Back-up digital photos with ______?????

[loveysbydesign]

What's the best way to back-up my digital photos?
I've been using cd-rom's and my hard drive but I'm sure there's gotta be a more efficient better way!
I was thinking of getting one of those things...unsure what they're called that you just plug into the USB port and it can hold alot of info. ...it's smaller than a cd. Anyone know what they're called and if they hold alot of photos? Then I can keep it in my fire safety chest.
Any advice?

[WebmasterCricket]

Back-up digital photos with everything you have.

[shancan911]

I have most of my photos on cd or dvd, but we also have ALL OF THEM on an external hard drive. CD's and DVD's can go bad and ruin photos. Yes, a hard drive can go, but if you're only using it for photo back up, there's a slim chance of that, and you can always use a data recovery system in the event of something awful. We have a Western Digital and are very pleased with it.

[ukcatfan]

I have most of my photos on cd or dvd, but we also have ALL OF THEM on an external hard drive. CD's and DVD's can go bad and ruin photos. Yes, a hard drive can go, but if you're only using it for photo back up, there's a slim chance of that, and you can always use a data recovery system in the event of something awful. We have a Western Digital and are very pleased with it.

Not at all to be rude, but the hard drive is much more likely to fail than the CD/DVDs going bad. We bought a new Acer laptop last October and the hard drive failed in 26 hours!!! I have had five hard drive failures in the past ten years. That said, it is always a good idea to have more than one backup method. I have a second drive that mirrors my main one. It is the one I share on our home network so the kids cannot accidentally delete something. I also backup to DVDs about every two months unless I shot something very important and that I backup right away. Another word of advice; do not keep all of your backups at home. If there is ever a total loss of your home, then all backups are also gone.

Kevin

[manning]

Not at all to be rude, but the hard drive is much more likely to fail than the CD/DVDs going bad. We bought a new Acer laptop last October and the hard drive failed in 26 hours!!! I have had five hard drive failures in the past ten years. That said, it is always a good idea to have more than one backup method. I have a second drive that mirrors my main one. It is the one I share on our home network so the kids cannot accidentally delete something. I also backup to DVDs about every two months unless I shot something very important and that I backup right away. Another word of advice; do not keep all of your backups at home. If there is ever a total loss of your home, then all backups are also gone.

Kevin

And I had one crash on me after a month of light usage.

Also note on the CD/DVD the date you burned it. The coating on there is chemical and it is being found out they are breaking down after about five years. You may want to reburn them about every 3-4 years. There is also archival CD that look gold that is claimed to last 100 years.

The problem is all of these have not been around very long and no one really knows how long they will last.

[ukcatfan]

And I had one crash on me after a month of light usage.

Also note on the CD/DVD the date you burned it. The coating on there is chemical and it is being found out they are breaking down after about five years. You may want to reburn them about every 3-4 years. There is also archival CD that look gold that is claimed to last 100 years.

The problem is all of these have not been around very long and no one really knows how long they will last.

Maybe I am a little wasteful, but I re-burn all of my images every two months or so. With DVDs at around $0.25 ea. it is not exactly expensive. I will keep the old copies around for a few cycles before destroying them.

Kevin

[YEKCIM]

I keep the originals on an external HD, plus burn a DVD backup, periodically, that stays in our safe deposit box. I also keep the edited copies that I make 4X6 prints from on a CD, which I keep at home. Also, if you want to count it, I have lower-res copies of most of the keepers on photobucket.

~YEKCIM

[skr8pn]

Don't forget about offsite backup. If something we're to happen to your home (break in, fire, flood) you possibly couldn't recover them. Though I haven't yet, my thoughts are the pictures/files you absolutly can't live without should be backed up not at your living quarters. A bank safe deposit box or at a realitive house or something similar. My engaugment and wedding pictures will be in at least 3 sperate places when I get done. They could never be replaced and besides that they cost to much the first time.:)

[boBQuincy]

I talked with a fellow I work with who used to do fire investigations. He told me the best place for the fire safe is on the lowest floor and in a room with an outside wall. That should be the least hot place if a fire were to occur.
The garage is not good since it usually has a large quantity of flammables inside.

