How do you store your photos?

Techno-Geek

Techno-Geek

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Tony
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How do you guys store your photos?

I normally copy them to a folder on my exsternal and keep a file on my computer, i've started burning them to disk today so i can keep a hard copy of them in my cd book just to be on the safe side. I'm going to sit tonight and instead of doing nothing constructive :lol:. I'm going to sort though all my photos and get them all in a folder and in order :lol:

EDIT: I've created a partiton on my hard drive now :) so they can be kept in like 3 or 4 places now :)

So what do you guys do?

Tony
 
I print them all out and stack them in piles of 100........ Got to move soon as running out of space...:wave:
 
On a more serious note. I have one external drive for storing all RAW files. Then I have another for my aperture library and an external drive which is my digital vault for aperture and backs the library up.

Belt and braces may be but better safe than sorry.

Nigel
 
RAW's stored on External hard drive. ( Internal one too small now) Backed up to external HD. Copies burned to DVD... What me paranoid?
 
All my raws go on an external drive, then the processed jpegs are on my main hard drive.

Time machine backs up the main drive and the external drive to another drive that is used for backups only.

So i have 2 copies of the raw file, and 2 copies of the jpeg.

If its a really important occasion, the contents of the CF card are also burned to DVD.
 
All images get copied to an external and once a week thats all backed up onto another external.

My internal is only 120gig so I keep programs and the like on there and most things stored on the 400 gig external.

Regards, James
 
I keep my raw/jpgs together in the same folder. I got fed up of searching for the raw when I found a jpg I wanted to play around with. It also helps when I rename them all to date taken as it's easier to see if there are any missing which would upset the numbering sequence and give a raw a different number to its jpg. Also, if I find a crap jpg that may have been missed in the initial cull, the equivalent raw is alongside to be deleted at the same time.

As for storage - on two internal hard drives, and two external or removeable hard drives. I also burn to two dvds. One hard drive and one set of dvds are kept outside the house in the garage.

I burn on to two different brands of dvd. Although I haven't had any dvds go bad on me, in earlier days I did have a batch of cds go bad after a year or so and become unreadable - all same brand.

I burn a dvd asap - as soon as I have sorted and renamed them all. Usually on holidays I do thousands so do them every night in the hotel, and burn a dvd or two. I've had photos become corrupted on hard drives so like to get them on to a dvd sharpish.
 
I am in a world of SH*T when it comes to storage :D I have ALL my fileds, caterogised by DATE only, across 5 or 6 hard drives on different PC's, however, only 1 copy of each file in total. In otherwords, no backups and multiple potential failure points :D

The only stuff I put online is 800px wide!

Erm, I need to work out a way of beng better organised :)
 
i have a raid setup with NAS storage seperate from my PC

750GB of storage and over the past year i have now filled 30% of it lol

time to save for another device and two bigger HDD's lol
 
I have external HDs

I come home from a football match and copy card to PC HD
I process the pictures then copy PC HD to external HD and wipe memory card

When external HD gets full I buy another. When PC HD gets full I burn to DVD

Thus from the moment I get home I always have two copies of my pictures in seperate places... I currently have in access of 70 thousand. published on the web .. These are all 640 pixels so could be classed as a poor 3rd backup .
 
Apologies if this belongs in another thread or its just a slight wander..

Whats best.. DVD or external HD .. Presuming we want to keep our pics forever?
Not taking into consideration changing technologies as we can always transfer
 
I have a separate strategies for Business & Personal photos.

For Business: I upload from CF card to Laptop and Laptop External HD at the same time at the venue. When I get home I copy the files from my laptop on an External HD at home which I then ensure is mirrored on another External HD. When I need space on the Laptop or the Laptop External HD I use delete.

For Personal: I upload to laptop and then at some point (which means when I remember) put on an External HD which is again mirrored on another External HD.

I will always ensure I have at least 2 copies on External HDs of all photos.
 
KIPAX said:
Apologies if this belongs in another thread or its just a slight wander..

Whats best.. DVD or external HD .. Presuming we want to keep our pics forever?
Not taking into consideration changing technologies as we can always transfer
Click to expand...


Both.....together. As I've said earlier, I've had cds fail after a year, hence burn on to two different brands of dvd now. I've had hard drives fail too. Mechanically, and also by operating system errors which have wiped the drive. Also user error when I accidentally formatted the wrong drive. I heard a story a while ago about a man in tears in a camera shop with a failed hard drive containing the only pictures of his new born baby.

Anybody who has just one set of pictures on one hard drive or dvd is set on an inevitable course to grief and tragedy. It's just a matter of time. It makes sense to learn from other people's mistakes. Not your own.
 
Yantorsen said:
I just can't afford more HDDs lol.
Click to expand...

Not questioning your financial status, but just pointing out that you can get a 160G drive from Ebuyer for around £25 + post. Put one on your Christmas list!

On a previous comment on keeping photos for life, already it is becoming problematical. I have a number of fitted and not fitted backup hard drives - all IDE. I'm due for a PC upgrade with a motherboard replacement. All boards now have mostly sata connections and only one IDE. Eventually you won't be able to get a board with IDE. So now I have to start thinking of replacing my IDE drives and transferring. In fact I've just got 2 x 1TB sata for £70 each and put all my photos on one (750gb worth) and copied on to the second. I'll keep the IDEs obviously, and hope I don't need to find a pc to run them on one day. But I could always stick them in an external usb case.
 
Be careful with CDs and DVDs - if possible record to Archive Grade ones. I've just had a serious of backup CD's fail 5 years down the line - right pain in the arse.
 
Yantorsen said:
I literally dont have the money though or the time to work, so I have no choice.
Click to expand...

Apologies then.. I presumed you meant just a bit broke at the moment as most people do.

As another said.. crimbo list? :)
 
I have an external 500gb hard drive which I back up to when my internal drive gets rather full. I'm really only bothered about family photos, which I upload to a private area of my Flickr account, the rest would be frustrating to lose but not the end of the world. If I ever get paying jobs then backup would be far more important to me.
 
MisterE said:
Both.....together. As I've said earlier, I've had cds fail after a year, hence burn on to two different brands of dvd now. I've had hard drives fail too. Mechanically, and also by operating system errors which have wiped the drive. Also user error when I accidentally formatted the wrong drive. I heard a story a while ago about a man in tears in a camera shop with a failed hard drive containing the only pictures of his new born baby.

Anybody who has just one set of pictures on one hard drive or dvd is set on an inevitable course to grief and tragedy. It's just a matter of time. It makes sense to learn from other people's mistakes. Not your own.
Click to expand...



Suppose thats the downfall of the digital world .. no negatives (or am wrong )
 
I don't bother with local hdd backups
I use these chaps www.carbonite.com

currently got 67Gb backed up to the ether, costs $50 for the year

no worries...:love:

It's got me out of the poo on a few occasions, when you delete a file, they keep it for a while, just in case you change your mind..:thumbs:
 
On a similar line to carbonite I use Mozy.

Full flow is:

Copy from card via lightroom (dng conversion) to laptop hd and external disk (folders organised by date in both cases).
Delete non keepers from internal HD.
Internal HD backed up fully to Time Capsule and all docs/images/important settings to Mozy.

Lightroom library is also backed up to external disk once a week (as well as Time capsule/mozy back ups)

My only concern is the lack of off site back up for my "non keepers" although I've never had to use them, so have to hope that continues...
 
I've got to agree with MisterE. It's vital that copies of any images of value (commercial or personal) are stored well away from the house. It won't matter how many external drives you have, a fire will eat them all. A dry garage or shed is fine, or upload them to a professional online archive.
Andy.
 
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