How do you archive your pictures?

[Phil S]

Just wondering what people do, as I tend to keep them in a high quality JPEG and burn them to cd (or 6 cd's for every session it seems!)

Does anyone keep all their RAW images? Is a DVD burner a wise idea for doing this?

Cheers,
Phil

[robdickinson]

So far I have them on my X's drive and primary HDD, but once back from NZ next April I'll get a DVD burner.

[pdV6]

Bear in mind that CDRs etc only have a limited lifespan, so don't rely on them for "permanent" backup.

Personally, I have a mirrored RAID setup, so with any luck the possibility of 2 drives dying at the same time is fairly remote.

[Phil S]

What about quality? I always feel a bit guilty downsizing them as sods law says I will need a poster print 2 days after I delete the original!

[dcw@pr]

i've got 2 500gb disks that sync once a day. decided against RAID because of the (admittedly unlikely) possibility of a crash during a RAID operation killing both discs

[Alex]

dcw@pr said:

i've got 2 500gb disks that sync once a day. decided against RAID because of the (admittedly unlikely) possibility of a crash during a RAID operation killing both discs

If you use RAID 0. If you have a RAID 5 array, one drive can fail and the data remains intact.

[trackdemon]

RAID 5: Great solution, but perhaps a little pricey / cumbersome for the casual home user?

Does anybody know what kind of timespan you can reasonably hold data on CD-R for?

[dcw@pr]

Alex said:

dcw@pr said: i've got 2 500gb disks that sync once a day. decided against RAID because of the (admittedly unlikely) possibility of a crash during a RAID operation killing both discs If you use RAID 0. If you have a RAID 5 array, one drive can fail and the data remains intact.

Actually I was considering RAID 1, but it would be software only, using the Mac OSX inbuilt stuff. A kernel crash in the middle of a write operation can spell trouble!

[Alex]

Mac OSX? You've lost me now.

(I even have a Windows Smartphone)

[Phil S]

Blimey, you lot are a bit more serious about this than me then!

I can't see a CD-R going 'off' anytime soon. I must have been using them for 10 years and have never heard of one wearing out. I don't see any problems with archiving them if stored correctly and not used often!

Raid setups seem awfully expensive compared to a DVD burner.

[pdV6]

Phil S said:

I can't see a CD-R going 'off' anytime soon. I must have been using them for 10 years and have never heard of one wearing out. .

I take it that you regularly go back and check your 10 year old CDs to ensure that every file is still intact on them, then?

As for RAID being expensive, HDDs are as cheap as chips these days. Next time you rebuild your PC, spend an extra £5 for the motherboard model that has a built in harware RAID controller. Job done!

>> Edited by pdV6 on Monday 13th December 17:36

[dcw@pr]

Phil S said:

Blimey, you lot are a bit more serious about this than me then! I can't see a CD-R going 'off' anytime soon. I must have been using them for 10 years and have never heard of one wearing out. I don't see any problems with archiving them if stored correctly and not used often! Raid setups seem awfully expensive compared to a DVD burner.

RAID is relatively expensive, but even so I would never go down the DVD-R route exclusively. For one thing, I have found DVD-Rs to be very unreliable when it comes to reading them in other computers, even if they are in perfect condition. So you might find 3 years down the line your new computer can't read them at all. Also, they are easier to scratch than CD-Rs due to the higher data density.

From a cost point of view, it's not nearly as bad as you would think, if you only run a single HD, and not RAID. This is more comparable to using DVD-Rs, unless you burn two copies of each DVD. The HDs I use are LaCie extreme discs which are quite expensive beacue they spin fast and have FW800 connections, which isn't needed for just backing up stuff. Even so, they cost about £285 each, so thats £0.57p/GB. Compare this to DVDs, at say £1 each, which are £0.22/GB. This is obviously a fair difference, but by getting a more appropriate HD I would guess the cost would go below £0.40/GB. Also you have to factor in the cost of buying the DVD drive if you don't have one already. And of course, with the HD, you always have the photos on hand, theres no digging through boxes to find the right disc.

[Phil S]

If I get more serious with my photography I will have to move onto a raid system. At the moment the only real reason I keep the originals is incase someone pops up and asks for a picture of their car.

Do you store the RAW files then? Or a high quality JPEG varient?

[Ex-biker]

Isn't it as easy to just buy a second hard drive, then make 2 copies when saving from camera?

Or just copy your pics onto the second every now and again?

160gb drive = £56
External case (so you can transport your photos) = £26

www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=3803315874&action=c2hvd3N1YmNhdGVnb3J5X3NlYXJjaA==&cat_uid=4&stid=2

Cheap satisfactory solution?

[FrenchTVR]

I'm curious about this loss of data on old CD-R's as I now back up my stuff to CD & DVD. How long do they last and why should the data image detiriate? I thought that once the laser had burnt the disc that was a hard, fixed image.

Cheers

[robdickinson]

FrenchTVR said:

I'm curious about this loss of data on old CD-R's as I now back up my stuff to CD & DVD. How long do they last and why should the data image detiriate? I thought that once the laser had burnt the disc that was a hard, fixed image. Cheers

Nope, temperature changes and expansion degrade the medium.

In tests some have shown significant degredation in just 3-4 years.

Were not allowed to archive anything onto cdr etc, we have to use magneto optical,tape or something with a proven stable archive potential.

Not sure what dvdr's are like for this to.

[FrenchTVR]

Thanks Rob, bugger though, was hoping my picture collection, those that I didn't lose recently were safe.