Archival & Backing up your Digital pictures

[Alte22a]

Hi guys,

was wondering what methods most members here use to archive & backup your digital images. Scanned or from digital camera. I know most people for home use just use their HDs to store all the images, music and so forth, but what happens when you have a HD failure? But also on the other end of the spectrum digital labs have Data backup tech, such as Mirror RAIDS and tapedrives. The reason I brought this up is because I came home late last night from work and deleted all my work. Was so tired, guess I shouldn't be messing about with my files at that state of mind. Anyhow I use DVD-RAM for backup but never actually had the time to do it, wish I had.... Sitting here going through my work and rescanning everything. and its kinda painful.

 

[jywv8]

I keep all my photos in one folder/subfolders. Every so often, I use Synchronize! X Plus to backup any changes to an external FW drive (just mount the drive and run a little script -- easy). Then, once a year, I burn a CD or DVD with a copy of the photo folder.

This has worked well for me. I've never had an HD failure, but I do tend to accidentally delete files a lot.

 

[eyelikeart]

Hard drive backups. I have each day of photography in a separate folder (for each day). When it comes to post edits, I have 3 folders which I save to: High Res Tif, High Res Jpeg, & Low Res Jpeg. Then, I have client folders for specific work, usually magazine assignments.

I've got 2 copies of everything, one on my main drive, & one on my external firewire. I'm not too keen on using CD's to backup this stuff, as I'd rather have a couple hard drives for storage.

 

[Alte22a]

Apparently DVDs arent very good for backing up Data compared to CDs, something to do with error correction. But on the other hand DVD-RAMs are good but rather slow. External HDs yeah I have a few of those... Didnt back my data up did I...

 

[meta-ghost]

Apparently DVDs arent very good for backing up Data compared to CDs, something to do with error correction.

? tell me more. i'm using a dvd-rw. once every two months i reformat the disk and write again. are there problems with this?

 

[Alte22a]

? tell me more. i'm using a dvd-rw. once every two months i reformat the disk and write again. are there problems with this?

well I did say apparently, what I've heard is something to do with error checking and data corruption. I've been using DVD-Rs and never had any hipcups. I've heard people had screwed up files after a year or so with using DVD-Rs. I havent heard anybody having problems with DVD-RAM cause it feels like I'm the only person in the world using them. I also read somewhere that a DVD-RAM rewrite 100,000 times and last for 20years. hence the change. cant remeber the stats for DVD-R, +R, RW

 

[michaelrjohnson]

i currently just use my internal HD, then i just copy all to an external every once in a while. {shrug} i dunno, its my low-cost solution

 

[decksnap]

two drives

Just keep copies on two drives. When one craps out, buy a new drive- the chances of them both dying at the same time are extremely slim. I don't like breaking my stuff up onto CDs- rather keep them all together on a huge drive. EVENTUALLY, way down the road, disks may corrode or become unuseable- but twin drives should keep you going forever.

 

[Horrortaxi]

I do backups of my entire home folder--to an external drive--regularly. Every once in a while I backup my pictures to CD. I'm not likely to lose much if something bad happens.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I back-up to an external drive as well. As another poster said the odds of both drives dying at the same time are very, very slim.


Lethal

 

[decksnap]

On the topic of digital photo storage...

Can somebody tell me how someone is supposed to use iPhoto and keep their source images organized the way they want? iPhoto seems to organize my images the way IT wants, and I can't find what I'm looking for through the finder. I currently use Photoshop's built-in image browser instead, because it doesn't mess with my folders. So is iPhoto just for 'basic' users or what?

 

[Alte22a]

Really cant answer that question. But Yeah I am a regular user of PS and the file browers in CS is very cool and useful. iPhoto is very annoying. But all the stuff that I work from is in PS but all my snaps are in iPhoto. I guess just copy the picture folder.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Can somebody tell me how someone is supposed to use iPhoto and keep their source images organized the way they want? iPhoto seems to organize my images the way IT wants, and I can't find what I'm looking for through the finder. I currently use Photoshop's built-in image browser instead, because it doesn't mess with my folders. So is iPhoto just for 'basic' users or what?

Yes it is for basic users (as are all the iApps), but why are you using Finder? Part of the reason to use iPhoto is so you don't have to dig around in Finder.


Lethal

 

[decksnap]

That's my point...

I use the finder because I use various programs for manipulating images, but it goes beyond the finder. If I were to be in Fireworks, for example, and try to open a file, it's nearly impossible to locate it through iPhoto's odd file structure. Or if I want to drag a folder of images into toast to burn along with some other stuff, you just don't know what you're looking at through the finder. Mostly I just don't understand why they thought it would be a good idea to rearrange the source files like that... in iTunes, it's logical to me, and I can go find an album instantly through the finder.

 

[Horrortaxi]

I just use iPhoto like a drawer or a box. It's just where I keep my pictures. I like the orginaizational features as well. When I want to edit an image (or several) I just drag it out of the iPhoto library (or album--whichever) to the desktop and then open it in Photoshop. When I'm done, if I'm keeping the altered image, I drag it back to iPhoto.

I don't see what all the fuss is about.

 

[krimson]

i have an external drive for backups.. i dont trust consumer recordable media.

 

[ffactory]

I use iPhoto to sort photos into portfolios and do all editing in Photoshop; I only have version 6 otherwise I'd prob be using CS to organize. I'm not looking forward to having to transition, but one day it will happen.

I keep my iPhoto library on one external FW drive, and keep all my original files (organized MY way) on a second external FW drive. I've been slowly backing up all the original files to CD - I say slowly because I've got some 12k full res images.

Why two external drives? To me the images are more important than the laptop:
Scenario 1: burglar enters home, sees powerbook, knows what it is takes it. Maybe knows what the FW drives are, maybe takes them. Case of used recordable CDs? Who wants those?! They are left behind.
Scenario 2: working in cafe on laptop. go to bathroom. laptop gone!

Maybe when I get it together I'll get kensington locks for the laptop and the two FW drives, AND store my CD copies in a fire/heat-proof safe. But until then at least I feel like I'm fairly well protected against total loss of the images.