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08/20/2022 11:30:21 AM · #1 |
I'll share my experience and then hopefully others can chime in with what works well for them.
I pretty much always shoot in JPG + RAW mode ...
DPChallenge requirement of having an original for proof steered me in a direction of making two copies of files (all JPG + RAW on one drive, and then JPG's on another). Only the JPG drive would get used for editing. I would pull a copy of a RAW file and bring it over if I wanted to edit from that. Obviously, one drive filled up faster than the other, which created some issues keeping track of duplicates.
I have two projects in work that involve photo storage and external drives.
First project was to get all JPG's on one external drive going back as far as I have available.
End goal is to catalog/keyword everything and then start working on prints for family albums (the old school, physical, hands-on type). Once we went digital our family albums pretty much stopped.
Step 1 was to copy over everything I could get my hands on (6 or 7 external drives, boxes of DVD's from the early days, old thumb drives, old SD cards laying around that I salvaged from kids old cameras, etc.)
LOTS of de-duping had to be done!
Finally, I've gotten a copy of all JPG's on one 8TB external drive and have started to catalog/keyword the files. Only using about 3.5TB of the drive at this point.
Now - I went and bought another 8TB drive and made a copy of what lives on the master family photo drive. It's disconnected from anything and will stay that way until I need to add a year or two of new family photos to it.
Second project was initiated by a recent external drive failure! Gah. Fortunately I have notes on what files are on what drives (generally speaking ... years/month, etc.).
Adding a twist to this is that I've also used some space on these externals, as needed, to backup a laptop or PC documents once in a while. I'm kind of the king of duplicates. LOL
Anyway. I am now in the process of making a master copy of all of the externals (photos, documents, misc, etc.) to a 12TB drive. When I'm done I'll detach this drive also and update it on some schedule yet TBD.
Additional comments.
Photos on my/our phones are not consistently backed up or put to a drive like files from a camera. This is a pain when trying to make a master family collection.
DPChallenge photo shoots! Currently, they are mixed in with the family photo drive. Too much inter-mingling. Some days I might setup a challenge entry photo with numerous images captured, then on the same card grab a handful of other photos totally non-related.
Need to do a better job of keeping records of what is on each external drive.
Except for the currently active external drives, I'm going to keep the other ones disconnected moving forward.
This will make pulling photos for an Archival challenge a bit more challenging, but once I have the "family" photo drive (which has challenge entries too) fully cataloged/keyworded, it won't be too bad to find what I need.
Need to plan for backing up the library database too!!! Gah.
That was more than I thought I was going to type up.
Thoughts? Advice to others based on your experience? Feel free to add please. Thanks!
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08/20/2022 11:43:57 AM · #2 |
I have 5 external hard drives, each for different photo categories (i.e. travel, stock, backup, etc.).
I also have cloud backup, which I resisted for a really long time but came around to embracing.
Cloud storage has come a very long way, both in terms of security, and pricing. I use Backblaze, which works in the background, constantly updates as I add/delete content, and is designed to filter out spam/malware, etc., thus eliminating ransomware threats from my worry list. There is nothing on my internal hard drive that I would freak out if I were to be ransomwared. I'd just wipe the drive and start the arduous process of reinstalling my software.
Cloud backup also eliminates any worries of external hard drive mechanical, or fatal software, failure. |
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08/20/2022 11:55:13 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by tanguera:
... Cloud backup also eliminates any worries of external hard drive mechanical, or fatal software, failure. |
Cool. Thanks! Curious - what does cloud backup cost nowadays?
I've steered away from cloud storage for a few reasons:
1) Terrible internet access - can't imagine how long it would take to upload/download files!
