How do you store your photos

ektec

How do you store/make copies of your photos?

I use a memory stick.. not sure if its a good idea.
I uploaded 2000 pictures to the laptop and its really slow now..
Anyone use DVD disc's?

gsxr1

I make dvd copies . I also make double copies just incase the dvd develops a problem.

Heebie

I have a RAID-5 array in my primary computer, backups on portable hard disks, and DVD's

DVD's do degrade, so they need to be re-burned every few years. (new copies)

hbr

ektec wrote: »

How do you store/make copies of your photos?

I use a memory stick.. not sure if its a good idea.

Not if it is your only backup copy. Flash memory is better than it used
to be, but it still isn't all that reliable. It is also prone to filesystem corruption.

I uploaded 2000 pictures to the laptop and its really slow now..

I wouldn't depend on a laptop for long term storage. They are easily
dropped or stolen.

Anyone use DVD disc's?

I use a lot of recordable DVDs. Obtical drives and media can be a bit flaky too.
If you use high quality media and verify your backups carefully, recordable DVDs
are probably still the best option for long term storage.

I keep a copy of all images on my internal PC hard-drive. Another copy is
stored on a pair of hot-pluggable drives that I can plug into a SATA drive
rack (best €4 I ever spent on eBay) and yet another copy is kept on a USB
external drive that is stored in a separate location to the other backups.
I also do weekly backups to DVD+R.

DVDs are too much hassle, in my opinion, and memory sticks don't carry enough memory.

I use external hard drives. €100 could get you a 1TB drive, which would take more than a long enough time to fill (unless you're shooting non-stop, but if you are, then I'd presume you're making a fair few Euro, and could justify the additional memory expenses).

I have several external drives, most of which have backups of my photos (though only two are regularly updated, so if one dies, I still have the other, and I'd need to be extremely unlucky to have them both go at the same time!).

I also have a separate drive that I leave in a friend's house (shall I ever be unlucky enough that anything happens my home, and I lose my drives in the process).

ektec

I think the best option is an external hard drive.. How does this work? Do you just burn pictures/videos to the external drive then thats it stored on there?

I have no idea of this method of storage so I need some heads up.

Years ago I had a high space simulator and was told to get a DVD rewriteable drive.. I only found it the other day.. Has this got anything to do with storage?
Sorry for my crap knowledge.

magicbastarder

two internal hard drives, full copy on each (about 150GB for my photos folder). copy stored on an external HD stored in my dad's house, synced every couple of months using ICE mirror.

ektec

ektec wrote: »

I think the best option is an external hard drive.. How does this work? Do you just burn pictures/videos to the external drive then thats it stored on there?

I have no idea of this method of storage so I need some heads up.

Years ago I had a high space simulator and was told to get a DVD rewriteable drive.. I only found it the other day.. Has this got anything to do with storage?
Sorry for my crap knowledge.

Ektec, external hard drives can be purchased from most stores that sell electronic goods ('real' stores like Harvey Norman, D.I.D, Currys, Argos, etc. and online stores like Amazon, Pixmania, etc.).

They come in different sizes (320GB, 500GB, etc) and you pretty much attach them to your computer/laptop by USB.

An external hard drive is just like a big memory card. When you connect it to your PC you can go into it and it'll be empty. You can then drag and drop files/folders/etc. into it and fill up the space.

Doing this means that, essentially, you have two of everything (the photos that are on your computer and the photos that are on your external hard drive).

For most users who take photographs occasionally, you'll never really fill 500GB, and generally speaking, the price differences between 320GB and 500GB are usually fairly negligible, so you'd be better off getting a 500GB external hard drive.


I picked this up a couple of days ago;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Elements-500GB-Portable/dp/B005A97A86/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1340054301&sr=1-6


And I dragged and dropped all of my photographs to it. This now means that if my computer gets a virus/breaks down/falls out a window, I still have a copy of all of my photographs on the external drive.


Also, as a general rule of thumb, every external hard drive WILL eventually fail and die, causing you to lose all your memory (photos, etc.). There are programmes that can be used to get the memory back, but I personally feel that if you truly value your photographs, you should get two external hard drives and make copies of your photos to both of them (that way if you're extraordinarily unlucky and you lose your PC and a hard drive at the same time, you'll still have a third copy of everything).


I know all this stuff can be a tricky to get your head around when you're just starting to try and understand it, so if you've any further questions feel free to put them up


(also, just to clarify, GB is gigabyte, and TB is terabyte. 1TB = 1,000GB. If you go to the folder containing your photos on your computer, and you right click and choose Properties, it will tell you the size of the folder. This is the size that your photos currently take up, so you want an external hard drive that's bigger than this, as you want it to hold any photos you've taken, plus any you may take in future).


