How do you backup your pictures?

[labdogs42]

and what is your "workflow"? Do you copy to an additional hard drive? DVD? CD? Online photo site? Do you backup ALL of your pictures or just the best ones? How often do you backup? How many places do you backup the same pictures? I lost a hard drive recently and I'm trying to do a better job of protecting my pictures going forward. I'm just looking for suggestions and a system that is easy to keep up with and maintain. We did get a RAID setup for our computer now, but I also plan to save pics to DVD and some online, too. I'd like to hear what YOU do to keep your pictures safe! Thanks!

 

[handicap18]

Everyone's methods vary. I have 2 external HD's and also every other month or so burn a copy of my pics to DVD. Once they are on a DVD then I will format the card.

I backup all my pictures, RAW, JPEGs and any edited images.

I do have some on an online photo site, but not many.

I had a HD crash a few years back and lost a bunch of photos. Now, I will not format a media card unless those files are on a DVD. There have been a few cases where I have needed to format a card, but the files that I erased were already on 3 different HD's at the time.

 

[MICKEY88]

2 websites, external hard drive and DVD

 

[labdogs42]

2 websites, external hard drive and DVD

Do you upload ALL of your full-sized files to the websites? I use smugmug and shutterfly and it takes a WHILE to upload everything. I usually send smaller files and only my favorites, but I might start sending more.

 

[MICKEY88]

I used to upload at 25%, but have changed to uploading full size, I try to upload the same night I take pics, and sometimes will start the upload and go to bed...LOL

 

[LMarge]

I use smugmug as well as a external hd and cd's - ditto on the start the upload and go to bed!!!

 

[mabas9395]

Now that lightroom has plugins, I use it to automatically upload to smugmug. And I set it up before I go to bed too.

 

[LMarge]

I do have a quick question. I loaded the following folders to my external hd : My pictures, My Music, My scans, and My videos. I finally went in to look a the "backup log" and it was 11 pages long with the following messages:

C:\Doucments and Settings\HP_Owner\My Pictures\whatever the file name was\Thumbs.db ----or \zbThumbnail.info Not Supported/File skipped (backup of hidden files and folders is not supported)


What is that??!!! I did check the drive and when worked my way thru to the files they were loaded - all my pics were there, music, etc. I have a Maxtor OneTouch4Plus hd. The tech help site does say that it does not backup hidden files - are these hidden files a system file that I don't need to backup as when I reboot my system(should it ever fail - please Lord protect me from this!) they would be on the new hd as a program file? Just curious - it's a bit scary to see all those "Skipped" error messages!
Thanks for any help with this - as you can tell, I'm a bit techno stupid!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

When I shoot, I record my images to two cards at once, so I start with a backup in the camera.

When I'm home, I use lightroom to convert the RAW files to DNG and copy them to two different hard drives in my computer (actually, one hard drive for backup and a 2-drive striped RAID for editing). Once that is done, I put the cards back in the camera and reformat.

When I'm done culling (which usually means deleting between 50% and 90% of my shots) and editing, I copy the final DNG files and PSD files to a RAID5 (sort of) NAS. I also put JPG's in another folder on another RAID5 NAS. I sometimes upload the JPG's to Smugmug as well.

Once a month (or so), I archive the DNG and JPG files to two sets of DVDs using ArchiveCreator. I keep one set of DVDs at home and one at the office. At that time, I usually wipe out the local copies of the files and repoint Lightroom to the NAS versions.

At no time from when the camera flushes it's buffer onward are the files stored on any one disk. Drives fail. For the long term, I keep three copies - the DNG and JPG files on the NAS boxes, the DVDs I keep at home, and the DVDs I keep at the office. Honestly, I'd be pretty comfortable with the two DVD copies, but I like having the files available online as well.

I would not consider dual hard drives a reasonable long term storage solution. I would definitely not consider a single hard drive to be a reasonable long term storage solution.

