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02/09/2005 09:08:36 AM · #1 |
What would you say is the best way to back up your photographs? I currently have 10 CD̢۪s FULL of Original Pictures but I̢۪m afraid of scratches, loss of disk, etc. Would an EXTERNAL HD be considered the best way of backing up photographs?
If so do you think this one is good. I am considering purchasing it for my laptop because I am giving my desktop computer, which is a gaming computer, to my oldest son.
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02/09/2005 09:29:29 AM · #2 |
As I have learn over the years from having and working on hundreds of computers is that Any back is better then no backup. On that note I will tell you what has worked for me over the years and I personally feel protected by my method of madness ;-)
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My main computer has a few drives in it and when ever I work on my photos (example G:\Photos\.... ) ... When I'm done I have a simple batch which uses Robocopy.exe ... it's free and I run a hand made synchronize to my other drive say (E:\Backups\Photos).
This way you have two physical drives (yes they are in the same machine) that have your info and hope that two don't die at the same time.
Next
DVD-RW is a must now a day. I archive my photos every 1-2 months depends on photo activity that month(s). Name Brand DVDs are about $1.00CND so 2-3 DVD's are not that expensive.
So drives I sync everyday or so.
DVD's Backups every 1-2 months (full Backup).
I think that's pretty secure for a cheap price.
Now, external drives are a nice and easy way to do that also and are portable but I find it more expensive then getting a internal drive.
My 2 Bits.
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02/09/2005 09:30:03 AM · #3 |
Optical disks make for a pretty good backup system. once you have a good number of CDs you can consider DVDs as well.
What I do is to make 2 copys of each disk, and store one offsite. I store the disks on the orignal spindle to prevent damage while handling.
I like optical disks beter that a hard drive for a number of reasons:
1. unlimited capicity
2. easy to have 2 or more copies
3. very cheap
4. no moving parts
all that said optical disks do degrade so I remake the 2 sets of disk once a year( or maybe once each 2 years).
here is a study just released by NIST regarding the longevity of CDs and DVDs
//www.itl.nist.gov/div895/gipwg/StabilityStudy.pdf |
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02/09/2005 09:42:52 AM · #4 |
Thanks everyone for your advice. My laptop does have a 8x4x8 DVD+RW; 8x4x8 DVD-RW; 24x10x24 CD-RW. I guess I will have to go to DVD's. Does seem to be cheaper.
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02/09/2005 10:36:29 AM · #5 |
I read about a guy that uses externals. Has a few of course that he rotates (out of the safe deposit box.
He basically makes a backup to a large external and puts that into the box. Then uses the other one for a month or so or until full, then rotates out or buys a new one.
This would work well with internals also. Just get the external "shell" with wiring and you could do it cheaper than buying new externals (or three, four, etc.).
I am still thinking on using this external drive system. I have (technically) 3 drives with backup and CD's for temporary and when I have enough, I put them to DVD for offsite.
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02/09/2005 10:51:56 AM · #6 |
Until recently my only backup has been on CD´s. But few weeks ago I got an old Desktop for free and bought 2 large hard drives. 1 for backing up my images and the other one for rest of my stuff. Still I burn my images on CD´s so I think I´m now pretty well backedup.
The thing with the CD´s (as has been discused here before) is that they are not reliable for more than a few years. |
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02/09/2005 11:00:57 AM · #7 |
I'm a little paranoid about this, so what I have now is a new 64bit AMD pc with 4 SATA 120Mb hard drives configured in a RAID 1 config. RAID 1 is a where two drives mirror each other, so if one drops out then the other always has a copy of the data.
Then I copy all RAW, PSD and final jpg files off onto DVD (2 copies), usually this is about once a month or when I have 4.7Gb worth of new material.
I can't think of doing much more to safeguard my images. I'd be interested if there's anything else which could be recommended.
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02/09/2005 11:31:37 AM · #8 |
even though you may use an external hard drive also back them up on cd's or dvd's. As long as you put the cd's or dvd's in a safe place (in a case or cd book) they will be fine. You never know what may happen to you computer or external hard drive. Right now I have my phots backed up on both cd's and Dvd's also they are on my desktop computer and my laptop. I just want to make sure I dont lose them. It happen to my friend before he lost everything.
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02/09/2005 11:45:48 AM · #9 |
The ideal scenario is a near-line and archival solution. The near-line solution provides rapid restore capability and a platform for archiving less often used images. the archival solution gives you off-site protection in the event of a house fire / natural disaster scenario.
Near-line can be as simple as a fireware / USB2 external disk or as complex (though not very) as a second computer on the network with a bunch of inexpensive drives. The latter is best because if you experienced a controller failure on your primary workstation the backups would be isolated from fault propogation. With Linux and Samba, this solution can be set up very inexpensively.
As stated earlier though, any backup is better than no backup.
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02/09/2005 12:29:00 PM · #10 |
Another good backup utility is Syncback. You can find it free on www.snapfiles.com You can schedule this program to run for you. It makes a mirror image of all the drives you tell it to. I have 3 80GB hard drives in my computer, one is external. Syncback runs the process for me at the time I schedule it to do so. I am also considering a off site backup. Maybe a website that does that. I am sure there is one out there I just haven't looked yet. A website that you upload your stuff to and they keep it on their server for you as a backup. Of course there has to be a fee involved but I am sure any of us here would be willing to pay for that kind of piece of mind.
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