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External Storage / Backup
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Hi,
Just wondering what people use for backing up photos. Had intended to backup to CD every now and
again. Didn’t, and now I’ve a few GBs of stuff that’s either stranded on the desktop or laptop. Would anyone
recommend LaCie or Western Digital drives?
Cheers :)Two external harddrives. See link below. Stick to the main drive manufacturers, LaCie and Western Digital drives are as good as each other
https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?p=74644&highlight=backup+devices#74644
M
I have both LaCie and WD as external backups for a network data server. I have never had any difficulties with either. With LaCie you pay a bit for the design of the casing – which is a shame because in my case they are hidden behind the plates of spaghetti.
I use SyncBack software for my backups. You can get a trial version (no time limit, I think) at http://www.2brightsparks.com/
It is full of useful features that can automate backups, send you an e-mail if the backup fails, use wildcards for naming target drives, etc. (at least the “full”/paid for version does). I use it on the data server, game server, 3 desktop PCs and 3 laptops that make up my home network.
Don’t forget that your backup drives can also fail, so make sure to run provided diagnostics now and then. You could also do what I do – which is to take multiple backups (i.e. a different one each day and week) of the same data to three different external drives – “to be sure, to be sure”!! And copy your best photos to DVD.
You could also try an on-line backup service. I don’t know how useful/helpful/expensive they are, but given the size of photos, you would probably need good upload bandwidth (remembering that ADSL privides lower upload than download bandwidth – sorry of this is “teaching my granny to suck eggs”).
Hope this helps …
You have hit on one of those gripes I have with digital photography. I have a trunk that houses all my negatives since I was 18 and they are all the same as the day I first processed them.
As for my digital images, I have lost so many over the past two years due to the lack of reliable external disks on the market. In the past year I have had 2 Lecie drives fail on me, for no apparent reason.I’m told that the nemesis of all drives is the dreaded heat. So if you are to trust your precious images to any external drive make sure it has a good, silent fan.
Another thing to consider is speed, if you are looking to store your images on an external and potentially work on them remotely, I’d make sure you have a FIREWIRE 800 connection to a drive that spin at a preferred 7200 RPM (SATA ll).
With this in mind I have invested my money in 2 G-RAID2 drives (http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-RAID2.cfm). These are the best I could find at the time of purchase and have not let me down – yet!
I’m using Apples new OSX Leopard for its automatic back-up feature and I do some occasional manual back ups of large jobs.
There is a theory that the physical drives last between 2-3 years, so I’d suggest looking at a raid/DVD/tape back up if you really want to add braces to your belt solution. Have a look at this for a monster: http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-SAFE.cfm
Well that’s all for me, I’m off to back-up some of my back-ups!
P&S.
Ah yes, the old film -v- digital discussion again. Negatives and transparencies that have been archivally processed and are archivally stored certainly do have a very long life span. But how many film users can truthfully say that they have taken these measures.
Digital images are either there or they are not! If they are there, then the quality of a digital image made 10 years from now will be the same (or perhaps better) than one made from the same file today – you can’t really say the same thing about film based images because of film’s unstable organic nature. But there is much bigger risk of losing a digital image than there is of a losing a film image particularly in the short term, if one doesn’t take the necessary precautions.
So, once again, one isn’t better than the other, just different, with each requiring a different approach.
My own regime involves backing up to an external HDD and to DVD. Error checking ensures that the data I save is the same as the source data and while DVD’s have a finite lifespan this is easily addressed simply by copying onto a newer DVD before the old one starts to degrade. A checksum is kept on each DVD to help me keep an eye on file integrity.
Thorsten,
I agree with all the points you make especially your back-up regime, however the DVD is time consuming, costly and as you so rightly say finite.
I’m sure there will be a FLASH memory storage devise on the market soon, that will give us a better results over spinning disks.
The other question is, are we backing up files that we will never use again?
P&S.
peel&stick wrote:
T
The other question is, are we backing up files that we will never use again?P&S.
I would say Yes.
Thosands of ‘nearly’ shots that we don’t have the heart to delete.
Just in case we’ve missed the ‘one’
Personally, I use several external Hard disks, and have 2 copies of everything (sometimes 3) spread out over them all.
Might start backing up to DVD. Whats the avearage lifespan of DVD’s these days??
peel&stick wrote:
Thorsten,
I agree with all the points you make especially your back-up regime, however the DVD is time consuming, costly and as you so rightly say finite.
