Question: Backing up photos to DVD

[Lachesis00]

I want to burn all of my concert photos to DVD to send to management. I want to do it in one swoop. PLUS I should back up my 400,000+ other photos from over the last 10 years.
Is there a way to easily do it where it will ask me to pop in another DVD when one is full or do I have to do it DVD by DVD one at a time and hope I do not double burn a set of photos?

What is the best program to use for backing up photos?

Thanks and I look forward to replies. I really need to get kickin on this.

 

[timned88]

this does everything you can possibly think of and even more.

 

[pyrxtc]

I ahve to do it 1 DVD ata time I use Sonic record Now.

 

[PaulD]

I have an older version of the Roxio product and found that it did something weird when it was spanning discs. If I remember correctly, when it reached that last file (that didn't quite fit on the CD) it would split it in two and save part on one CD and the other part on the next CD using a proprietary file format. In order to get the file back you had to use Roxio to recover it. Someone without the software wouldn't be able to view the file. I don't know if it still works this way or not but this would be bad news if you're sending files to management.

You may want to look at Archive Creator (http://www.rawworkflow.com/products/archive_creator/index.html). I've never been willing to spring for the cost but it might really suit your needs.

I'd also like to throw out a warning about using CDs or DVDs for backup purposes. You should know that they are not terribly reliable as the dye that is used tends to break down over time especially if exposed to heat and other environmental factors. This is especially true if you're using cheap media (don't we all?). If you don't believe me pull out some old CDs or DVDs that you burned 1-2 years ago and see how many of them are now corrupt. Even if you've stored them well I bet you'll find at least one in ten are now dead.

I suggest using several different backup devices and possibly something off site (what if your house caught fire and you're backups burned). What I use is two different external hard drives and then I upload my photos to Smugmug. If you do backup to CDs or DVDs then you may want to make complete backups periodically (not just incremental backups) so you don't lose anything to corruption. Some might think that's overkill but once they're gone, they're gone...

 

[Furgus]

If you are really concerned about your DVD's going bad, which I am not, check these out.

The 300 Year DVD

 

[manning]

Roxio is now owned By Sonic.

I have both and favor Sonic.

 

[Groucho]

Darn it, I had a long reply all typed out and then Dis was timing out then the PC locked up.

IMHO Nero is the best burning software by far. (We use RecordNow at work.) The suite also comes with a ton of other software which ranges from good to great.

To do what the OP wants, they'd probably need to use a backup program which spans discs. Nero Backup will do that. I don't think the Windows built-in one will (it also does no compression, which admittedly isn't so big of a deal on JPGs since they don't compress well.)

The downside is that you need the same backup program to pull the picture off, plus you can't view them on a DVD player that supports JPG, unlike a normally-burnt DVD.

I'd recommend using Nero and just remembering what the last picture you could fit on a disc is, or more the whole bunch when you're done with the each disc.

Make sure, no matter what you use, to turn on "verify"! On Nero, this is a checkbox available during the burn. On Roxio, it's set up earlier, in project properties I think (or maybe general options... somewhere in there.) This way you can be confident that you've made an error-free burn.

You may also want to consider a disc indexing program. Free ones include DiskBase (good but abandoned, and a tad ugly but perfectly functional and fast) and Disclib (better-looking but can be very slow on big disks or big collections.) There are others, too. This'll help if you're looking for a specific thing and can't remember what disc it's on.

I don't agree with PaulD's method (sorry) of backing up to hard drives. There is no modern storage medium more unreliable. It's best IMHO to burn one or two DVDs and store one and leave the other out for accessing when you need it. If you really want to make sure that you don't lose your pictures, toss the "safe" disc in a fireproof safe along with your important papers. Besides, DVDs are incredibly cheap!

If you're really, really concerned, you could make PAR2 files for each disc, that way unless the disc is 100% toast (which is pretty much unheard of unless it's physically damaged), you will be able to use those files to repair any damaged or unrecoverable pictures.

 

[manning]

I back up both to DVD and an external hard drive.

The hard drive is a working file. It is much faster to access for working.

The DVD is the safest for archiving. A hard drive will, not might, fail. You don't know when. It can be today or years from now. I had a brand new hard drive fail after one month.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I use Archive Creator. It's great. It even creates an index with thumbnails on each DVD in a set.

It is a bit expensive. I think its $60 these days. I guess there isn't a particularly large market for it, so they have to make up costs by spreading them across fewer customers.

One other big negative is that I bought this for my D60 back when it was cheaper. When I got my 1DM2, I needed to upgrade (at cost) to a newer version to get the RAW support. Now I convert my files to DNG before I archive them, so this hopefully won't be a problem when I get a 1DM5S4 or whatever Canon entices me to buy next.

