What media is the best for backing up Images?

MattEg

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Matthew Egan
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I seem to be having problems with DVD's that have some of my images on.
Some are a shops own brand and others are an expensive mastering DVD.

I have tried many different ways to recover the info without any luck.

Can anyone out there suggest the best media for backing up.
 
I find that external Firewire, or USB{1,2} disks are the best way to backup, not only can you automate the backups (if you so desire), but they also hold enough data to make them useful for storing most of your images, software, and operating system if you want! Also, you can search for images much more easily on a single disk, rather than ragging your way through a load of DVDs, which are then liable to get scratched and damaged.

In terms of expense, they're not that bad. We're talking maybe £70 for 160GB of backup space, which is more cost effective that most DVD-Rs, and you can easily keep a disk for up to a couple of years before you have to change it out.

You can always swap them out say, once a year, and make sure that the drive is running smoothly, and it's keep defragmented (if you're running Windows) and checked.

Check out the range of LaCie Porsche designed disks, we usually buy ours from Jigsaw Systems, who can be found online at http://www.jigsaw24.com.

Rob
 
While a hard drive backup is ok, you should keep at least 2 extra copies of important data, and obviously don't keep them all in the same location, just to be sure. Hard drives can fail, just as you can get a faulty/broken CD/DVD, but you could end up losing thousands of images, instead of several dozen or so.

I and several others are using Datawrite Titanium discs which do seem to be a little more resilient than most others.

Personally, I keep 2 copies of my images on separate HDs in my PC, another copy on my 2nd PC, and then another copy on DVD (stored at my parents). Once they're gone, you can rarely (if ever) get them back.
 
Agreed. I've lost loads of images through drive failures and couldn't retrieve them even with recovery software. I now take network backups onto another server which has mirrored disks. I then also copy the very important ones onto CD/DVD.
 
I use a 160GB USB 2.0 HD to store image files. I then have two 200GB drives for backups and archives, and I also copy the original files (RAW and off-camera JPG) to CD.

If you switch external drives off when not using them, they should last many years. The lifespan depends mainly on runtime. :wink:
 
Thanks for the replies.
I might have to get myself a couple more HDD's just for backing up purposes.
 
im seriously considering this also, i have DVDs also, but i really want more storage.
 
I have 2 hard drives on the 'puta - one has the OS on it, the other is purely for images. Both drives are partitioned so that I can assign scratch disks in photoshop to get that beast working as fast as possible.
I only keep images on the computer while I'm working on them (or until I'm pretty sure I won't need to work on them any more) then they get burnt to DVD. 2 Copies for good stuff - 1 copy for dross.
At work we archive everything onto 5 disks, one of which goes to the Imperial War Museum for the Public Archives. No pressure there, then!
Just imagining in 60 years time some historian going through all that stuff from Iraq saying 'look at this rubbish! All these photos of American Army-Birds Boobs...tsk tsk...'
 
I have just taken a major step towards ensuring the safety of my images and invested in an external firewire/USB 2 HD enclosure to act as another storage device to run along side my CD achieves. My question is does anyone know of or preferable recommend software to make backup’s simple and hassle free. As I am a cheap skate I would like it to be cheap or preferably free but will pay should it be necessary :)
 
I use ViceVersa - see www.tgrmn.com/index.htm

It allows you to compare and synchronise any sets of folders between any drives, and to update the target. It can also be set to allow for the 2 second creation time difference you can get between FAT-32 and NTFS drives. Simple and effective, but it does cost a few dollars iirc.
 
Thanks sir, I will have a look at that..do they offer a free trial by chance?

EDIT yes 30 days :LOL:
 
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