Post your backup process

mattyh

mattyh

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Name
Matt
Edit My Images
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Since Gary posted this thread I thought it'd be handy to see how other people handle backups and the need to cover ones backside in case of hard drive failure, fire or "other" mishaps...

My current solution

1. Import cards to HDD inside computer - Storage 1
2. Import all images into LR to pick/reject RAWS
3. Delete Rejected RAWs from Storage 1
4. Copy RAWs to 2nd drive inside machine - Storage 2
5. Copy RAWs to NAS drive
6. Copy RAWs to External HDD (stored off site, 20 miles away)
7. Edit Images within LR & export hi-res JPGs to Storage 1
8. Copy to other drives as above

Current weak spots are that it relies on ME doing all of the backing up - Although because of the delay in copying to the other drives (after rejecting) I don't see that I can automate it too much.

I should also mention that I don't erase any of the memory cards until I'm up to step 6 - Although I agree this is a potential weak point, I'm happy with this currently.

So, what's your solution?
 
Okay..

1) Insert CF card into Lexar reader in desktop
2) Copy RAW from CF to Synology DS1010+ w/ 5x 2tb Samsung in RAID5
3) Copy RAW files from Synology to one of a group of Seagate USB hard drives which are rotated off site.
4) Import files into Lightroom and when finished processing then force a catalogue backup.
5) Write RAW and LR Backup Cat files to Blu-Ray then remove from site.

CF cards typically do not get erased for at least a week.

And by off site I mean taken approx 36 miles from the main copies.
 
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1. Cut Raw images from card
2. Paste into temp folder
3. Process raw -> tiff
4. Process tiff -> Jpg
5. Save full size jpg in one folder and resized for web in another
6. Save Raw and resized together in daily/monthly folder
7. Back up the monthly folder to external HD at end of month
 
From the moment I put my card in reader I always ahve two copies of all pics on two seperate HDs

Copy from card to PC HD
Copy from PC HD to External HD Unprocessed folder
Cards now free to use as I ahve two copies on diff HD

Work on pictures on PC HD
Copy finished pics to External HD Pictures folder

Delete from unprocessed folder when filling up on a first in first out basis
 
My back up routine is as follows:

  • Copy all images from card to Lightroom (converting to DNG on the way). Copy means that if there is a computer/Lightroom problem I have a copy of the files until I next use that card.

  • Select the option to copy images to a second location, I used a NAS for this, this is my archive copy.
  • I have set Lightroom up so that it prompts me to check, optimize and backup the catalogue each time I exit, this back up goes to my NAS.
  • I never delete any images on the Archive drive, but I process and clear down working images on my Mac, but this is continually backed up by Time Machine to a Time Capsule.
  • After every big upload (or on Wednesdays) I sync my Archive to one of two external drives and use a separate back up application to back up my home folder to this drive. At least one of these drives are stored off site in case of fire/burglary etc. (I used to use Mozy for this, but my image library was getting too big for this to be feasible anymore.)
  • All of my important images (anything taken for a client or rated 3* or above in Lightroom) are exported to my website (Photoshelter) as a full resolution jpeg.

Overkill? Possibly, but I really don't like losing files!
 
Well at the moment I have a very primitive and basic workgroup setup, with a file "server" and two "clients" - my main PC and a netbook. "My documents" on both computers is actually linked to a network share on the server so any data that is used, accessed and stored on either of the two computers actually goes straight to the server. The server's data partition which contains said share, is backed up as and when I feel like (generally when something major changes or I add a day's worth of photos) to a large external hard drive attached to it. A smaller hard drive is about to be used for copying vital parts of the backup onto, so I can carry it on me at all times should something really disastrous happen.

It's a fairly elaborate arrangement for a simple home user, but the fact that all my data is stored centrally means that no matter how many extra computers I add to my network, I only have to worry about one data set being backed up. The amount of time I spend "managing" my computers/network etc. has dropped to almost nothing since I put that arrangement in place.

Except for a few family photographs, the data I store is only meaningful to me, but it would still be heartbreaking to lose years worth of photographs, virtual machines, game configurations, etc, and it's not as if backing up takes a lot of effort.
 
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I have a number of computers and use a couple of tools for backup. Rsync and Drive snapshot.

Every 20 minutes, my home space (or whatever I defined as "data that may change during the day") is sync'd with a copy on my main server.

Nightly, the servers backup is synced to a hard drive on a second machine

Every weekend I do a drive snapshot on each system disk. This gets put on the same two drives as above.

I have 378G of backup data mirrored between 2 machines :eek:

Onl;y thing I haven't (yet) done is offsite. I may fake that with an external 1TB drive hanging off my router one of these days (I know it's not offsite, but it is a long way away from my office - it would have to be a heck of a fire to destroy all copies).
 
Re "overkill":

neil_g said:
no such thing when it comes to data retention :D
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I learnt to be paranoid when I lost a bunch of scanned photos years ago. I had everything on 2 drives which I thought was safe. One day I was out of disk space for something or other, so I cleared one of those two drives temporarily. The other drive must have sensed this, as it died completely one hour later!

My photos and other important files get backed up automatically using syncbackpro (excellent program) to two separate server PCs in my garage, plus I do manual backups to some external drives. On top of those I'm setting up a remote backup to a tiny server at a friend's location. I'm "seeding" that by backing up to the server here on my LAN, and then I'll take it to his location and set up nightly incremental backups. I did consider using Mozy or similar, but my upload rate is only about 1GB overnight (I run backups from midnight to 8am because I have a cap on other usage), and it would take 6 months to backup all my photos! The other issue would be the time taken to download the lot should I lose everything. With my solution I just drive round and collect the server!
 