2) Cost
3) Trust, security, and longevity of the company doing the storage. |
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08/20/2022 01:01:05 PM · #4 |
After losing a year̢۪s worth of images due to unexpected disk crash in 2007, I initiated a processing and backup strategy that maintains at least 3 copies of each image:
1. Images from camera cards or iPhone exports go to internal large SSD drive in folder structure year\yearmonth\yearmonthdayshoot. RAW and JPG live together. Edited versions stay in same folder but have filename modified to show version number. The shoot folder may have a sub-folder to hold final versions (optimized for print, email, or contest) as needed.
2. Daily backup to external drive, automated with backup software. The external drive also receives daily backups of documents, data files (financial etc.), other creative work, and LR catalog. If the computer SSD drive fails, I can get a new drive and copy from the external drive. Professional photographers might need continuous backup, likely with RAID configuration.
3. Regularly swap external drive with identical one kept in bank safe deposit box. Offsite copies are important protection against physical disasters (fire, theft). Disadvantage is number of days between trips to the bank (usually between weekly and monthly depending on amount of computer work done). If that were super important to me, I would look harder at cloud storage options.
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08/20/2022 04:20:24 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by glad2badad:
Originally posted by tanguera:
... Cloud backup also eliminates any worries of external hard drive mechanical, or fatal software, failure. |
Cool. Thanks! Curious - what does cloud backup cost nowadays?
I've steered away from cloud storage for a few reasons:
1) Terrible internet access - can't imagine how long it would take to upload/download files! Initially it takes a few days to upload everything. Then it's transparent and uploads as you add to your native/local storage.
2) Cost https://www.backblaze.com/backup-pricing.html
3) Trust, security, and longevity of the company doing the storage. https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html#af3249 |
Disclaimer: nothing is absolute, of course. And Backblaze is but one of a bunch of cloud storage options. But in terms of peace of mind, they have redundancies, encryption, two-factor authentication, etc. It's accessible globally from anywhere there's internet access. You can retrieve individual files, or folders. If you have a computer catastrophe and lose everything, and need to download your entire collection, there's a fee, the option of getting a thumb drive or hard disk (which you can return and get reimbursed for), but it can take several days to be delivered.
I considered an 3rd, off-site physical storage like Bob, but really? That means I still have to constantly transfer all my files and hope I didn't miss anything between my last upload and next drive failure, keep track of when the drive is full, copy it, physically take it to a safe box/similar, physically go to retrieve it, etc. And as we all know, disasters only happen on weekends, when banks are closed.
I'm not trying to convince anyone. I was VERY resistant to cloud storage when it was first introduced. It's come light years since. |
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08/20/2022 04:21:28 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by bob350:
After losing a year̢۪s worth of images due to unexpected disk crash in 2007, I initiated a processing and backup strategy that maintains at least 3 copies of each image: |
News flash: there is no other kind of disk crash. |
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08/20/2022 06:12:21 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by tanguera:
Originally posted by bob350:
After losing a year̢۪s worth of images due to unexpected disk crash in 2007, I initiated a processing and backup strategy that maintains at least 3 copies of each image: |
News flash: there is no other kind of disk crash. |
Or perhaps the opposite, depending on ability to learn. After that first experience, I expect every hard drive to crash - just a question of when.
Big businesses just set the calendar (and budget) to do drive replacement on a fixed schedule which is earlier than most crashes. IT departments supplement that approach with diagnostics to detect if any are likely to die sooner than average. Based on such examples, I've been using Hard Disk Sentinel to run monthly reports on my drives (there are other similar programs). It provides a rough estimate of number of days of predicted life remaining along with many other indicators. And yes, I just recently replaced a drive predicted to have less than 100 days of life remaining (instead of waiting for the crash). Have heard good things about Backblaze. Maybe time for me to look closer. |
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08/20/2022 06:42:55 PM · #8 |
I try to have at least 2 copies of everything all the time.
I have the originals on my memory card, transfer them to the computer into a temporary folder.
Review the keepers and copy those to another SSD for easy access.
The temp drive gets folders erased when it gets full. Memory cards get kept until I need to wipe some for reuse
When I need to reformat some memory cards, I first do a backup to an external HDD.