 

[Groucho]

Another thing that might be useful is to use PixVue, which can keep thumbnails of all your images in a "gallery" accessible directly from Windows Explorer. That should also work with discs you've already burned, too. I haven't played with it too much yet but keeping saying that I will one of these days... it sounds extremely handy.

But that's veering away from the original question.

Regarding life of CDs/DVDs, I can add that I've recently been moving all my old burnt CDs to DVDs, and only a couple CDs have come up with errors - and many of these are 10-year-old discs! I think that today's discs, with proper storage, should easily last that long. In 5-10 years, I'm sure I'll be moving all my discs to BluRay or HD-DVD anyway... as long as they last that long, I'm happy.

 

[Lachesis00]

Wow I got no email replies so I didn't think anyone saw this post.

I do back up to Smugmug (thankfully as my house was robbed in May. All but two older computers were taken (one has my OLD OLD nine years worth of photos) and any CD's/DVDs we had were smashed to smitherines.

I had Roxio 8 and it was stolen in May. Does anyone know when 9 is out? I keep getting emails to pre-buy it.

***Edited

I have Nero! I have no idea how to use it, but I have Nero!

I suggest using several different backup devices and possibly something off site (what if your house caught fire and you're backups burned). What I use is two different external hard drives and then I upload my photos to Smugmug. If you do backup to CDs or DVDs then you may want to make complete backups periodically (not just incremental backups) so you don't lose anything to corruption. Some might think that's overkill but once they're gone, they're gone...

 

[PaulD]

My personal experiences with recordable CDs and DVDs have been pretty bad. I understand that some people may not have had the same problems but I know that others have. Depending on the dye and the quality of the reflective surface used a CD or DVD may be more or less reliable. But, at least where I work, they are not considered archival quality. Look at the following article for a more thorough explanation:

http://msn.pcworld.com/article/id,124312-page,1/article.html

The most reliable thing to back up to is a tape drive. These have a proven track record of reliability but are pretty expensive. So I use multiple hard drives so that if one fails (they do) I still have at least one or two copies elsewhere (computer plus two external drives). This is the same strategy used for large secure data servers. Data redundancy doesn't guarantee anything but by playing the odds you're about as safe as you can be (what are the chances that all three hard drives go bad at the same time?). In fact, Smugmug duplicates their entire collection on servers in two geographically different locations.

What you have to realize is that protecting your data has to be an ongoing endeavor. You can't just backup to DVD once and forget about it. That's how you lose data. Discs do fail. It's inevitable. Maybe you'll luck out and have one that lasts 100 years like they claim but from what I've read you're really taking your chances. My photos are too important to take that risk.

 

[Lachesis00]

Well Nero did not work. I can not figure out how to make a multi disk. When I tried and thought I had it right, it kept saying my media did not have enough space.

Does anyone have Nero 7. Can you walk me through making a multi DVD. I need to make DVDs for the bands management...

PaulD I do not have a tape back up. I do back up to Smugmug, but have not backed up my 400,000 photos because the one time I tried, I could not get it to do folders (to do a bulk upload). It stuck them all in one folder. On my computer they are broken down by date and function/holiday.

 

[Groucho]

If you want to do it all in one swell foop (or fell swoop) with Nero, you need to use Nero Backup (which wouldn't be part of the "bundled" version.) Otherwise, you need to just fill it until it's nearly full, burn that, then do it again where you left off.

It's worth the extra effort to burn them individually IMHO rather than having them in a backup format (no matter whose it is.)

 

[PaulD]

PaulD I do not have a tape back up. I do back up to Smugmug, but have not backed up my 400,000 photos because the one time I tried, I could not get it to do folders (to do a bulk upload). It stuck them all in one folder. On my computer they are broken down by date and function/holiday.

I don't have a tape backup either. They're pretty expensive.

As far as Smugmug is concerned there are two different programs that will allow you to upload an entire folder at once. Here are the links:

http://wiki.shahine.com/default.aspx/MyWiki.SendToSmugMug
http://www.starexplorer.com/

Also, look at the hacks page on Smugmug for some other downloaders:

http://www.smugmug.com/hack/hacks-apps

I use the first one I've listed above (SentToSmugMug) and it seems to work pretty well. I'm going to try StarExplorer next. You'll probably have to do individual folders because it will put all the photos into one collection. I suppose you can always move them after the fact but that interface is cumbersome. With SendToSmugMug you can right click on a folder, select the send option, type in a new collection name (or select an old one), and walk away. Hope that helps! Good luck!