I’m sure there will be a FLASH memory storage devise on the market soon, that will give us a better results over spinning disks.
The other question is, are we backing up files that we will never use again?
P&S.
Yes, I agree, DVD backup is time consuming and certainly more expensive than HDD backup and I think if I were shooting higher volumes I would most likely backup to at least two external HDD’s. Why not RAID you might ask? Well, I just don’t see the benefit of it unless you have a separate RAID controller (rather than software RAID) and even then, if it’s just for offline archiving, it’s hard to beat dual (or even triple) external HDD’s.
As to whether we’re backing up files we will never use again, I’d say that yes, in a large majority of cases we are – but then for me I had the same issue with negatives, so nothing has changed there except that it is now much easier to find a backed up digital image than a negative hidden in some folder in my filing cabinet :wink: And I’ve been thankful for this ability on a few occasions already!
constantine wrote:
Might start backing up to DVD. Whats the avearage lifespan of DVD’s these days??
I think the jury is still out on that one – so much depends on the dye that’s used on the disk, the write speed used and the storage conditions, that it’s impossible to give an accurate estimate. That’s one reason I generate a checksum for each disk as it allows me to very quickly verify whether all of the contents on the disk are still readable. I think for really important images, it’s worth copying on to a new DVD after a year, although I’m working on a 2-year cycle for this. So far so good!. I have CD-R’s that are 10 years old and are still fine but apparently DVD’s have a shorter lifespan. On the other hand I’ve also seen a CD where CD ROT set in after 18 months with the data layer riddle with holes – it looked like it had been attacked by woodworm (or should that be CDworm!?)
To be honest, my biggest concern is not the reliability of storage media but the longevity of current file formats. To date, Canon have done a reasonably good job of making their RAW converter backward compatible, but who know how long that is going to continue for? I mean how many people reading this can still open a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet from 20 years ago? It already appears that the life of the current JPEG format is limited with the JPEG committee adopting the MS HD format as it’s replacement.
What make of archival dvd would you recommend Thorsten?? I’ve heard the gold print dvds are the only ones to look at.
There pricey though…
What are your thoughts?
constantine wrote:
What make of archival dvd would you recommend Thorsten?? I’ve heard the gold print dvds are the only ones to look at.
There pricey though…
What are your thoughts?
To be honest, I simply wouldn’t have enough experience in this area to give a reliable answer. But that’s why I prefer to rely on two media types (HDD and DVD) rather than just the one. But there’s a good (albeit it old) thread over at photo.net on this topic which may be worth looking at for more info.
i was one of the first people in the UK to make a DVD video disc.
when i first started the burner cost 17K stg and discs cost 70stg
but now you cna buy a burner for 20stg
so my advice is.
buy a pioneer burner, no other one is as reliable.
and use verbatim media
I HIGHLY recommend a HyperDrive for digital camera users.
I bought a 100GB one to bring to Canada with me as I was traveling around for 8 months and didn’t want to haul a laptop.
Not only does this little amazing box have a loooong battery life (I charged it once over 8 months) but it also has an anti-corrupt measure built in. Ie. if it hits a corrupted file or one that won’t copy properly if simply skips over it and all the rest of your images are copied perfectly and nothing is lost!I ordered mine online and it arrived very quickly and the postage was reasonable.
They are very affordable, connect to any Mac or PC I happened upon across my travels and transfer a 2GB Compact Flash card very quickly. They also take almost all other types of cards, I just use compact flash. You can label folders so you can find your images easily too.
AND you can use them as a standard portable hard drive for whatever else you want!
Also I see that since I bought mine they have released one with a colour screen on which you can review your images (mine is the older model – the HyperDrive Space… I bought it a year ago.)
Anyway I swear I don’t work for these guys! but I did do a lot of research before I bought anything and I couldn’t be happier that I got this one.
P*
Thorsten wrote:
Ah yes, the old film -v- digital discussion again. Negatives and transparencies that have been archivally processed and are archivally stored certainly do have a very long life span. But how many film users can truthfully say that they have taken these measures.
I think after you develop a few dozen rolls of film you start thinking archival standard but I have to say my first exploits in film was 26 years ago and I hadn’t heard of ‘archival’, my negs from then are perfect. The same cant be said for the shots I took with my first digital camera, the Coolpix 990. I’ve lost a good few of them especially on CDs that now wont read.
I find it terrible around here when people ask for advice about something very specific, in this case digital backups, and the post goes wandering off about the merits of film vs. digital.
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