Author Topic: How do you back up your images? (Read 22688 times)

Lcjtripod · « **on:** December 27, 2008, 20:19 »

Just a bit curious how other photographers back up their images to protect against total loss!

Me: I back up all RAW files to a DVD or CD then a copy goes to a safe deposit box at my bank. And I also have an exact copy at home. (Note: I ONLY shoot RAW.)

I had a studio burn down and lost over 250,000 images. Mine and customers from commercial shoots as well as weddings etc. I learned my lesson.

I do not trust any web site to keep my images safe for me.

Your thoughts?

-Larry

BrokenPhotographer · « **Reply #1 on:** December 27, 2008, 21:18 »

I had a hd fail a while back and I lost precious family photos so I'm now paranoid and back all my photos and important stuff up to crazy levels.

I have an external drive I do a weekly raw backup (plus all my pictures of my kiddies) onto and then it gets stashed away in a hideyhole in my house where I know if we were robbed it'd be highly unlikely to be found.
I also do a monthly sealed and dated cdr zip that my mother keeps in a safe at her home.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #2 on:** December 27, 2008, 22:01 »

I print out every image, which I shoot again, with my 1ds MK3, and then I save that onto a cassette, which I bury in my backyard in a steel box.

Every couple weeks, I copy my main hard drive to a second hard drive. When full, put it at a relative's house.

fljac · « **Reply #3 on:** December 27, 2008, 22:08 »

I use Carbonite..

Cheap and above all, unlimited storage for almost no money! http://www.carbonite.com/raf/signup.aspx?RAFUserUID=336374

I've been using it for quite some time and it seems to be working great! It does not slow down the internet connection while backing up.

It might be worth a try

/Flemming

Lcjtripod · « **Reply #4 on:** December 27, 2008, 22:40 »

Quote from: fljac on December 27, 2008, 22:08

I use Carbonite..

Cheap and above all, unlimited storage for almost no money! http://www.carbonite.com/raf/signup.aspx?RAFUserUID=336374

I've been using it for quite some time and it seems to be working great! It does not slow down the internet connection while backing up.

It might be worth a try

/Flemming

I know that many folks use the net to store images and that may be 99.999 safe. But what if the site is corrupted or sabotaged and their back up fail? It would not be the first.

-Larry

epixx · « **Reply #5 on:** December 28, 2008, 00:30 »

Quote from: fljac on December 27, 2008, 22:08

I use Carbonite..

Cheap and above all, unlimited storage for almost no money! http://www.carbonite.com/raf/signup.aspx?RAFUserUID=336374

I've been using it for quite some time and it seems to be working great! It does not slow down the internet connection while backing up.

It might be worth a try

/Flemming

That works well as long as they don't go bankrupt. Lots of photographers got problems when digitalrailroad.net went bust a couple of months ago without any warnings.

I run a backup routine to a second HD a couple of times every week, and always after taking a new batch of photos. In addition, I burn DVDs that I keep at another location. Earlier this year, one of my HDs crashed, and the only thing I needed to do, was to buy another disk and copy from the backup. At the moment, I have disks in separate firewire enclosures, but the next time I upgrade, I'll invest in a unit with space for four or eight disks and RAID.

shank_ali · « **Reply #6 on:** December 28, 2008, 00:49 »

I don't back up any of my photos.Once in my istock portfolio i just delete them from my hard drive.I switched from shooting in raw about 6 months ago to jpeg.
If i ever wanted my 500 images back i would have to pay istockphoto to send me a disc with my photos on.

Peter · « **Reply #7 on:** December 28, 2008, 04:01 »

Backup on DVDs, and on external HDD. double backup.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #8 on:** December 28, 2008, 04:33 »

Quote from: Peter on December 28, 2008, 04:01

Backup on DVDs, and on external HDD. double backup.

That's about it. Backup to CDs for smaller shoots, DVDs as I work through the year. That's the backup for the external drive that has the same photos.

Online backup is supposed to be a good way to have your photos off site and safer. With sites like DRR and others, that have gone out of business, I have my own website and can store images on a server that only I control. That doesn't mean that the company won't go under, but I know who has access and I'm the only one.

