in the other tower........ ugh.

 

1 external that time machine takes care of. This is about the change though, now that I'm about to move home from University I'm going to try and decide on something a little more redundant. I also like the idea of offsite storage I need to think of something there. Maybe I'll put a server in my buddies place.

 

By putting the car in reverse =D...

But, I actually don't have backups.

 

Thanks, rimz. Good explanation.

 

Frank, I'm actually very impressed with the lengths people go to to protect their data. I'm lazy in this regard and it's a bad habit. Clearly a house burning down is a remote possibility, but if happened you'd be covered if you had backups of your photos stored off site.

I think I'm going to at least look into getting an external drive. Good thread.

 

An external drive is a good choice if you don't have the internal space in your computer for another hard drive. If you do have the space in your computer for another internal drive I would recommend it over an external drive.

The reason is because externals can be easily knocked over or dropped. You may be tempted to pick it and take it with you, because it's easily portable, which then subjects the drive to temperature variations (which is about the worst thing you can do.)

I use an external drive, but it is the fourth backup for photos and 2nd backup for less important data.


You make a very good point.

 

My RAW files are backed up 4 ways (obsessive I know).

1.) Primary location on internal 750GB hard drive

2.) External drive #1 which is only powered on for backups.

3.) External Drive #2 which is only powered on for backups.

4.) Mozy.

Technically a 5th would by my flickr account, but those are only the jpgs.

 

Raid 5 Array

 

RAID 5 array isn't a backup. What happens if the array becomes corrupt, a virus deletes your files, you save over a couple images on accident?