ShakyShutter Loc: Arizona

You should always have three copies of every image. #1 is original stored immediately and safely off line if possible. #2 is a working copy on a drive accessible on-line and the actual copy you're working on or in a library where your software expects to find it/them.

Since you are shooting and filing RAW images just buy a 1 or 2 TB USB drive for the main storage place off the PC.

But do find a method to off-site storage either upload to Smugmug,Carbonite or something like that. Most of these places now offer automatic backup overnight in case you have limited internet access. You could buy two drives, copy your files to #1 and take it to the office or a friends house. A short time later copy files to #2 and swap them for off-site storage and repeat on a regular basis.

The bigger issue we all struggle with is the actual filing/categorizing problem. Some use topics, some use locations, and some use dates. Personally I prefer to keep the image files together like rolls of film but that's not working so well as my memory starts to fade. In fact I'm delaying full implementation of LightRoom3 while trying to decide on the system wide library set up.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Since starting to use Adobe Bridge (it works with all Adobe editing software apparently) which somehow lets me see what's on my hard drive better (and I'm not sure why it does because Windows Explorer gives pretty much the same info) I've clarified my organizational categories quite a bit. I may need to change it some later but what I'm doing now is quite easy to navigate. I now have:

1. The year shots were taken as an overall category folder.
2. Dates and locations when taken as the labels on a set of subfolders (i.e., 8-24-11 Secor Park, 6-2-11 Crosby Gardens, etc.). There are a lot of them inside the year folder but they automatically put themselves in chronological order if you put the date first.
3. If there are various subjects on that same date, I create another set of subfolders inside each date/location folder (i.e., Travis, Jim-Karen, Joan).

In all of those folders I keep the unaltered original files from the camera.

Then I step back up to the top level year folder and add 4 folders named 2011-8X10, 2011-5X7, 2011-4X6, and 2011-72dpi. Whenever I edit my original files and change their size, I put the edited versions in the correct size folders. I suppose you could create a "2011-original size" folder too.

If I was a business and had hundreds and thousands of edited 8X10s, for example, I'd have to have yet another set of subfolders labeled with subject names inside those 4 but I don't at this point - except 4X6 because that's what I print the most of.

So, let's say I want to put a 72dpi edited photo on this forum. I go to 2011, 72dpi folder, scroll until I find the one I want, and click open. Done. That could also be 2011, 72dpi folder, subject name, find the one I want, then click open. It's working quite well right now.

Same if I'm in the mood to print a 300dpi 8X10. I go to 2011, 2011-8X10 folder, (optionally open subject name folder), scroll to find the one I want, click open. Done.

The another thing about Adobe Bridge is that it lets you type in keywords for every shot you have on your storage device and save them along with the file (obviously you can't add keywords to a CD or DVD after it's burned but you can before you burn it). Then when you want shots of "tulips" you tell Bridge you want "tulips" and it will search all folders of all years, locations, and subjects for shots you put the keyword "tulips" on. A tulips photo file can also have "flowers" and "yellow flowers" and "flowers at Mom's house" and other keywords to make the same tulips available to a bunch of different searches.

I think that's pretty nifty myself.

user2071 Loc: New England

Oooh. You just hit on a painful subject.

I have an external drive, but it's really for back up.

I delete stuff I'm sure I'm never going to do anything with ... but it's hard. I always wonder if there was a diamond in there somewhere I didn't notice.

I've been going through my files and trying to dump duplicates ... all those bracketed shots I'll never use? I'm not sure there's an easy answer to this.

billybob40

External drive, you know with your laptop is fu;; it will slow it down. You need to get a 500GB external drive, I have one that is no bigger then a billfold, cost $60. I do a lot of remote shooting with a laptop and camera.

user2071 Loc: New England

That does seem to be the answer. Thank goodness that the prices have come way down on storage items!

joe west Loc: Taylor, Michigan

i burn my pic's to dvd, shelf life is 10 years.....i print out the files and number the dvd's put print out in a 3 ring binder, i know what i got on the dvd's total cost 13 cents each dvd....

user2071 Loc: New England

But the amount of work involved, priceless. I am impressed by the care and effort involved.

helmigr

I use everything I can get my hands on since I lost about 15,000 images once upon a time.

Today I'm using a Fantom Drives DataDock II, Raid 1, 1tb external drive; Carbonite, DVDs just in case, and an HP Simple Save 500gb external drive for field work.

user2071 Loc: New England

I definitely need another external drive. There's no other way. I have one. I need another.

user2071 Loc: New England

I am going to make the effort to implement a similar system. I have not had good experiences with off site storage, but i have to deal with this issue. I did once lose all my pictures to a virus that ate all the jpgs on my system and I hadn't backed up in a while. It was catastrophic and I can't go through that again.

I do back up but I am insufficiently religious about it. Being erratic is going to be my downfall.

My memory is not as good as it used to be, and that's why i'm looking for answers that are simple and will trigger memory. The simple naming systems are getting harder to manage because there are so MANY files, so many pictures.

As the years march on, the number of pictures just gets bigger and bigger and I always have files full of pictures that i was going to do something with, but never got around to it ... and a lot of them, I really could just delete. I have to take courage in hand and just dump a lot of pictures that aren't all the great anyhow.

Anyway, a couple of big external hard drives would be a very good start ... and a schedule of backing up would be even better.