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Storage and Backup, a Must for Our Images...
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Sep 20, 2011 06:48:08   #
photocat Loc: Atlanta, Ga
 
Best Practice says 3-2-1
three copies, 2 media, 1 off site

That about boils it down to the simplest manner.

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Sep 20, 2011 10:55:36   #
gessman Loc: Colorado
 
georgeedwards wrote:
Sounds like you may have a solution for storage problems but I missed it. Can you state it in a few sentences? I have thousands of photos stored on my CD's and DVD's, I thought I was safer that my friend who just left them on his computer. It crashed, he lost all, gave up photography.


George, my system may be too laborious for most people so I will sum it up simply:

Use all possible methods available to you, multiple copies and have at least one copy "off-site," that is away from where your computer is, friend's house, bank deposit box, etc.

Don't keep using your hard drive until it wears out and quits on you which it eventually will.

Use, as you are, cd's/dvd's, make 3 copies 1 off-site

Use online storage, Carbonite, Smug Mug - may cost you $50 or so a year but gives you another chance to restore your images.

That's it in a nutshell. It's not nearly as complicated as what I do but the consensus in here is that those steps should be fairly adequate. If you are interested in my methodology it's up in my original post that started this thread.

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Sep 21, 2011 11:48:29   #
THEMRED7007
 
WHAT'S THE STORAGE LIFE OF MEDIA ON AN SD CARD ?
MR.ED

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Sep 21, 2011 13:39:36   #
gessman Loc: Colorado
 
THEMRED7007 wrote:
WHAT'S THE STORAGE LIFE OF MEDIA ON AN SD CARD ?
MR.ED


I didn't mention flash memory because, although getting better, the cost has been fairly prohibitive to use as a backup/storage medium from my perspective. I haven't heard just yet what the manufacturers are claiming probably due to the fact that I've not been paying attention, but it would probably be real good as long as it is totally safe from natural disasters, fires, floods, etc. I do know that it has to be superior to hard drives that are kept in service over a long haul because there are no moving parts which is often what affects hard drives, bearings, etc. It's much more fool and fail proof than anything up to now but, as I said, I haven't noticed how far we can expect it to take us into the future. My guess that it would be a long time, if not permanent. Good thinking if you've got the bucks.

I did have a mishap recently with a 16 gig card. I pushed it into my reader and didn't think it had seated so I gave it another push and it snapped right in the middle, not into two, but bent and broken. Now, it shows me that it's a 6.5 gig card but won't format. So, like anything in life, if you tend to be a little stout, be extra gentle and don't push too hard. If it doesn't seem like it went in right, pull it back out and do it again - as many times as necessary to ensure you're not breaking anything. I can't give you an estimate how many time you may have to do that, but you'll figure it out without my help, I'm sure.

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Sep 21, 2011 14:19:30   #
PhotoArtsLA Loc: Boynton Beach
 
The issue of backups can be somewhat vexing. First, you cannot burn archival CD's on a PC due to the PC burning software's inability to burn at 1X or 2X speed.

Pit depth is the Holy Grail of CD backups. I have hundreds of 20+ year old CD-Rs which are completely fine and readable right now. This is because 1) the quality of the CD-R is not of "discount store" but archival quality (over $1 each when I bought them so long ago) and 2) I never burned faster than 2X and at 1X as much as possible. Glacier slow, that is, but those discs LAST.

Due to the idiotic "need for speed" in CD burning, the PC industry put out an official edict YEARS ago saying users SHOULD NOT ARCHIVE TO CDs due to near term loss of data issues. Burning fast = shallow pits = near term data loss.

Now, with modern cameras spitting out 20-75MB files PER FRAME, CDs are no longer valid. Neither are DVDs.

The good news is Blu-Ray, by its very chemistry, is relatively archival from the get-go. Only time will tell, though, as it is a new medium.

Hard Drives are quite cheap, but take caution: certain hard drives are designed for 50% on, 50% off (as in shut down,) daily. These drives also fail quickly overall.

Better quality hard drives are designed for mission critical applications and 24/7 operation. This is the way they should be handled. You turn them on. You do not shut them off. Why? Because THE WORST thing you can do to a computer, and especially a hard drive (the heart of the modern computer) is to turn it on. This is the wear and tear. You can expect a good hard drive to last at LEAST a decade of 24/7 use. Now, make sure you feed it good, protected (online UPS best, regular UPS okay) power.

Better still is to use a RAID (R_edundant A_rray of I_ndependent D_isks) but this often involves an IT department, especially on a PC. The answer: Drobo.

http://drobo.com/

These smart RAID systems (choose RAID Level 6 which allows TWO drives to fail simultaneously with no loss of data) and just go big with 3TB drives. The RAID implementation and maintenance are hard-wired into the box. You need do nothing.

The good thing about Drobo is that you CAN have RAID "sets" which can be shuffled in and out of, and between Drobo boxes, if you keep the order of the drives correct (by numbering them.) Keep in mind you can lose TWO DISKS under RAID 6 with no loss of data. Still be careful when shuffling disks.

The online services are great if you do not shoot much, or just save your final edits. These services would not allow general backup if you produced monstrous amounts of data all the time. Unless you are Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, or Bill Gates (who uses Iron Mountain for archival storage.)

http://www.ironmountain.com/

All of this, including this thread, will be moot in a few years when carbon storage makes it to the street. Petabytes of archival storage is the smallest size predicted. And it is archival as the inert carbon containing the data. No chemistry to fail, no magnetism to weaken, no metallic disks to corrode. I can't wait.

Drobo
Drobo...

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Nov 28, 2011 11:47:47   #
hipfarmchick
 
Wow..Glad I came across this!! Thank-you to my Gessman for all his knowledge..He has so so much to give..It is much appreciated.
And Thank-you to the rest of you!

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Nov 28, 2011 12:04:15   #
Carl Loc: Summer: VA Winter: FL
 
This thread is alone worth the price of admission.

I too am a new enthusiast and have no system in place for editing, storing and backing up what images I take (not many yet). I have concentrated on learning how to use my new Nikon 300s but once I have an image on a card I am lost with respect to what to do next except transfer it to iPhoto. The 300s has two card slots so I take both RAW/NEF and JPEG simultaneously. Any suggestions for a book or a video on the subject of how to go from the memory card to editing/cataloging/storing and backing up would be greatly appreciated. I have an elderly MacBook Pro with a broken internal disk drive and have purchased Aperture and Capture NX2 simply because I was told that is the thing to do, but I can't understand how to use either.

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Nov 28, 2011 12:09:28   #
photocat Loc: Atlanta, Ga
 
Check this out

http://www.thedambook.com/

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Nov 28, 2011 12:24:07   #
Carl Loc: Summer: VA Winter: FL
 
photocat wrote:


Thank you Photocat. I looked at the Table of Contents and it looks pretty advanced for the likes of me, but the subject is right on my point.

Thanks again.

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Nov 28, 2011 13:35:13   #
photocat Loc: Atlanta, Ga
 
Check here , they should have some good info.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials

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