File Storage?

[MajaMolly]

Usually I will upload my image files, save to a disc and we also use Carbonite for off-site storage and back-up. Recently I have begun to get lazy and not copy to a disc, plus there begins to be a lot of discs.

What do you guys do for your file storage?

[benm]

I started out with disks too (CDs!) but files are too large and too many now. I now use multiple external portable hard drives, at least one stored off site All the external drives have the same files (multiple redundancy). 1 TB drives can be had for under US$100 which is pretty cheap. An important point is that you have to do the backups regularly, don't do one every six months.

[Sunray]

Hello,

we had some similar threads in the past. Maybe take a look at these:

Nervous! How do I store photos?

Computer Hard Drive Configuration

Bye
Robert

[FrankMi]

What do you guys do for your file storage?

Hi Molly, for backup, I rotate two removable hard drive that plug in on a Firewire connection but USB could also be used. I use a 640GB drive for just the live data files that I back up. Program files and the OS go on two separate drives in my PC.

[MajaMolly]

Hello,

we had some similar threads in the past. Maybe take a look at these:

Nervous! How do I store photos?

Computer Hard Drive Configuration

Bye
Robert

Thank you, Robert. I guess it helps to use the correct search words.

[MajaMolly]

I started out with disks too (CDs!) but files are too large and too many now. I now use multiple external portable hard drives, at least one stored off site All the external drives have the same files (multiple redundancy). 1 TB drives can be had for under US$100 which is pretty cheap. An important point is that you have to do the backups regularly, don't do one every six months.

Thank you. TB? Does that stand for Terabyte?

[MajaMolly]

Hi Molly, for backup, I rotate two removable hard drive that plug in on a Firewire connection but USB could also be used. I use a 640GB drive for just the live data files that I back up. Program files and the OS go on two separate drives in my PC.

Hi Frank. Thank you. I guess external hard-drive combined with Carbonite is a good way to go!

[Black Pearl]

I have an external HD that I use in conjunction with Time Machine which keeps things up to date a sorted easily but I also have a NAS drive that I back stuff up to monthly.

[mrrod]

Two removable 1TB sata drives and a 1TB western digital usb my passport drive that updates every time there's a change in my picture directory; also upload to skydrive.

[Shadowman]

What files are you saving? Is it the RAW images only, your PP work, or a combination of both?

[ktuli]

CDs and DVDs are worthless for long term storage. Don't continue to waste your time there. The light sensitive material used to make them able to be written is also their Achilles heel. Eventually (regardless of how well you store them) that material breaks down and the disc becomes unreadable.

A good case in point... I have a buddy who is a musician. He had some recordings of versions of his earlier work on a CD-R that we wanted to compile for a remix disc. It took every trick I could come up with to get the data off of that disc, and some of the tracks still have a weird distortion/popping that is a result of the deteriorating quality of the disc.

Everyone that has been suggesting rotating local HD backups plus offsite if you can afford it have it dead on!

One step above that would be to look for an external RAID enclosure. You can get an enclosure with RAID 1 which is two drives in a mirrored state - so it will automatically copy the data to both simultaneously. As long as you quickly replace a failed one, your risk of losing data is low, and there is less overheard than regularly rotating drives.

There is also software out there to keep things in sync automatically so you don't even have to think about it. You might be using one already... if you use Lightroom - it can be configured to save your files in multiple locations automatically.

Best of luck!

- Bill

[stevewe88]

Now for another question on the same theme.

I have just bought a 1TB seagate external drive with the intention keeping a copy of all my photos and videos off site. Now all I need to do is set it up to sychronise from my desktop to the external drive.

The only free program I have heard of for this is Microsoft's Sync Toy but this seems quite old now.

Any suggestions? Nothing too technical as my wife will have to operate it too

[MajaMolly]

What files are you saving? Is it the RAW images only, your PP work, or a combination of both?

I am saving a combination of both.

[MajaMolly]

CDs and DVDs are worthless for long term storage. Don't continue to waste your time there. The light sensitive material used to make them able to be written is also their Achilles heel. Eventually (regardless of how well you store them) that material breaks down and the disc becomes unreadable.

