I need to backup my pics... I'm confused.com

[Dave^]

Ok, so, I want to back up my photo's of 2009 onto DVD (Is this my first mistake?). They are currently on my PC on a (separate to the OS) 400gb HDD. (18gb of pics - originals and 'developed' jpgs.)

My file structure at the minute is:

Y:\Photos\dSLR\Flickr
Y:\Photos\dSLR\Jpgs
Y:\Photos\dSLR\Originals

Within the Flickr, Jpgs and Original Folders, are separate folders of each event, for example:

Y:\Photos\dSLR\Flickr\2009.05.10 Harewood Hillclimb
Y:\Photos\dSLR\Jpgs\2009.05.10 Harewood Hillclimb
Y:\Photos\dSLR\Originals\2009.05.10 Harewood Hillclimb

etc.

Now, Ideally, I'd like a DVD to contain all my jpgs and stuff I've uploaded to Flickr (just under 4gb's worth so that's easy)

Then cram each other DVD with successive events, and not have one event on 2 dvds....

That's fine for all but one of the events, which is 5gb.... (NEF files, zipping makes very little difference.) I'd need to delete 60-80 of my pics - none of which are brilliant, but if I could I'd like to keep them.

So, first question, will DVD's be ok (TDKs, Single layer (I don't have a dual layer burner) or should I be looking at putting them onto another HDD (I have two spare 40 and 20gb drives, but as you can tell from the size, they are very old)? Second question, how do you lot structure your backups? Does the above look overly complicated? Or am I being dim and there's a much better way to do it all?

TIA

[staceyb]

Other half has all of his photos backed up on an external harddrive, he keeps it in his camera bag and everytime he uploads photos to the computer he does an extra copy to the hardrive.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freecom-31973-Hard-Drive-U...

[size13]

I recently bought one of these...

1tb my book world

Not mirrored, but I've a usb drive plugged in that copies every night.

[The_Jackal]

Just back up or sync to an external hard drive.
Are all your pictures worth 50-60 quid for an external HD?
So much easier and safer, plus you can be backed up during the year (this should be your major concern) and not just in one big DVD copying session at the end of the year.

[beano500]

^^^

Wot them sez.


Hard disk space is becoming a bargain. Backup important stuff - keep offsite - sleep at night.

[Dave^]

The_Jackal said:

Just back up or sync to an external hard drive.
Are all your pictures worth 50-60 quid for an external HD?
So much easier and safer, plus you can be backed up during the year (this should be your major concern) and not just in one big DVD copying session at the end of the year.

I do (did) plan on backing up each time i have a dvd's worth...

They're just motorsport pics, nothing worth any money etc..

Hmm, more money!!!

[mojitomax]

i'd just get a external HD and backup onto that every time you add pics.

i'm on a mac and have my pics on two mirrored usb disks (mac os supports disk mirroring built in - aren't macs great).

the only problem is that i don't do an external off site backup at the moment so if the place burns down i'm stuffed

[carlosfandango]

I've gone down the route of buying extra space on Picasa Web Albums... it costs next to nothing and Picasa keeps it all in sync. $5 buys 20gb for 12 months. Flickr Pro does something similar I believe? My images are stored away from the house and Google will do a better job of keeping it safe than I ever could.

Is there a flaw in my strategy? Why would I want another external drive as well?

[plg101]

Buy 2 external drives.

Sync to both.

Take one to a mates house.
Keep one at home in a safe place.

Rotate and update monthly.

[Fordo]

carlosfandango said:

I've gone down the route of buying extra space on Picasa Web Albums... it costs next to nothing and Picasa keeps it all in sync. $5 buys 20gb for 12 months. Flickr Pro does something similar I believe? My images are stored away from the house and Google will do a better job of keeping it safe than I ever could.

Is there a flaw in my strategy? Why would I want another external drive as well?

google could have a server problem and loose all your backups - unlikely, i know, but disaster management is planning for the unlikely. I believe a while ago yahoo accidentally lost a large number of peoples emails thanks to a server error.

A good backup strategy is always having 2 backups in two different places. External HDs are cheap as chips these days

[jimothy]

size13 said:

I recently bought one of these...

1tb my book world

Not mirrored, but I've a usb drive plugged in that copies every night.

And another for when this fails?

Hateful things. MyBooks are horrible unreliable.

[cottonfoo]

Carrying hard drives around as one's backup device is a sure fire way to have that hard drive fail.

[plg101]

cottonfoo said:

Carrying hard drives around as one's backup device is a sure fire way to have that hard drive fail.

I mean the 2.5" Western Digital portables or the Lacie Ruggeds...

[mrmr96]

Using a RAID system protects against disk failure only. If you get a virus or just accidently hit the delete key then your stuff will be gone.

