Just Backup There!

[Keltic Ice Man]

Following on from the thread about backing up to dvd where Marcel gave some excellent advice...(http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=10470)

it got me thinking - what is the best way to backup digital pics, it strikes me that DVDs are prone to scratches, and portable drives prone to virus and failure, but which is the best and most robust?

What are people using, what has your experience of using it been?

Thanks

Allan

 

[Steep]

I use dvds but take care of them

 

[Warspite]

I use DVDs also - however I also have online and offline backups other hard sisks, and external hardisks, not really had any problems with DVDs yet (have heard of some), but dont want to find out the hard way.

Also hard disks, even external versions are soo cheap these days that I cant see any reason to use anything else.

Always cover yourself is the approach I've taken, dont rely on just one backup - use atleast two, also another thing is make sure you have a surge protection on your computer - I've seen more than a few hardisks ruined by bad power circuits and surges.

 

[Matt.]

I rarely backup (i know, how stupid is that?!) but have always been of the opinion that having a copy away from your house is a wise move. If everything is stolen or the house burns down you don't want to lose your images!

Aperture seems to have good ways to keep multiple copies of everything, though i've not used it yet as i don't have a DVD-RW and can't afford external HDDs

 

[busterboy]

I have all my data/pictures/important stuff backed up on to 2 hard drives.

One internal drive and one USB external drive.

I would be most upset if years of work had been lost..

 

[Warspite]

I rarely backup (i know, how stupid is that?!) but have always been of the opinion that having a copy away from your house is a wise move.

True - this would be ideal. Some of my archived stuff is stored at my parents, but just remember any backup is better than none.

 

[brummie]

I have a 1024x768 back up copy of evrything online.

I also have a spare hardrive back up via USB which i can snatch in case of fire
I and also mirror my drives.

Excessive??? I just dont want to lose owt

 

[Digital SPG]

All my important images I up-load to Smugmug. Unlimited space (I have just under 5Gb on there at the moment).

I love the Google earth features as well.

I also back-up all my RAW files to DVD and I have a Seagate drive just in-case.

 

[rpstewart]

True - this would be ideal. Some of my archived stuff is stored at my parents, but just remember any backup is better than none.

Wise words. I archive to DVD, 2 copies of each disk on decent Taiyo Yuden blanks, then one copy stays with me and the other goes to the parents. My online copy is on RAID5 plus I have an external HDD which holds a backup of anything which hasn't gone to DVD.

 

[Braeden]

My important data is currently on 3 hard drives - my laptop, the data drive on my main PC and also my network hard drive.

I don't back up to DVD yet as I don't think I need to - plus none of my photos are really worth saving