Rickhstudio Loc: San Antonio, TX

I back up about 500,000 files a year to DVD. Been using optical storage since 1998 and only had one problem. I make at least 2 DVD backups for every set of files, I keep one with my work computer and one at my studio. As I work I use 2 TB enterprise drives. One as work drive and 2 more for backup. I work with .tif files and when I'm through for the semester, I change to low compression .jpg for archive. I tried saving to external hardrives but when I went back after several years, I was unable to recover data easily from 2 drives. Thank goodness I had also backed up most to DVD. I only lost a small part of work that couldn't be recovered with tedious Byte by Byte examination.

mbs1925 Loc: Tampa

I use Flash drives, I always worry that the disc might break, or use both.

Rickhstudio Loc: San Antonio, TX

Flash Drives are probably a good idea. They are certainly getting cheaper. My only problem would be how to list what's on the drive in a form that's easy to see. To find a file on the drive would be tedious when you are looking through hundreds of drives for a file. I'm sure there are ways. Maybe a notebook to hold the drives with a place for a list of files.

mbs1925 Loc: Tampa

I put in a sandwich bag with what's on file on paper in bag, I'm looking for some type of storage as they grow

Old Sarge Loc: Moore, OK

My two cents: a little over a year ago I bought a 1TB ext HD for $90.00. Later a 2TB Seagate for $110.00. A few months ago a 3TB Western Digital for $130. The 1TB is for working files, the 2TB is for finished work, the 3TB is for back up of 2TB.

I live in tornado ally, I keep all 3 in a plastic tote box to take to the "fraidy hole" with me. Thus if computers get blown away I have all my programs, files, and pictures to restore to new computers.

rrforster12 Loc: Leesburg Florida

I travel quite a bit and favor using a solid state Hard Drive and a tablet to store my pix while on tour. The SSD is light, compact, reliable, rugged and very fast. Having this system along with me allows sorting into categories, editing etc after a days shooting.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

I've been using Memorex -R for some years without problems. I guess I got in the habit of buying -R because a few years ago drives were either - or + R and mine happened to be -.

I do leave my photo files on both of my externals just for convenience but when a folder reaches the proper size, then I'll burn.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Then you should go back to school so that you become new schooled. Using CD/DVD is the worse thing to store images on. First of all, they don't hold enough. Secondly, they deteriorate over time. Third, they can become easily scratched, warped, broken and melted.

If you worry about external hard drives crashing, then do like most everyone here does and buy two external hard drives that are the same and backup all your images on one the make a duplicate with the other. Save the duplicate in a fire proof vault, safe, safe deposit box or at another location other that where the first one is kept. External drives are very inexpensive and small these days. I paid less than $69 for each of my 1TB drives and and I think I've had them for several years now. I just bought a 4TB Seagate drive and only paid $119. I had to wait for a sale at Fry's because they are normally $189.

rupadhya Loc: Illinois

I had quite a few failures with CDs. I backup my images to three places. I scan all my files for defects every month. I backup to external 2T drive.

- Raj

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

There are two issues here - the longevity of optical media as well as their readability.

As @Photoman and @Brucewills have already mentioned, optical discs are not really permanent - micro cracks in the lamination point (where the protective clear surface is mated to the pitted section below) allow for air to enter causing oxidation. This is why those of us who have discovered 5 year old CDs or DVDs to have become "coasters" have had that particular pleasure. There are some companies who claim their gold-plated discs, which are of course more costly, will not suffer such effects, but that doesn't answer the second issue - readability.

For any of you with 8", 5-14" or even 3" floppy disks, or old Bernoulli cartridges (and any of a myriad of technologies that have come and gone) I imagine you no longer have the drives to actually read those media. At some point, the same will be true of the optical discs we are all familiar with today. It is for that reason that hard drives are a better alternative - there won't be a time where you will not be able to plug an external drive into SOMETHING. And even if the time comes when Thunderbolt, for instance, completely replaces USB and Firewire and SATA connections in computers, it will still be possible to transfer the files from your 1 PB (petabyte) external USB7 drive to the Thunderbolt drive without much hassle. Compare this to the need to go through umpteen optical discs (and praying each time it still works) to move those files over to the the new drive, a procedure that could take quite some time depending on how many DVDs you have to push over (partly because the speed at which optical disks can send data is slower than hard drives so that becomes the limiting factor).

Of course, as has been mentioned, hard drives are susceptible to failure as is any mechanical system (as are SSDs, but that's another story). Therefore it's important to have at least one backup of the contents and preferably a rotating set of 2 or 3 disks. In other words, if you have a 1TB drive attached to your work computer, back that up to an external 1TB drive - say, weekly. If you make that backup on Monday, then the following Monday use a second external drive to do the backup - in case the entire system fries for some reason you at last have the backup from the prior week. And keeping one of the backup drives off site altogether ensures that in the event of catastrophe - house fire, tsunami, earthquake, mudslide, what have you - the drive you've kept in the back vault or Aunt Martha's house 25 miles away or wherever will hopefully be safe - again, keeping you files up to last week or whatever.

mikedidi46 Loc: WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA

Not to upset the cart, but I was using disks for a while, but now I purchased a 500GB external HD. It allows me to backup my photo's and also keep them off the computer.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

:thumbup:

All my work is done on a 2TB internal drive. I have a 2TB external drive that sits on my desk. When I finish some work, I backup to that external desktop backup. I have another 2TB external drive that stays in my desk drawer. Every weekend, I back up the desktop backup drive to it. On Wednesdays, I take another 2TB drive home from work and backup the desktop backup, then take it back to the office with me on Thursday morning.

The key to ensuring you never lose images is redundancy. And, having backups in two different locations.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I am the same way. I back raw unedited to one external, back edited to a second. then back the raw again and put that drive in a safe deposit. I do it once a month the others are daily.

PhotosBySteve

I make two sets of backup copies to two external hard drives. The fastest, easiest and safest way I have found. Also the least expensive and most reliable in the long run.

johnsnap1947 Loc: New Fairfield, CT

Another suggestion is to do a one-time print out from a reliable source of your pics. Depending on how many you have this can cost you quite a bit. But if the ink and paper is top quality the prints can last a lifetime. You can do an incremental print out of the latest pics on a regular basis. Then store them off-site in a safe deposit box. Remember the pics of old from WW1 and WW2 and prior? Depending on the size you choose to save them you can always enlarge them when the time comes and with next generation technology might be your best choice..ALL mechanical devices will fail eventually. Just a suggestion.