When traveling, I usually back up to a laptop and burn a copy from the laptop onto a DVD before wiping the memory cards. If the outing isn't all that important, I don't bring a laptop and just leave everything on memory cards. I'm about to order a 16 gig SD card and a 16 gig CF card so that I can handle any single day of shooting without fussing with cards.

My rules are - redundant copies of the pix are a must. It's too easy to accidentally delete a picture even on a RAID. DVDs are more reliable and last longer than hard disks if you don't use them much. If you frequently mess with your DVDs, they get scratched and aren't as reliable.

RAID arrays are nice, but they aren't really all that great from a backup perspective. I've seen two drives in a RAID fail before.

 

[MICKEY88]

I'm about to order a 16 gig SD card and a 16 gig CF card so that I can handle any single day of shooting without fussing with cards.

.

any specific brand, I've seen a 16 gig CF for $69

 

[Donold_Fan]

I have 3 external HardDrives (all have the same pictures on them) and periodically backup to DVD.

I need to start doubing the DVD backup and taking a set out of the house.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Realtime backup for everything on my pc and laptop through carbonite.
DVD copy of everything deleted from the laptop
of course all the best shots are sent full size to smugmug for dispay and archiving.

Mikeeee

 

[MarkBarbieri]

any specific brand, I've seen a 16 gig CF for $69

I haven't decided yet. I've seen some cheap Transcend 16 gig CF cards. I've also seen the SanDisk Extreme III with a $90 rebate that gets it down to reasonably priced. I hate rebates, but the extra cost for the extra speed might be worthwhile.

 

[MICKEY88]

I haven't decided yet. I've seen some cheap Transcend 16 gig CF cards. I've also seen the SanDisk Extreme III with a $90 rebate that gets it down to reasonably priced. I hate rebates, but the extra cost for the extra speed might be worthwhile.

I've seen an ADAT 16 gig for 59

and a RIDATA 16 gig for 79


I've been using a Ridata 8 gig daily for months, with no problems...

I'm torn between buying a 16 gig, for future use, newer camera higher file size..or a bunch of 4 gigs since I recently bought a portable dvd burner that burns straight FROM A CF CARD..

 

[Groucho]

No matter how you back up, redundancy is key...

I usually burn two DVDs, one of which goes in my fire safe. Lately I've been also keeping the RAWs on hard drives, either my main or my NAS PC.

 

[mabas9395]

When I'm home, I use lightroom to convert the RAW files to DNG.

[Hijack Warning]

Any particular reason why you convert your RAW files to DNG? Is it because DNG is supposed to be more universally recognized? Twenty years down the road is there any reason to think that DNG files will be more readable than RAW? I know that RAW is not standarized among the different manufacturers (even within the same manufacturer sometimes) but I can't believe that Lightroom v8.2 in the year 2025 won't be able to read my CR2 files. Or do you have a different reason besides future file compatibility?

[/End of Hijack]

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I do it for a couple of reasons. Future compatibility is one. The other is that DNG files can be updated. When I process my photos in LR, the edits go directly into the DNG file rather than as a sidecar file. I prefer having everything in one file. Finally, I'm just philosophically more supportive of published formats rather than proprietary, non-published formats.

 

[jann1033]

i back up to disks of all of them( a few copies) and also put the ones i like best on a couple online places( photobucket or zenfolio)

 

[labdogs42]

I recently bought a portable dvd burner that burns straight FROM A CF CARD..

This sounds like a great idea! What brand did you get? How much $$ did it cost? (if you don't mind)

 

[sneezy1956]

Raw and cleaned up Jpgs are stored on my external hard drive they are also copied to my son in laws external hard drive...and then I make 2 DVD's of the files one is kept at my house and the other is at my mom's. That way there are at least 4 copies of all photos.

My son in law and daughter does the exact same thing but theres are all stored at his mothers. So in real life since I back up all of his and he backs up all of mine we are talking about lots and lots of copies