If I were someone who relied on my images for a living, I would implement a more automated system with greater redundancy. |
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08/21/2022 12:50:13 AM · #9 |
Just for those who have had photos in Top 5 of DPC challenges - you can get a copy of your original from DPC archives. I lost one original that I wanted to recover and could not find it on my two backups. I don't know why as other files from the same date were there so as last resort I asked SC Admin if they keep originals of past challenges and there it was, I got it! This way for some photos I have 3 backups with one off-site :)
I haven't used the cloud mainly because of the Internet connection speed, much too slow to upload terabytes of originals.
I never delete anything, at least on purpose, even if the photos will never be used. Storage is these days very cheap so why waste time.
I use Lightroom for everything to do with originals and occasionally add keywords and create catalogs dedicated to a theme. For example, I created a catalog for our walks on St James' Way through Switzerland. My main catalogs are sorted by date, each year I start a new catalog. I move everything to the hard disk using Lightroom as soon as I am back from shooting and reformat SD cards in the cameras for the next time.
These days I don't take many photos so my current 3 internal hard disks for the first backup, and 2 external for the second are enough. If I want to find any specific photos I use my photos entered in DP challenges as a time based "index" :)
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08/21/2022 11:49:07 AM · #10 |
Originally posted by MargaretNet:
I haven't used the cloud mainly because of the Internet connection speed, much too slow to upload terabytes of originals. |
Only the initial upload take time. Once your collection is uploaded, the transfer of data is transparent, immediate, and automatic. The 9nly thing that would prevent images from transferring as you load them onto your computer would be a power outage, or if you turned your computer off. |
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08/21/2022 06:46:45 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by bob350:
Originally posted by tanguera:
Originally posted by bob350:
After losing a year̢۪s worth of images due to unexpected disk crash in 2007, I initiated a processing and backup strategy that maintains at least 3 copies of each image: |
News flash: there is no other kind of disk crash. |
Or perhaps the opposite, depending on ability to learn. After that first experience, I expect every hard drive to crash - just a question of when. |
Disk drives used to come with a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) rating for each model. |
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08/23/2022 03:55:35 AM · #12 |
I have one of these. It's sold as a RAID solution but I just have (so far) three drives in it.
It has ALL my digital images in it from years of shooting for a living on giant bare TB drives.
I also back them up with a second bare drive writer so I have a duplicate set. (currently not connected as I am in the process of upgrading to a new CPU.)
I have instant access to everything. I partitioned some drives for other storage to use between back-ups as well.
The link:
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-mercury-elite-pro-quad/raid-5 |
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08/23/2022 04:03:18 AM · #13 |
Originally posted by tanguera:
News flash: there is no other kind of disk crash. |
I have had two macs now give me a warning. One started making a "clanky" noise so I backed up everything.
The other had a screen that would randomly go black. While most was already backed up, I did get a fresh back-up between restarts. (I guess not exactly a disk crash. but the first one was.) |
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09/06/2022 07:46:02 PM · #14 |
If this was mentioned earlier, forgive me.
It is CRITICAL to a successful backup strategy (photo or otherwise) that at least one copy be stored in a physically separate location - having your originals and backups in your house is almost as bad as not having a backup. Cloud backup is one way to meet this need. Keeping a copy in a bank safety deposit box, or with a relative that lives a significant distance away are other options.
Second, it is also important to attempt to use the backup copy from time to time to assure it is usable. Select a few images at random, and retrieve them from your backup. Then, check to see if the retrieval from backup was successful. If you can't retrieve the backup copy, you don't really have it.
My cousin lived in Paradise, CA during the Camp Fire in 2018, and lost his house in the fire. The only thing left of his house was stone, ceramic, or larger metal pieces. Even his wife's flute was melted into a lump. My aunt, who lived in an apartment in a nearby town also lost it and all contents to the fire also, so keeping a copy at her place wouldn't have helped.
Message edited by author 2022-09-06 19:47:51. |
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