Brave enough to go offline storage?

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

11/19/2005 10:51:45 AM · #1

I am nervous!

I never have time to go through all the shots I make and process them. But they are piling up and no disc upgrade in the world is going to help me long term.

So I am really really SERIOUSLY (like right now) thinking of starting to keep my photos offline on DVDs/CDs. Note that I do backup after I shoot, but I always ALSO keep the photos on the hard drive. I even do a periodic backup of those (though not to often because it involves about 50 DVDs).

This is one reason I have been re-looking at Catalog software. I wasn't sure I was 100% happy with Thumbsplus for the offline aspect of cataloging. It's particularly good for online management, but I haven't really mastered the offline workflow anyway, so I haven't really made good use of that. But that's another thread, and we'll see.

I have two trees I maintain on my hard drives: Captures and Masters.
When I publish a pic online, prepare it for DPCPrints, or print it for display I consider it a master. All others are "captures". At this point, I've already delete ones I know I'll never use.

My offline strategy would be this: two copies of DVD+Rs for each directory taken offline, stored in two different cases. With DVDs, there shouldn't be such an unmanagement number of these that I can't just go and get the file(s) I want, should I find the time to go back and do some processing.

In short, what I am asking here: Is there anyone that keeps ALL their photos OFFLINE except for the ones you consider your "masters" (or another way to look at it, the primary portfolio entries")?

Does anyone else do this?

Message edited by author 2005-11-19 10:52:58.

e301

11/19/2005 11:33:32 AM · #2

Almost all my stuff is archived off-line. I keep on the harddrive only the shots I consider absolutely the best from each year: that's around 20/30 shots each year. No problems so far - but I don't keep anywhere near as much as you - it's about 12 DVD's total.

Ed

e301

11/19/2005 11:34:14 AM · #3

Oh, and like you, I need to find some kind of cataloguing system for it all. I have time in December/January for that, I hope.

e

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

11/19/2005 11:39:51 AM · #4

None of mine are offline, although I certainly do not have the volume that you seem to; currently I'm sitting at about 30GB. With hard drive space as cheap as it is, I see only one reason to archive offline, and that's to go off-site. I would still do that using a portable hard drive as opposed to DVDs. The time aspect alone is the killer for me with DVDs.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

11/19/2005 03:14:24 PM · #5

Originally posted by kirbic:

My first problem is that I take too many shots. I find something I like and take 10 pics of it, only slightly different, bracketing exposure, focus, even composition. I come home from shooting with a 1-1.5 GB of files. My second is, faced with the shots, and only slight differences, which do I like better? It's a tough choice, so I don't make it! Then, if I start to do some editing, the MBs really add up in PS!

And I do keep a backup set offsite already (its just hard to keep it up to date). I use an automatic online service to archive work data, but not my photos--I only get 4GB storage with the service (about $17 per month).

A DVD only takes 6.5 minutes with 16x (22,160KB/s) media to burn on my latest burner (and it could be faster if I bought the faster 24x media). Probably faster than copying to an external hard drive from what I've seen! (I have a Maxtor 300GB drive which is running USB2 since firewire was too unreliable per some posts I made here last March). But you do have to stop and insert the next disc after every 4.7 GB!

wavelength

Nikon D300

11/19/2005 03:31:31 PM · #6

For me, it's the convenience. If I had my druthers, I'd install a SCSI RAID array with 5 25gb drives on Raid5. That's just me. I just hate backing things up to disk all the time. I'd rather keep them on a stable drive storage system, and then compress and back them up to DVD only for safe deposit box storage. (which reminds me....)

I have about 60GB of photos, mostly taken after I got my new camera, so about, 45-50GB in 7 months. I have a new mobo with SATA raid available now, so I'll be getting two large drives hopefully next year before I use up my current space.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

11/19/2005 03:31:52 PM · #7

Yeh, I have a hard time culling out the deadwood too! I've had the opposite experience with Firewire hdd's though, I'm currently using an external LaCie FireWire drive for my on-site backup and it does a great job. I have "zero" time investment, since my backup occurs automatically when I'm asleep. For me, backup MUST be completely automatic, or it will not get done regularly enough. That rules out DVDs, since I'd have to sit through the whole process, exchanging discs.

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED VR

11/19/2005 03:40:44 PM · #8

My whole system became unstable with the firewire hard drive--even after applying the secret Microsoft patch.

But of course a daily backup isn't the same as an archival copy unless you write it to write once media or at least never delete previous incremental backups.

And therein lies another one of my problems. Even today, as I produce my archival set, I know that I've already been culling photos from those directories to make space, so they are not complete. Should I need something that's only there in reduced form (I was using thumbsplus to make a folder with smaller 1024x768 index copies of the files, then getting rid of the RAWs (because they were already on backup), I'll have to go find it on one of my many backup discs. (Which are catalogued, but it's not always easy to locate the physical disc.) I guess that's were archiving on 300GB hard drive media makes more sense! Sigh.

jadin

Nikon D800

11/19/2005 04:06:43 PM · #9

My domain host only charges $9.95 for the hosting which includes 10GB of space. For $19.95 it would be 20GB. So there are cheaper options for online hosting. A quick google found some sites offering 10GB for $5. And I'm sure it will only get cheaper per GB as time goes by.

You might also want to try winzip or something else and compress them to the fullest extent possible. Even shaving 10% off each picutre would add up. (especially if you don't use in camera compression)

Message edited by author 2005-11-19 16:10:31.

benhur

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

11/19/2005 04:08:21 PM · #10

I do not back upto CD as they can sometimes only have approx 8-10 years shelf life before they start to deteriorate.
I use ad 80G external hardrive, I have about 17,000 images on it plus various photo club projects and info.
I have used about 29G of memory so far, but this unit enables me to take all my pictures to work so that I can work on them there when I have time.
I do need to spend some time to delete unwanted pictures bu to go though all these will take me some time, My filing system is easy, I have various areas that I visit so have a file called be this place, then inside this file have the date that the pictures have been taken.
If I can remeber approximatly when the picture was taken I can usually find it.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

11/19/2005 04:24:23 PM · #11

I've know there's mixed research on the life of CDs/DVDs, but when properly cared for, DVD+R, DVD-R, and CD-Rs must have a better lifespan than an IDE hard drive. (Note I said IDE because such drives are **typically** made to lower MTBF specs than the higher end SCSI drives).

Not to mention the risks of physical damage to the drive.

I guess humidity isn't as important there though since they are sealed as it is with CDs/DVDs.

I've been using CD-Rs since the days when recorders cost $40,000. I had my very own $2000 external CD-R 1x drive (what a bargain!). All of those discs are still readable. I know that doesn't mean anything, but I still feel safer with unpowered, non-magnetic media!

Jason

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

11/19/2005 05:15:26 PM · #12

If you are looking for Internet online storage : PhotoShelter

For Online storage at home, I use a NAS setup as a RAID5 : Buffalo TeraStation

I used to store to DVD/CD but it was taking too much of my time and I hated loading up disks again to retrieve a picture. I wanted something that was always available to me.

Message edited by author 2005-11-19 17:17:36.

CEJ

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

11/19/2005 06:28:36 PM · #13

I have a dedicated hard drive with all photos from all digital cams on it - even the bad ones. I have two copies of all on CD's. When I upload pics I do it to a directory called UNSORTED. I copy this directory to CD before I do any sorting into any other categories or sub directories or folders. So I have two copies of every shot on CD's and one original on HD. Then there are copies of originals in various directories based on where/how used.