KIPAX said:
From the moment I put my card in reader I always ahve two copies of all pics on two seperate HDs

Copy from card to PC HD
Copy from PC HD to External HD Unprocessed folder
Cards now free to use as I ahve two copies on diff HD

Work on pictures on PC HD
Copy finished pics to External HD Pictures folder

Delete from unprocessed folder when filling up on a first in first out basis
Click to expand...

Pretty much this, plus burn a CD or DVD as a further backup (these optical copies get checked from time to time to ensure that they are still readable - no problems yet and the oldest ones are 8 years old now.)

I'll often copy a load over to a USB stick and from there to my netbook, especially if I want to show them to somebody.
 
Having read through Gary's thread and then this one I can see the definate need to do a decent backup system but my question is what would be seen as a decent backup for the general hobby tog rather than someone who earns money from it :shrug:

I currently have a PC that I built and it has three HDD in it - one for programs and the OS and then two 1tb drives. The first has the files for my Photo's and Music, the second is a backup of the first, done with allsync weekly. I also go through about every 3 - 4 months and burn DVD copies of older files.

I don't take copies off site as that is not really that practical and don't use any form of cloud storage other than pictures I have uploaded to flickr.

What else should/ could I do that would improve on what I already do (preferably without costing too much as the other half already complains about how much I spend :suspect:)

Thanks

Nick
 
if you already have 2 copies of your data, the next logical step in my opinion would be add in a 3rd copy which gets taken to your work/parents etc. at least then if the worst should happen and something like fire/theft/flood etc hits your house then you have another copy to fall back on.
 
My backup is quite simple

All my photos are imported to my imacs hard drive.
The photos folder is then backed up to a 1tb my book connected wirelessly to my airport extreme.
I have another 1tb drive connected to the airport which is used for time machine backups hourly.
Then every week I have a portable 1tb drive that I do a complete bootable clone of my system. This drive is then kept at work, 10 miles from my house.

Important photos are also backed up online to Dropbox (jpegs only)

Sent from my iPad using TP Forums
 
Tractor Boy said:
I currently have a PC that I built and it has three HDD in it - one for programs and the OS and then two 1tb drives. The first has the files for my Photo's and Music, the second is a backup of the first, done with allsync weekly. I also go through about every 3 - 4 months and burn DVD copies of older files.
Click to expand...

The issue here is that is the power supply goes pop in the wrong way it can take those hard drives with it. You'd be safer with an external drive for backups. The next step after that is an offsite backup which will protect against a fire or say a lightning strike taking out the PC and attached drive.
 
Tractor Boy said:
What else should/ could I do that would improve on what I already do (preferably without costing too much as the other half already complains about how much I spend :suspect:)
Click to expand...
A copy on another physically separate machine or external USB drive. A cheap way of doing this may be if you have a router with USB fileshare in place. Think I'm going to do that next month... Ebuyer have 1Tb external USB drives for £45 if you're not worried by an external power supply powering the disk: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176613
 
neil_g said:
if you already have 2 copies of your data, the next logical step in my opinion would be add in a 3rd copy which gets taken to your work/parents etc. at least then if the worst should happen and something like fire/theft/flood etc hits your house then you have another copy to fall back on.
Click to expand...

daveake said:
The issue here is that is the power supply goes pop in the wrong way it can take those hard drives with it. You'd be safer with an external drive for backups. The next step after that is an offsite backup which will protect against a fire or say a lightning strike taking out the PC and attached drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that guys - I will look into getting a decent sized external HDD and finding somewhere to keep it.

Nick
 
I was using windows backup and restore but that takes literally forever with large amounts of data on Windows 7 so now I'm using Paragon Backup & Recovery 2011 I plan on trying out Allway Sync to make an additional backup I can use on a portable drive so I have access to my files on my laptop as well.
 
Process:

On-site:
CF card into reader on laptop. Images copied to Laptop HD and external site drive - card formatted only if required

Office:
1)Either site drive LR catalog imported into LR on main editing PC
or
Import from CF cards

2)Flag/star/first edit of images

3)All non-rejected images and LR catalog mirrored to NAS and external drive. EHD then taken off-site

4)Main image editing / client proofing / web galleries / etc

5)Final versions of images burnt to CD / DVD either as DNG or JPEG depending on number and importance

6) Re-mirror to NAS and off-site drive with final images

In reality what tends to happen is that after a shoot the external drive come to the office and gets a data set, and then taken away again (E-SATA, so that's pretty quick) and then the NAS gets updated with the new file overnight as it's via a wireless network with is slow...

During editing, if it goes over several days, the NAS gets a nightly update at the end of the day, and the off-site drive gets updated at the end of editing each shoot.

Other things to mention: Off-site drive is stored in a Pelican Case all the time except when it's actually being used. I drop tested the case with an old 60Gb drive from about 2 meters 3 times, and the disk was still fine after all 3 drops.

For very high value shoots (advertising and weddings) I actually do a DVD backup before editing as well. For advertising this is normally done on-site, the folder encrypted, and the disk given to the client. That way they can't use it, but if everything is lost getting back from the shoot we can ring them and get the data from them.:thumbs:

All our business data, being much smaller files, is backed-up and synchronised automatically online and across several PCs including my work laptop. It is also backed up to the off site drive but that isn't really necessary as there are normally about 8 copies in other locations plus a cloud based copy with history.

Software:
Backup - ViceVersa Pro
File Encryption - TrueCrypt
File Sync - Sugar Sync
 
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