Reliable permanent storage for digital images

[atlantis]

Would like to check with fellow photographers how you store your digital images permanently?

I stored mine in a potable harddisk drive (like Maxtor OneTouch) and notebook hdd.
Recently, I encountered problems retrieving the images from potable hdd - some of the images seem to be corrupted. Thankfully I still have a copy in the notebook hdd. Whew!

Can anyone please share how they store their digital images? As the file size gets larger, burning them to DVD/CD don't seem very viable.
Need a reliable permanent storage.

Thanks.

 

[N-user]

Would like to check with fellow photographers how you store your digital images permanently?

I stored mine in a potable harddisk drive (like Maxtor OneTouch) and notebook hdd.
Recently, I encountered problems retrieving the images from potable hdd - some of the images seem to be corrupted. Thankfully I still have a copy in the notebook hdd. Whew!

Can anyone please share how they store their digital images? As the file size gets larger, burning them to DVD/CD don't seem very viable.
Need a reliable permanent storage.

Thanks.

Bro, what you can do is get a NAS..... pop in 2 HDD (1TB or 2TB) and setup kind of a RAID.... so if 1 HDD fail, you still got a back up (of course if damn suay 2 die at the same time then boh bian).... best, can setup a Network and store your photos over the Air.... :devil:......... portable HDD is for temp storage and ease of bringing around.... dont bet your life in it..... and ya, photos are valuable, dont risk losing it, cause you will never have the same photos again.........

 

[hotwork77]

Would like to check with fellow photographers how you store your digital images permanently?

I stored mine in a potable harddisk drive (like Maxtor OneTouch) and notebook hdd.
Recently, I encountered problems retrieving the images from potable hdd - some of the images seem to be corrupted. Thankfully I still have a copy in the notebook hdd. Whew!

Can anyone please share how they store their digital images? As the file size gets larger, burning them to DVD/CD don't seem very viable.
Need a reliable permanent storage.

Thanks.

Bro, what you can do is get a NAS..... pop in 2 HDD (1TB or 2TB) and setup kind of a RAID.... so if 1 HDD fail, you still got a back up (of course if damn suay 2 die at the same time then boh bian).... best, can setup a Network and store your photos over the Air.... :devil:......... portable HDD is for temp storage and ease of bringing around.... dont bet your life in it..... and ya, photos are valuable, dont risk losing it, cause you will never have the same photos again.........

I personally use "Seagate's Barracuda ES.2" 1TB drive is about $290 compared to the normal Barracuda 7200.11 1TB drive selling at SLS for $130. It has a reliability far exceed my expectation. I use a total of 4 ES2s in my Dell Home Server running Win Server 2003.

Data that are valuable to me are also archived in DVD RAM. Portable HDD is for carry around and is not meant for archival purpose.

 

[woeilee]

Would like to check with fellow photographers how you store your digital images permanently?

I stored mine in a potable harddisk drive (like Maxtor OneTouch) and notebook hdd.
Recently, I encountered problems retrieving the images from potable hdd - some of the images seem to be corrupted. Thankfully I still have a copy in the notebook hdd. Whew!

Can anyone please share how they store their digital images? As the file size gets larger, burning them to DVD/CD don't seem very viable.
Need a reliable permanent storage.

Thanks.

I would still stick to DVD for 'permanent' storage/backup. I dont really trust hard-drive because they 'die' easily without apparent cause. My father got himself a Seagate external hard-drive for backup. However, this backup 'die' even before the internal hard-drive.

 

[ortega]

all HDD will die, it is just when, google MTBF

all media will also die someday

best bet is multiple copies

 

[pokiemon]

this is what i do:
HDD - one copy
external harddisk - one copy
DVD/BLU RAY - one copy

 

[yrh0413]

I make 2 backups to 2 hard drives, and i have shut down scripts (robocopy) that copies all my data over to my 2 backups everytime I shut down my computer.

RAID is good but it does not prevent data corruption.

 

[AhmadH]

Portable hard drive is a bit risky coz if you carry around and you accidentally drop the hard drive the hard disk might spoilt.Internal hard drive also had it owns problems.If there is a surge in the power supply the hard drive will spoilt.The best way is to burn on dvd and kept in a dry cabinet.

