Memory Management Part II -Archiving

[peepeedog]

In this day and age of the modern digital camera, with serious amateurs shooting in raw all the time, I'd just like to know how you guys back up all your photos. My workflow process is still somewhat inefficient and unconventional, at times inconsistent, so i have files all over the place. I have backed up most of my photos on DVDs, and another copy on my computer and laptop's HDD. But this has caused my laptop HDD to be almost entirely filled up with photos.

So my question is, do you:

1) Buy external HDDs like WD, Seagate etc in sizes of >350GB and just leave your photos in there until you want to use them, or
2) Leave them in your computer HDD like me, or
3) Burn them into DVDs that require a certain amount of archiving and accounting skills, or
4) Upload them entirely onto Flickr and tell yourself they won't ever lose your photos, or
5) you have alarming sums of money and you have an entire RAID system in your store room, or
6) All of, or a combination of above (if so, do state which and why)

Silly me has just realized that Flickr allows you to post direct to your blog. Which saves me alot of web server space of which i only have 800mb under my host name. This is really attractive especially with the no limit upload for flickr. I'm just not comfortable with the fact that everything is archived in someone else's database not maintained by me. :dunno:

p.s. Do take into consideration ease of editing, ease of retrieval and archival using applications like lightroom.

Thanks in advance

 

[tribal.snake]

i am running a pc with 3 hd 150gb each, 1 of which is dedicated to storing all the pictures.
i do my editing and store all temp files on another.

after every event shoot, go through work flow and archive onto dvd.
those misc shots i will keep on the pc's hd.

every mth or so do full ghost of pc.

dun really like to upload as am lazy and like to work fast.
not comfy with 3rd party either as most pics are private in nature.

 

[2ichigo2]

I prefer raid 1 system for photos. I have nv done ghosting before, wonder is it a better choice

Advantage:
1. ease of retrieval - All photos are in large capacity HDDs instead of DVDs.
Imaging you have 1TB of photos breaking into multiple DVDs.
You need to store and search DVDs just to look for photos?
2. Raid 1 does all the backup for u so there's no need to setup any software backup scheduler.
Disadvantage:
1. $$ - min 2 x HDDs and only half of total size of both HDD can be used.


If im using a desktop, 2 x 500GB setup as raid 1.
So if one hdd spoilt, at least i have an identical mirror backup of the spoilt hdd.

If im using a laptop, then i'll get something like buffalo drivestation duo...
External hdd case that accepts 2xHDD and can run raid 1 within itself.

 

[theRBK]

there have been plenty of posts discussing this...

anyway, my humble recommendation for a really solid, foolproof system is to:

1) use a dedicated image management software such as Microsoft Expressions Media or Extensis Portfolio to keep track of where your files are, even if they are offline (not immediately accessible) on external harddisks not connected to computer or DVDs...

2) use at least RAID1 or RAID5 (actually, if you want, any other than RAID0) to make sure the data is secure, either in an external casing, in a storage server, or even in your computer casing itself (although that would make your computer casing quite crowded and make removing disks more difficult...

3) burn a copy of the data as well to DVD...

4) keep the individual harddisks and DVDs in physically seperate and climate controlled locations if possible...

with effectively multiple copies, and with the management software keeping track of the location of the files, the risk of losing a file would be minimised... but of course, this might seem abit extreme... dice and slice as required

 

[hazmee]

I have a 120GB (main drive for Windoze), 250GB (back up for Windoze and other programs), 300GB (main picture library) and 500GB (picture library back up). I might purchase another 750GB. I have no idea where my pictures are sometimes but I do know they are there somewhere. I only archive my wedding and landscape pictures on DVDs. I use Microsoft SyncToy to synchronise some important folders. That is about it.

 

[GavinTing]

Okay. I have a macbook. I usually take big amounts of photos only on my yearly holiday. So let me describe the backup plan.

End of day, Upload photos to macbook (usually only 1 of my 4gig cards should be used)

Burn all files to a single DVD. (dvd nice at 4.7gigs)

Delete files from CF card, repeat next day

When get back to singapore, plug in external HDD to act as "time machine" backup. This is a mac thingy that copies my HDD completely incase of mistakes.

From here, I pick out the photos I like, and move them to a folder, where I rename and keep the nice ones, plus store the RAW files also. This is usually abt 30 photos I like from abt 400 or so a day. These chosen few are uploaded to Flickr, burnt to DVD, and kept on lappy for protection.

So essentially, I have the ORIGINAL photos on
1) DVD
2) ExternalHDD

I have the GOOD photos on
1)Macbook
2)ExternalHDD
3)DVD

All safe and good =P

 

[Raied]

i have various hdd in my pc which adds up to nearly 2tb

i keep ALL my photos on one paticular drive, nicely sorted into year>date>eventname . Normally when i realize or feel that the drive is dying, ill go grab a new one so that data is secured.

Thank god of all the hdd i've gone thru, not one has failed on me yet (touch wood)

 

[conquer500]

i have various hdd in my pc which adds up to nearly 2tb

i keep ALL my photos on one paticular drive, nicely sorted into year>date>eventname . Normally when i realize or feel that the drive is dying, ill go grab a new one so that data is secured.

Thank god of all the hdd i've gone thru, not one has failed on me yet (touch wood)

6th sense?

 

[buddy]

I have about 250gb of HD space on my PC and have a dedicated photos folder where I copy new files, my folder structure is date/subject based. When I do any edits on the images, I always make a copy in the same folder as the original. I use MS SyncToy to sync (contribute) files to my external hard drive (around 200GB) for a backup. Never use DVDs.

RAID would have been great but overkill for me since it also duplicates OS files, program files and you need a RAID capable board.

 

[theRBK]

RAID would have been great but overkill for me since it also duplicates OS files, program files and you need a RAID capable board.

you can have a RAID setup just for storage while running your OS and other program files from another harddrive... the RAID setup works just like one harddrive where you can just store your images, except that it reduces the risk of disk failure... and if you use an external RAID box, you wouldn't need a motherboard that supports RAID, just a free USB, firewire, network or SATA port to plug the setup into