Hope that's somewhat helpful

Gregor Samsa

I have a 1TB disc in my laptop that I import everything into (using Aperture). I have a second 1TB USB disc that I back up my Aperture library to using the built in Vaults feature after every import. I have a separate wireless 1TB Apple Time Capsule that I use for backing everything else on the laptop to early each morning (I find it too slow for backing up the large RAW files from my camera). Then, once in a while, I make a second backup of everything on the laptop to another 1TB USB disc that I keep at my desk in work.

I had a laptop stolen (along with cameras and other stuff) in Berlin a couple of years ago that contained all my photos going back years. Luckily, I made a backup the day I flew out, so all I lost was the week's worth of photos I shot over there, but it was a very, very close call, because I wasn't so diligent about backing up back then, and if it wasn't for the fact that I did that backup on the spur of he moment, I would have lost thousands of (personally) priceless photos. Insurance replaced the stolen gear, but nothing would have replaced the photos.

Paulw

In my PC I have mirrored 1.5TB disks.
I then backup to a NAS, which has 4x2TB disks, in RAIDX configuration.
I also back up my data to external hard disks, in pairs, so I always have multiple copies of my images. These are a max size of 1.5TB each.

My PC normally has approx 1 year worth of images.

It's just a matter of getting a routine going, and sticking to your plan.

mrboswell

DVD's and external drives.

A word to the wise though....if any of your externals fail just consider that if they are recoverable the cost is directly proportional to the size of the storage.
.....and its not cheap.

I have a drive that failed recently - 2TB.
Most of the stuff is backed up elsewhere but the disk "might" be recoverable. Will cost about 600 to see if it is and 1200-1400 to get it recovered. I'd rather spend that money on drowning my sorrows over some lost family snaps but it it was work related....thats an expensive failure...

Paddy@CIRL

I use a relatively simple system:

1. Import photos from CF to iMac internal HD. Time Machine automatically backs up these images and any changes every hour.

2. When I'm finished with them, I move them to my Drobo to free up space on my iMac. The images are organized by year and the Drobo holds every image I've ever taken. Each year however is backed up again to separate hard drives and disconnected when the year ends. Currently I have a 2011 & Previous years filed away whilst the 2012 folder is backed up to a live drive every day.

I think I just need to sort out off-site backups and I'm 100% covered.

lisatiffany

I used to use DVDs a few years ago but now its a series of external drives and 2 internal drives. I use four 2TB external seagate drives with an additional western digital 1TB drive for manuals and photography books/magazines and text scans. If I'm away for a few days the drives go in a lock box and then into a safe, call me paranoid but the cops told me recently that during break ins thieves will take external drives because some people leave all kinds of password back-ups and financial information on them. One of my friends who is also a photographer leaves his drives with a neighbor when he is away for a week or so.

I also keep some RAW back-ups on a dedicated cloud server for extra safety. I shoot about 8gbs at each shoot or event and keep all of the RAW files so I go though a lot of space fast, I have 2 more unopened 2TB drives stored away because eventually I'll need those too. At one point I was using 10TBs when I was working on film/movies, you would be surprised how much space years of footage can take up. Maplin are doing 2TB seagate drives for under 100 euros, not bad quality either if anyone's looking for cheap enough memory storage.

mrboswell

mrboswell wrote: »

DVD's and external drives.

A word to the wise though....if any of your externals fail just consider that if they are recoverable the cost is directly proportional to the size of the storage.
.....and its not cheap.

I have a drive that failed recently - 2TB.
Most of the stuff is backed up elsewhere but the disk "might" be recoverable. Will cost about 600 to see if it is and 1200-1400 to get it recovered. I'd rather spend that money on drowning my sorrows over some lost family snaps but it it was work related....thats an expensive failure...

I had a 1TB Drive fail on me before, I used a program called GetDataBack and, in spite of having to wait about 24 hours for it to complete, it worked like a charm.

dave13

Think people are crazy to rely on external drives/DVD's. Plenty of online backup sites you should use in conjunction.
I use carbonite which offers unlimited online backup for $50a year. Have about 80GB stored there. Also means files are available anywhere via web browser/phone app.
If you have a spare pc somewhere else windows live mesh is great, it automatically syncs files between your pc's for free.
I use my parents pc for this, all my photos/docs are automatically synced on their pc so I have a free offsite up to date backup.

Gregor Samsa

dave13 wrote: »

Think people are crazy to rely on external drives/DVD's. Plenty of online backup sites you should use in conjunction.

What's crazy about being in control of your own backups? I know you said "in conjunction", but you'd be extra crazy to rely on an online backup site. Western Digital could go out of business tomorrow, and my drives will still work. The same can't be said for Carbonite, Dropbox, etc. And don't believe for a second that online storage companies aren't prone to data loss due to equipment failure or human error.

By all means backup online (if you have an internet connection that can handle it - my 2.5 mb line certainly won't), but make sure you have a physical backup that you can access too.