You need a solution which doesn't 'live mirror'. So backing up to DVD or backing up to another HDD which is not normally connected and doesn't 'auto mirror' would work.

What I do is the following:

When I've taken some photos just drop them into a date named folder into a catch all folder called 'not backed up' (This serves as a good reminder to back up regularly)
P:\not backed up\2009_12_24 Christmas eve
P:\not backed up\2009_12_25 Christmas day
P:\not backed up\2009_12_31 New years eve
etc

Then when I get about 4Gb then I put them in folders grouped:
P:\DVD1\2009_12_24 Christmas eve
P:\DVD1\2009_12_25 Christmas day
P:\DVD2\2009_12_31 New years eve
etc
So basically create 'master' folders that have a DVD's worth. Then burn each master DVD.

Burn two copies each time and maintain one set on site and one set off site.

One downside of this is that there is a period of time between dumping the card and creating the backup DVD where I only have one copy of the photos (sitting in the 'not backed up' folder). But I back up fairly regularly (considering I'm not a pro-tog) and whilst I'd be annoyed at losing at batch, at least I know once I've burned the two DVD's off I've got three places - the HDD, offsite DVD and onsite DVD. I like knowing that even if I have a HDD failure, or a theft, or a fire, or a virus, or press delete by accident then I'd still have the backup.

It took me a while to get my head round but just remember: Mirrored live HDDs are not a backup solution on their own, since they protect against disc failure only - and nothing else.

[cottonfoo]

mrmr96 said:

It took me a while to get my head round but just remember: Mirrored live HDDs are not a backup solution on their own, since they protect against disc failure only - and nothing else.

Indeed. Hard drives are never a backup solution, and never have been, a lot of people don't realise this (like my sister-in-law who spent most of one christmas day in tears because of lost honeymoon photos on her USB 'backup drive'). Ruggedised drives aren't any more rugged on the inside than any other.

I have RAID5 storage at home, which gives me storage redundancy, but that isn't my backup solution. It's not much use when I'm on holiday anyway. Since my camera can only use up to 2GB cards it's pretty simple to copy two cards' worth onto two verified DVDs, since I always have a laptop with me.

All comes down to how important the data is.

[mrmr96]

Another top tip, while we're on the subject: When going on holiday it's better to take several smaller memory cards than one big one. Then you rotate between the different cards on different days, leaving the other cards in a safe place at the hotel. That way if you camera gets wet and frys the card, or gets stolen and the card goes, or just something happens to the card then at least you've got the others. Also by rotating through the cards on differnt days it means you won't miss a whole week of the holiday, just the odd days which may be better.

[Fordo]

mrmr96 said:

Another top tip, while we're on the subject: When going on holiday it's better to take several smaller memory cards than one big one. Then you rotate between the different cards on different days, leaving the other cards in a safe place at the hotel. That way if you camera gets wet and frys the card, or gets stolen and the card goes, or just something happens to the card then at least you've got the others. Also by rotating through the cards on differnt days it means you won't miss a whole week of the holiday, just the odd days which may be better.

ah, but what happens when your hotel room is burgled?

i like the many smaller card approach, but i keep the cards in a small 2nd small wallet on my person, in a zipped pocket. The safest place for them is me!

[cottonfoo]

Fordo said:

The safest place for them is me!

Hmm, not me, I once fell into a stream while standing on a rock right in the middle of it, fracturing my left elbow, submerging my entire body (except for my right arm which was holding the camera up in the air)

[CVP]

cottonfoo said:

Fordo said:

The safest place for them is me!

Hmm, not me, I once fell into a stream while standing on a rock right in the middle of it, fracturing my left elbow, submerging my entire body (except for my right arm which was holding the camera up in the air)

CF cards are pretty rugged though. I've had them submerged in fresh water and left to dry out naturally they were and continue to be fine.

I too follow the many smaller cards approach and store the remainder in the hotel safe in my room. However partly that's due to having smaller cards from when I went digital and the max size ws 2Gb, which at the time was fearsomely expensive

Chris

[racing green]

I don't know whether this sounds complicated but once I have copied a cards worth of pics to the computer in a file I then back that file onto my external hard drive. This saves them immediately but I don't trust this hard drive not to get a virus if conected to a computer when IT gets a virus. When I have about ten files ready I copy each one to a separate 800meg CD not DVD (a file of 190 photos works out about 500-650meg shooting in RAW). The disc is labelled and stored meaning I now have two back ups. The cd disc is then easier and quicker to load should I need to find something and each disc works more like a set of negatives. I then clear the files from the computer so as not to clog that up, preferring to use the laptop as an interface rather than a storage unit. I use the external hard drive when working with my pics. I'm afraid I don't trust computers or hard drives enough to just use them only - great when they work but.....
Mark