I also burn CDs / DVDs for my photos but re-burning them every few months or even every year is not viable, there are far too many. No one really knows how long CDs will last, all testing has been done using Highly Accelerated Life Testing, which is not always the same as real long term usage. Even a freshly burned CD may not be good, and we rarely check them.

Besides CDs / DVDs I keep all photos on a hard drive, a hard drive on a server, and an external hard drive. I keep the external hard drive in a fire safe and will place it somewhere downstairs.

[WebmasterCricket]

I talked with a fellow I work with who used to do fire investigations. He told me the best place for the fire safe is on the lowest floor and in a room with an outside wall. That should be the least hot place if a fire were to occur.

I have to deal with Federal examiners and they won't let us store data on the lowest floor because the threat of water damage is vastly higher there and flooding is a higher threat than fire. I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Nothing is perfect.

[loveysbydesign]

wow...you guys have some great info.!
````what about using a memory stick???

[Anewman]

wow...you guys have some great info.!
````what about using a memory stick???


Well Lets put it this way.

4gb memory stick = $50
Blank DVD(holds 4.4 GBs) = 25 cents


while I do agree with everyone about the possibility of hard drive failure, there have also been cases of Hard drives lasting a very long time. IMO an external hard drive combined with an internal hard drive is a very good start.

IMO $70 for a 250gb External Hard drive is a great deal(frys) and if those same files are also backed up on the PCs hard drive(and very cheap to upgrade), odds are that they will not both fail at the same time.

And as someone else mentioned in another thread on the topic, once Blu-ray or HD-DVD media and burners become more consumer friendly, we can start backing up 20 plus gigs to one disk.

[ukcatfan]