 

[atlantis]

Thank you all who responded with valuable advice.

 

[Diavonex]

You can use Raid Level 1

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/singleLevel1-c.html

 

[Octarine]

Portable hard drive is a bit risky coz if you carry around and you accidentally drop the hard drive the hard disk might spoilt.Internal hard drive also had it owns problems.If there is a surge in the power supply the hard drive will spoilt.The best way is to burn on dvd and kept in a dry cabinet.

Portable HDD doesn't mean that you need to carry around the drives. When stored in recommended conditions and nothing else goes wrong they are quite reliable. The quality of drives has also increased, so the problems with internal grease / oil drying over period should be solved. Together with a proper file system (not FAT as used on memory cards) it is a reasonable option next to DVD. One shouldn't scrimp on good hard disks for storage, what is $40 when calculated over 3 years usage?

 

[Shen siung]

I'm using potable (3.5") HDD, 2 of them, to store. I will give them about 3 years life span (since most HDD nowadays provide min of 3 yrs warranty), after 3 years will consider get a new one to back up.

 

[limwhow]

I have used Seagate Freeagent, Maxtor One Touch. Somehow i seem to be the rather unfortunate one because a few have failed on me out of a sudden.
Died without any known cause.
Now I synchronise a 1Tb Freeagent to a My Book 2x 1TB set at RAID 1, and to another Maxtor Basic. Of course, my working files are still on my laptop.
Can't be too careful with the precious digital images.

 

[Octarine]

I have used Seagate Freeagent, Maxtor One Touch. Somehow i seem to be the rather unfortunate one because a few have failed on me out of a sudden.
Died without any known cause.

Maybe you can try external 3.5inch enclosures and use some professional grade disks? Ok, not that cheap, but buying 3 consumer grade disks gives the same price, minus off the trouble and lost data. Had a look at Buffalo and other NAS appliances, looks much more reliable than any pocket hdd, especially when used more often.

 

[limwhow]

Maybe you can try external 3.5inch enclosures and use some professional grade disks? Ok, not that cheap, but buying 3 consumer grade disks gives the same price, minus off the trouble and lost data. Had a look at Buffalo and other NAS appliances, looks much more reliable than any pocket hdd, especially when used more often.

Hmmm... yes, I know what you mean.
I saw that Buffalo thing which can hold up to 4 x 3.5" HDD slot in. Just that it has to be used as a Network HDD connected to the Router. My wireless connection from laptop not too fast, and thus I bought the MyBook. It's still an encased 2x 1TB storage with RAID 1 set up such that the two HDD mirror each other.
I guess with my limited knowledge, that is the best I can do for the time being.

 

[whattokingu]

Ever tried backing up using the 'cloud', which is online.

I tried Carbonite (carbonite.com) and it's quite good. For about 80 bucks a year, you get unlimited storage.

And usually these services keep your data in multiple data storage facilities across different locations so it's pretty safe.

Quite cost effective.

 

[Reportage]

Tape drives. Good enough for corporate, military and research institutes should be good enough for consumer use.

1 tape usually can fit 1TB.

 

[CS TAN]

Don't forget that part of a good backup strategy: do not put your backup units with where your production units are. i.e. store the backup offsite. If you house catches fire and destroys your computer, chances are the backup HDDs, tapes or DVDs that sit next to it will also be destroyed.

 

[Pinoy]

Agree. Redundancy in this case will do you good. In my case, my images are usually stored in 3 locations:

- My workstation (catalogued in LR)
- Maxtor One Touch 1TB External HD
- WD 1.5TB HDD on my NAS

And to cap it off, all post processed images are uploaded (unresized) to my Flickr account, making it an offsite backup of my images.

:Later,

 

[nex100]

I would still stick to DVD for 'permanent' storage/backup. I dont really trust hard-drive because they 'die' easily without apparent cause. My father got himself a Seagate external hard-drive for backup. However, this backup 'die' even before the internal hard-drive.

you have been warned. DVDs are not forever.