Some days, I feel that my photos that I sell are online and since I'm not Adams, Feininger or Stieglitz, I predict that hardly anyone and likely no one will ever care what happens to them. Even shooting editorial, sports and news, I've never had someone contact me and say, "we need a photo that you took in 1970 of..." In fact I have some shots that were taken 40 years ago of a historic building burning down, wrote offering them to the institution, which they never bothered to answer.

Makes me wonder why I'm archiving and saving these photos?

Peter · « **Reply #9 on:** December 28, 2008, 05:08 »

I save those, If some new agency GOOD (which is less likely to happen) pop up, so I can easily upload everything...

fintastique · « **Reply #10 on:** December 28, 2008, 05:32 »

backing is important and I would recommend multiple medias and a secure (perhaps different location) obviously frequency is the big issue.

Obviously for DVDs pick a decent brand and burn at a lower speed (x4) to minimize chance of errors if your burner has a verification procedure might be worth the extra minutes.

I think for HD several medium sized ones is safer than just one mega drive just in case that screws up obviously if the safe (location) has limited space that will limit the number of hard drives stacks of DVDs.

I think there was a thread about this ages ago because I digressed and started talking about HDs being sensitive to EMP.

So anyone got a blu-ray burner though if one of those discs has an error that is 25 GB lost

gunnar3000 · « **Reply #11 on:** December 28, 2008, 05:59 »

interesting topic

I backup my images every week on an external HDD, but the external HDD an the PC are in the same room of my house. may be you guys are right and I should bring the images out of the house. I think I will give a copy on DVD to a buddy of mine.

gunnar

Peter · « **Reply #12 on:** December 28, 2008, 06:19 »

or even better bring those DVDs to missile-proof bunker

gunnar3000 · « **Reply #13 on:** December 28, 2008, 06:47 »

peter, there is a old nuclear bunker not far away from my town (its out of use), but I guess there will be no market for stock images after a nuclear strike

Lior · « **Reply #14 on:** December 28, 2008, 07:03 »

I have an external hard drive that is confidured to do a weekly backup, and I burn everything on 2 DVD's. I keep one of them at home and the other at my mother's house.

MikLav · « **Reply #15 on:** December 28, 2008, 10:15 »

I put RAW + processed PSD files on DVD (2 copies stored separately although both at home). Quite annoying for large sessions when I need to archive 10-15 GB of data (i.e. 3-4 DVDs 2 times...), so I really hope it will not take too long for BluRay to become affordable.

I have several copies of ready-to-upload JPG files - on PC hard drive, on USB stick, on external USB hard drive; and just in case some microstocks allow to download my own files for free

hali · « **Reply #16 on:** December 28, 2008, 10:31 »

since dvds are so cheap, i literally backup every thing , even the different photoshopped versions that i didn't select for uploading. i find this useful, in case one day we have to prove ownership .
another thing i like to do is keep the original raw untouched. this will have all the info intact.

the problem now is i have tons of dvds , which i don't look at. even my music ...
which is now counting at over a thousand cds and dvds backup.
it's getting bad, i hoard too much. i need an assistant to edit my backup,
so hopefully 2009 my sales will escalate so i can hire someone to do that, ha!ha!

mjp · « **Reply #17 on:** December 28, 2008, 10:51 »

I had this kind of plan:

Backup everything on the NAS drive (1gigabit) and had another USB drive in the bank safety deposit box. It worked but then the NAS Drive blow up:). So I had only one external drive + computer hard drive... Not good at all. Harddrives can fail any given moment, so counting on only few drives is not wise if you have valuable images on them.

So I test online backup systems and they are my current choice. I have two different setup. Amazon S3 (with jungle disk(www.jungledisk.com)) for backupping RAWs and final JPGs. Second one is Mozy.com wich I upload everything (jpeg,raw,psd). Why two system? Only for reliability and availibility. I also have one USB backup drive (I use SyncBackSE backup program) at home also for fast access if network is not awailable or something similar.

Cost of the online storage system is cheaper than buying professional storage solution and supplying power to it. No hasle with cd/dvd's and time consuming burning and archiving progress...