wow...you guys have some great info.!
````what about using a memory stick???

I would not use any solid state memory like a flash card as a backup. It is too volatile and is not intended for long term storage.

Kevin

[loveysbydesign]

What abput the thingie that plugs into the usb port...some are on keychains...what are they called...AUGH I can't think of they're name!

[Anewman]

What abput the thingie that plugs into the usb port...some are on keychains...what are they called...AUGH I can't think of they're name!

Flash Drives
Thumb drives
Jump sticks
etc...

Depending on Brand(marketing).

They are all the same thing.

Price per GB does not compare to other forms of back up, plus I have lost more of those than I care to admit.

[ktulu]

What abput the thingie that plugs into the usb port...some are on keychains...what are they called...AUGH I can't think of they're name!

A jump drive? Nope, don't trust them. Best advice I can give is to use cd or dvd. I'm actually archiving about 20G of photos from the past 2 years onto DVD's. I wish this laptop had a dual layer burner, it'd go twice as fast :thumbsup2 The new one I'm getting will, but it doesn't help me now!

My wife won't let me get automated tape backups, otherwise I'd also do that :)

[skr8pn]

Well Lets put it this way.
And as someone else mentioned in another thread on the topic, once Blu-ray or HD-DVD media and burners become more consumer friendly, we can start backing up 20 plus gigs to one disk.

...and to quote an old saying. "You don't want all your eggs in one basket." Which, with that said, I probably end up putting 20+ gig on one disc also. I had 200 CD's stolen out of my truck one night. I'm a big fan of multiple backups at multiple locations.

[YEKCIM]

What abput the thingie that plugs into the usb port...some are on keychains...what are they called...AUGH I can't think of they're name!

Those are flash memory cards, too...just configured to plug straight into your usb port. IMO, making duplicate copies and storing them in separate locations is your best insurance against losing them. I would not use the "keychain thingy" since they are intended, as mentioned, for short term storage and are NOT very cost effective. An external HD (which need not be powered up all the time, btw) and/or optical disks represent the most cost effective longer term option, IMO. Again, multiple copies is an inexpensive and safer option.

~YEKCIM

[Anewman]

...and to quote an old saying. "You don't want all your eggs in one basket." Which, with that said, I probably end up putting 20+ gig on one disc also. I had 200 CD's stolen out of my truck one night. I'm a big fan of multiple backups at multiple locations.

Yup that is why they are referred to as "BACK UPs" instead of "only existing copy".

Regardless of the method used, something "can" happen.

[RBennett]

You know I had the thought of putting an external HD in a firesafe box because those are often waterproof as well and sticking the whole box in my storm cellar. It's about 6-7 feet below the house level in the back of my house. I figured that would be about as safe as it gets. Also, to do like everyone says and backup all photos onto cds/dvds and do multiple copies and place them at work, with relatives, in your doghouse, under the birdfeeder, and with your next door neighbor. Just to be safe!!! :thumbsup2

[dpuck1998]

As has been said, the best solution is several solutions. I keep all my photos on my PC hard drive, the get backed up nightly to an external hard drive, I back them up monthly onto my laptop hard drive and bi-monthly onto DVDs that I take to my office and put on my work hard drive. My pictures and video are the most valuable things I have, besides my children/wife!! They are un-replaceable!

[Groucho]

A hard drive can go bad just sitting there, too... anything with moving parts is going to generally be less reliable than something with non-moving parts.

I do double DVD backups, one copy goes in the fire safe, plus most exist on my hard drive. One of these days I'm going to pick up another hard drive to be able to store all my RAWs online. I also will pick up a BluRay (or HD-DVD if that wins the format battle, but I'm pulling for BluRay due to more storage) burner when the prices come down and re-burn everything on those.

One thing that's often overlooked with burning CDs/DVDs is to verify after burning, this is an option is any respectable CD burning app. Nero has it as a checkbox during the burn, I believe all the Roxio products have it as an option in the project properties. This way, you know for sure that the burn is at least correct to be begin with.

[shancan911]

Sorry to have stepped on toes wit my logic about the external hard drive. :confused3 I will say I do also have my pics on disc, and every holiday season, reburn the whole lot of them. I have to say though, I have never had a hard drive crash. Maybe we're too easy on our computers. Also to add, the only time the EHD is turned on is to update photos. But all in all, I concur with mostly everyone here, a few different places is best :thumbsup2

[Groucho]

No worry about stepped toes, everyone's entitled to their opinion. :)

But, hard drives can certainly fail even if treated with kid gloves, and when they're old or new. Banging them around will certainly increase the chances of damage, but there's no way to avoid hard drive failure.

[boBQuincy]

A study recently done by Google shows that all hard drives are scary, some fail early and those that don't can still fail at any time. The study also showed that after three years the rate of failure goes up dramatically.

Unfortunately I haven't found such a study on CD-R and DVD-R.

[dpuck1998]

Sorry to have stepped on toes wit my logic about the external hard drive. :confused3 I will say I do also have my pics on disc, and every holiday season, reburn the whole lot of them. I have to say though, I have never had a hard drive crash. Maybe we're too easy on our computers. Also to add, the only time the EHD is turned on is to update photos. But all in all, I concur with mostly everyone here, a few different places is best :thumbsup2