A good case in point... I have a buddy who is a musician. He had some recordings of versions of his earlier work on a CD-R that we wanted to compile for a remix disc. It took every trick I could come up with to get the data off of that disc, and some of the tracks still have a weird distortion/popping that is a result of the deteriorating quality of the disc.

Everyone that has been suggesting rotating local HD backups plus offsite if you can afford it have it dead on!

One step above that would be to look for an external RAID enclosure. You can get an enclosure with RAID 1 which is two drives in a mirrored state - so it will automatically copy the data to both simultaneously. As long as you quickly replace a failed one, your risk of losing data is low, and there is less overheard than regularly rotating drives.

There is also software out there to keep things in sync automatically so you don't even have to think about it. You might be using one already... if you use Lightroom - it can be configured to save your files in multiple locations automatically.

Best of luck!

- Bill

Thank you, Bill. I am using Lightroom... but just beginning to. I am still in the reading and learning phase.

[peterb533]

I use Lightroom to make a second copy as it imports my RAW files and it also makes a backup of changes on a regular basis. So, in theory I have copies of the original shot on two external drives and a backup of changes on another. Overkill?

[ktuli]

Now for another question on the same theme.

I have just bought a 1TB seagate external drive with the intention keeping a copy of all my photos and videos off site. Now all I need to do is set it up to sychronise from my desktop to the external drive.

The only free program I have heard of for this is Microsoft's Sync Toy but this seems quite old now.

Any suggestions? Nothing too technical as my wife will have to operate it too

Steve,

Unfortunately, I don't have a readily useful suggestion for you. My suggestions would probably fall into the "too technical" bucket since I usually operate in a combination of Windows and Linux for my backups. I use rsync for my backups, and there is a cygwin rsync for Windows, but getting into that is a bit complicated to explain here. If there is a serious outcry for it, I can certainly write something up.

However, something to keep in mind is that a backup solution should be automated. The less you have to remember to do it, the less chance you'll forget at that critical time and lose data because of it. I highly recommend something that runs on a regular schedule and automatically runs backups of selected areas. That way, you set it and semi-forget it (I say semi- because you do want to check on it from time to time to make sure it is doing its job), but this removes it from a regular task for both you and your wife.

- Bill

[Evn1ngStar]

he only free program I have heard of for this is Microsoft's Sync Toy but this seems quite old now.

Any suggestions? Nothing too technical as my wife will have to operate it too

You could try SyncBack, you can set it up to do automated backups, freeware (or the pay version, which I think is around $29) and not too difficult to run

http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html

[FrankMi]

Now for another question on the same theme.

I have just bought a 1TB seagate external drive with the intention keeping a copy of all my photos and videos off site. Now all I need to do is set it up to sychronise from my desktop to the external drive.

The only free program I have heard of for this is Microsoft's Sync Toy but this seems quite old now.

Any suggestions? Nothing too technical as my wife will have to operate it too

I use the KISS principal. I have a directory on my 'backup' hard drive called "All Files to be Backed Up". All data files for all my programs, including Outlook Mail's PST files reside there. I do a simple copy to one of the two external hard drives and add the date to the copy of the "All Files" folder name so that I know which drive is a backup form what date. If I backup just the Pictures (or Documents, etc.) folder but don't backup all the folders, then the name of the folder I backed up separately gets a backup date as well. If anything fails, I have readily available copies of the data that can be accessed without any special software by any machine that can read an external drive and knows the password to the files. I also maintain a folder called Archived where I keep older copies of any files, like the e-mail PST's that get updated on a frequent basis. That way I can still retrieve older versions of the critical files if need be. Hope this helps!

[Shadowman]

I am saving a combination of both.

I usually keep mine on my laptop or external drive until I run out of storage space. I then save to disk and they are pretty secure because I don't access them that much, perhaps two or three times a year especially if I am looking for a particular theme or image from a particular country I have visited. A dedicated drive would be a good alternate storage location, another would online backup.

[stevewe88]

Thanks for the replies Frank, Yvonne and Bill

My aim is to have the external drive set up as an exact copy of the image and video folders on my PC so that I can access and edit the files on a laptop and then just plug it into the main PC to sync the changes.

These days I tend to use the laptop more so the main PC will become my backup device and the external drive will be my working files and off site storage in one.