Be sure you always have off-site backup as well and do not count on one or two external hard drives (they will broke on some day).

br, MjP

ljooc · « **Reply #18 on:** December 28, 2008, 12:05 »

I don't trust my laptop, it has got too much "garbage" in it that it has crushed or frozen me out a few times. So I save all my RAW files on an external 1/2 terrabyte drive and work off that drive (and all my other important files on an external portable/mobile drive as well). I bought that 1/2 terrabyte drive at Frys for $129.99 2 years ago and it was a steal then. Now one can get a 2 terrabytes for $250 and 4 terrabyte for $581 on Amazon, I just had a look on their site, simply amazing!!! Well, global manufacturing in lowest cost location has definitely brought some fringe benefits to us all

jc

madelaide · « **Reply #19 on:** December 28, 2008, 13:16 »

External HD (originals and editions) and DVDs (basically originals). I don't keep copies at another place, though it seems a good strategy.

Regards,
Adelaide

Lcjtripod · « **Reply #20 on:** December 28, 2008, 14:19 »

Quote from: madelaide on December 28, 2008, 13:16

External HD (originals and editions) and DVDs (basically originals). I don't keep copies at another place, though it seems a good strategy.

Regards,
Adelaide

You will know it is a good idea if your house burns down as my old studio did. Keep your back ups in two places ... but not in the same building!

-Larry

MikLav · « **Reply #21 on:** December 28, 2008, 14:48 »

Quote from: fljac on December 27, 2008, 22:08

I use Carbonite..
Cheap and above all, unlimited storage for almost no money!

Quote from: mjp on December 28, 2008, 10:51

Second one is Mozy.com wich I upload everything (jpeg,raw,psd).

I found a lot of negative feedback about both Carbonite and Mozy. Data lost / not restored with Carbonite; too slow upload and various problems with client for Mozy...

Also beware that there is no commitment from online backup companies - no uptime guarantee; no data availability guarantee, i.e. there is no SLA at all and Terms_and_conditions deny any responsibility.

So using an online backup might be a useful extra option but isn't looking safe as a primary backup method, at least with cheap companies.

Amazon S3 looks better with an explicit SLA (which is assured by such a serious name like Amazon), but it becomes more expensive when you store large amounts of data (>100GB)... BTW it works nicely with freeware FireFox addon S3Fox.

perkmeup · « **Reply #22 on:** December 28, 2008, 15:22 »

I use the Drobo...and it works great...alittle expensive..but it's worth the piece of mind I get. but......just in case I keep a backup HD of all the RAW and finished PSD files on it. The only thing I should do is keep a copy of this HD in another location other than my house....just in case of a fire....but I currently live in a concrete house...so smoke won't hurt it....

madelaide · « **Reply #23 on:** December 28, 2008, 15:43 »

Quote from: Lcjtripod on December 28, 2008, 14:19

You will know it is a good idea if your house burns down as my old studio did. Keep your back ups in two places ... but not in the same building!

Fires are not very common here, as we live in concrete buildings (yes, things inside them still burn!). I could have some copies elsewhere, but the most important things, such as family albums, slides from so many years of shooting film, etc - would not be "backupable" anyway.

Regards,
Adelaide

hali · « **Reply #24 on:** December 28, 2008, 16:19 »

Quote from: madelaide on December 28, 2008, 15:43

Fires are not very common here, as we live in concrete buildings (yes, things inside them still burn!). I could have some copies elsewhere, but the most important things, such as family albums, slides from so many years of shooting film, etc - would not be "backupable" anyway.
Regards,Adelaide

i started recently to copy and post process some of my families old photos . then i send them to my brothers and sisters. i think that is as good a backup as ever, because even if a building burns down or there is a fire or flood, it's unlikely it's going to happen to all of your family at once.
not even unless you live in the same area.
also, when my bro and sis received my attachments they were really happy to get them, as they too had forgotten those old photos even existed.

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Author Topic: How do you back up your images? (Read 22688 times)

Lcjtripod

BrokenPhotographer

Sean Locke Photography

fljac

Lcjtripod

epixx

shank_ali

Peter

RacePhoto

Peter

fintastique

gunnar3000

Peter

gunnar3000

Lior

MikLav

hali

mjp

ljooc

madelaide

Lcjtripod

MikLav

perkmeup

madelaide

hali

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