We techies have a saying about hard drives...

There are two kinds: Those that have failed and those that will fail.

Keeping it on two hard drives should be enough, since chances are very slim that both hard drives will fail at the same time. As internet speeds increase online storage is becoming a viable option. I use it for work right now, but prices will come down and make it viable for the home market soon.

BTW, Don't worry about toes ;-) We all just like to toss in our 2 cents also!

[dburg30]

A study recently done by Google shows that all hard drives are scary, some fail early and those that don't can still fail at any time. The study also showed that after three years the rate of failure goes up dramatically.

Unfortunately I haven't found such a study on CD-R and DVD-R.

Those were on drives that were being used? Or just stored? If using an external HD it would'nt be running if you only used it for backups. Now, that said, NON use can sometimes be as bad as constant use.. So I just didnt know what the study was based on.

I have CD's DVD's, drives, copies that family has, copies that I've put in other places, etc etc.

[Anewman]

Those were on drives that were being used? Or just stored? If using an external HD it would'nt be running if you only used it for backups. Now, that said, NON use can sometimes be as bad as constant use.. So I just didnt know what the study was based on.


I have an external on my main PC, plus one external network drive. Plan was that I would only plug them in when backing up or accessing RAW files, I would guess that worked the first few times and they have been online since. I do an semi annual DVD back up, but other than that I feel that the 3 Hard Drives(including internal) will not all fail at the same time.

here is the Google study http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

[Taqwus]

As a former IT guy I know one option that has not been brought up yet since it is a cost per month solution. In my opinion it is the best
You can get a webspace on a remote server, they back up daily to tape, most are running RAID setups with at least 1 level of fault protections
Just off a quick search you can get smugmug.com for abotu 40$ per year, this is a photography based website already. Also you got hostmonster.com at 6$ per month, with 300gb storage and 3tb transfer rate (this can be real important if you show your pics a lot)
Also if you do the website solution you can show your pics to other people real easy
CD's, DVD's, Hard Drives, USB Drives are all decent low-level solutions, but they have no fault tolerance.
If you want to go with self back up the only real way to do it is a tape back up, with offsite storage. Though this will probably be a lot more expensive

[dpuck1998]

As a former IT guy I know one option that has not been brought up yet since it is a cost per month solution. In my opinion it is the best
You can get a webspace on a remote server, they back up daily to tape, most are running RAID setups with at least 1 level of fault protections
Just off a quick search you can get smugmug.com for abotu 40$ per year, this is a photography based website already. Also you got hostmonster.com at 6$ per month, with 300gb storage and 3tb transfer rate (this can be real important if you show your pics a lot)
Also if you do the website solution you can show your pics to other people real easy
CD's, DVD's, Hard Drives, USB Drives are all decent low-level solutions, but they have no fault tolerance.
If you want to go with self back up the only real way to do it is a tape back up, with offsite storage. Though this will probably be a lot more expensive

I did mention that a few posts ago. I didn't mention any names however. The only issue right now is moving that much data "across the wire". uploading my photos in high-res and raw format would take a considerable amount of time even with high speed. It is a viable solution though to keep you photos safe at an offsite backup center.

[loveysbydesign]

So..... what type of extra hard drive is best, where is the best place to purchase one and how much do they cost???

[LMarge]

What about places like Costco and the Kodak Easyshare Gallery? When you upload photos to the site and then print or share them, how long to they keep them on file before dumping them offline? Just curious - I also keep everything on my hard drive and CD/DVD backup. But I was wondering about these places as I've uploaded lots to both of them - one for printing (love Costco!) and one for sharing with the outlaws (Kodak - as they don't all have Costco accounts!) My goal is to reburn my entire harddrive and put it in the safety depost box, I just have to sit here with a cup of coffee and an enormous stack of CD's!! :surfweb: :rotfl:

[boBQuincy]

So..... what type of extra hard drive is best, where is the best place to purchase one and how much do they cost???

A recent test by Google shows they all fail, and the failure rate gets higher after about three years. Western Digital is good, as are some others. All the major electronics stores have them, for example a 320GB goes for about $80 on sale.

And this is no-tax weekend in North Carolina! ;)

[safetymom]

You should keep up with technology when archiving your images. Does anyone use 5 1/4 floppies anymore? I have mine backed up to CD, DVD, and external hard drives.

Also use the Sharpie designed for CD's not the regualar one.

[dpuck1998]

You should keep up with technology when archiving your images. Does anyone use 5 1/4 floppies anymore? I have mine backed up to CD, DVD, and external hard drives.

Also use the Sharpie designed for CD's not the regualar one.

I'm still using reel to reel, I don't trust those new fangled floppy things!!

One note, the 500GB external HD seems to be the best price point right now. The 1000GB(terabyte) is more than twice the price for some reason.

The problem with most online sites like kodak, etc. The store your images in low res format. I'm sure there are some that don't, but then your back to what I said earlier, it takes forever to upload them. Just for the month of July my photos took up 4.1 Gig of space. Thats a long upload...

[WillCAD]

When it comes to backup, too many copies is ALMOST enough.

I have my photos on my main HDD, my laptop HDD, uploaded to my web page, and copied on two sets of DVDs - one at home and one at work as an off-site backup. Once in a while I burn a third set and leave it at my parents' house.

If you have more than one computer in the house, there's your first level of backup right there. Use the router that you most likely have for sharing your cable or DSL internet to network the computers together, and synchronize your files between them.

The best way to do this is to make sure that all the folders on both computers are named the same and in the same place, then it's easy to get some kind of a simple backup utility that you can use to keep the files in sync. This procedure can also be used when using an external HDD to backup your files.

One more piece of advice - try to get some partitioning software and a computer-savvy person to use it to create a second partition on your computers; the second partition will become your D: drive, and that will be where you store all your data files - music, pics, videos, documents, whatever. Having all your data on a separate partition gives you a little extra protection in the even of a Windows meltdown; having a completely separate HDD in the machine as your D: drive is even better, because it will protect your files from physical HDD failures, too.

[scottny]

I burn them onto cd's and now dvd's and have no problems. i have checked ones form over 3 years ago and still r fine. I do check but maybe I will make other backups now

[WillCAD]

I burn them onto cd's and now dvd's and have no problems. i have checked ones form over 3 years ago and still r fine. I do check but maybe I will make other backups now

As others have mentioned, it's not a bad idea to migrate your backups to newer media periodically. Some of my oldest CD backups are approaching 8 years old and still work fine, but if the files were important enough i would combine a bunch of older CDs onto a single DVD to save space in my storage drawers and restart the clock on the backup's lifespan.

With my digital photos I take a different approach - they still all fit on a single DVD, so each time I make a backup, I simply copy the entire lot onto a DVD, giving me a complete and brand-new copy of them.

[YetiSlayer]

What about pictures taken that day at the parks? I take a ton of pictures and cull after we are home. I download to the laptop after we return to the room and immediately make back up cds. I always want two copies at all times. Any other sugestions?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good sd card storage case? Would the idea of putting a storage case in a zip lock baggie (for wet rides and rain storms) worry anyone? How sensitive are flash cards to static electricity that might build up inside the plastic bag?

Thanks to all for the back up storage ideas.

[dpuck1998]

Okay, the backup while traveling issue. This is a tough one for me. In the past I just brought my laptop with me and dumped my photos to that each night. Well, my HD died in Florida once and I lost only a few photos, but got scared into leaving my photos on my memory card while traveling. So now I copy them to my laptop and leave them on the memory card also. I carry 2- 4 gig Flash cards, so I haven't used more than that yet. Of course I could back them to CD/DVD also, but I have yet to do that.

[WillCAD]

What about pictures taken that day at the parks? I take a ton of pictures and cull after we are home. I download to the laptop after we return to the room and immediately make back up cds. I always want two copies at all times. Any other sugestions?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good sd card storage case? Would the idea of putting a storage case in a zip lock baggie (for wet rides and rain storms) worry anyone? How sensitive are flash cards to static electricity that might build up inside the plastic bag?

Thanks to all for the back up storage ideas.

You're about as covered as you can be on travel backups.

If you leave your cards in the plastic cases they come with, then put them into a plastic bag, they should be fine on water rides and in the rain.

Okay, the backup while traveling issue. This is a tough one for me. In the past I just brought my laptop with me and dumped my photos to that each night. Well, my HD died in Florida once and I lost only a few photos, but got scared into leaving my photos on my memory card while traveling. So now I copy them to my laptop and leave them on the memory card also. I carry 2- 4 gig Flash cards, so I haven't used more than that yet. Of course I could back them to CD/DVD also, but I have yet to do that.

If you have enough cards to leave your pics on them through an entire trip, that's a great way to have a temporary second copy after you download to your laptop. A CD copy is still a good idea, though, in case one of your cards develops a fault (it happens), or you accidentally format a card (it happens). This would give you three copies of your pics.

Many of us simply don't have enough card storage for an entire WDW trip, though. I have 4 512mb cards; each 512mb card is roughly enough for one day's shooting, so if I used up every card I have I'd still only have 4 days worth of storage. Yes, the cost of CF cards is very low these days, so I have been meaning to get more cards, but it's not a pressing issue because I only need more than 3 or 4 cards when I go to WDW, and that's only once a year. I'll get there eventually.

[Reminiscing_Cody]

I've been burned by data failure once too many times. On my upcoming trip I'll be taking a laptop and an external hard drive so there are 2 copies once the card is unloaded. The last day of the trip I'll probably pay the $10 for a day of in-room internet access to upload all the files to my backup site.