Storage / backup for your photos: HD or DVD?

[jan56]

Hi folks, I'm facing the problem now, that my internal harddrive on the PC is running full soon. So I'd like to hear your opinion where to store the pics. So long I did backup and archive on CD's which gets impractical... DVD seems a bit better due the bigger capacity, but how reliable are they? External harddrive? More reliable? In fixed case or rather a case where I can change/swap the drives? Heard the latter could cause problems with the connections of the drives in the case? What's your opinion?
Thanks for lettin know...

[JDArt]

DVDs don't hold enough--and they're too slow. That leaves hard drives for me.

[dc2]

Guess nothings guaranteed but I would also recommend the Epsom P2000 portable storage device as it lets you put all your files on the drive wherever you are reads raw images stores music and video has 40gb memory . I think theres also a 80GB version as well .
Oh you can view all your jpegs or raw pics on a very good srceen as well.

[timjon]

I'd also say - don't rely on a single backup, as everything will fail eventually. If you only have your photos on your internal drive at the moment, back them up now!

I personally store everything on my internal drive. I back up everything I shoot to DVD. I mirror my internal drive to a server, and also mirror to a separate external drive which is normally disconnected and powered down. Just to go completely over the top, I also keep a copy offsite.

There's a saying in the IT world - data doesn't exist unless it's in two places.

If you want a fast, simple way to back up, external hard drives are probably the best way to go. Buy a couple (they're cheap) and copy everything onto both. DVD writers and disks are cheap and easy, but can go bad (I believe DVD+R is more reliable than DVD-R, although both are pretty good these days). Offsite storage is great, but can be expensive if you have to pay a third party service.

Cheers,

Tim.

[Paul Shields]

Prices for external USB drives seem to have nose dived recently. I picked up a couple of 320GB enclosures for not much more than the cost of the bare drives. HD-DVD drives will be commonplace in a year or so, and may be useful for backup, though I've heard reports about how delicate the surface of these disks can be. I'd personally stick to external drives and make sure the data's in at least two places at any one time.

[jan56]

Thanks for your quick advise and sharing of your ideas - helped me a lot to get my direction, thanks again

[Rense]

In the field or immediately after a shoot the images are on my Epson P2000.
When I come home they will be downloaded to my computer's HD.
Next a backup to an external HD
Then the CF card is formatted
and when there is enoug material they are burnt to a DVD and are the albums on the Epson viewer deleted.

[20DNewbie]

I usually just burn them to DVD.

On the off occasion I want more than that, I found a old(lived it's whole life in a display case) 60GB iPod Photo at a big box store for short money that I use as an external HD.

[Paul Shields]

How do you find using the iPod for this. I tried using my iPod as an external storage device but found the transfer was really really slow. It was ok if you just left it to get on with it I guess.

[TonyK]

At the present I use both external HD and DVD for backups.

[jfrancho]

I've given upi on burned media. Not because I doubt it's reliability - I do - but because it becomes too cumbersome to maintain the library. I use redundant drives in my editing machine, and off site archiving. This, in addition to off site backups of my working directories.

[koisanke]

I personally place my photos on a HD and back them up on DVD. If you are concerned about the failure rate of DVD storage, then make two copies. Afterall disks are fairly cheap these days. You can get fairly large and inexpensive external HDs these days.

[jfrancho]

Well, that's the issue for me - two copies of the library would be twice as much mess! I have just over a TB of image files, That would mean 212+ standard DVDs. I do use them for a temporary emergency backups when on location, or traveling. I hold on to them until I can upload to my permanent storage. Each person needs to evaluate their situation, and formulate both a plan for archiving and a disaster recovery plan. The solution will depend on volume, equipment, budget, and most importantly risk. a set of DVDs at your desk, and a copy in the firesafe is a great start. Some like to use HDDs this way.

[20DNewbie]

Originally Posted by PaulS

How do you find using the iPod for this. I tried using my iPod as an external storage device but found the transfer was really really slow. It was ok if you just left it to get on with it I guess.

I haven't saved very much at all to it, but when I do, I do it via computer not camera or CF card to iPod adapter. Strictly just as an external HD, nothing else.

[nasoj21]

There are archival quality dvds out, but a pain to burn everything to dvd.
There are places that can transfer your 8mm film and your high 8 tapes to dvd, and I assume in 20 years there will be places to transfer your dvd's to whatever the current storage format is.
HD's though... Easier yes, but if I fill a HD and put it in a safe for 5 years, am I going to be able to pull it out and start it back up.
A canon ae1 will work for a long time if it is used, but if the parts that are designed to be moved are not moved and instead it sits in the closet gathering dust for 10years there is a good chance it is not going to work.
Am I going to have that problem with a Hard Drive?

[timjon]

Hard drives are fairly reliable, but (as with anything else) I wouldn't trust my entire backup strategy to them, especially if they're not going to be used for five years. In that case, I'd store the drives, but also back up to DVD.

Anyone who isn't obsessive can safely skip the rest of this comment...

Okay, it's worth bearing in mind there are additional techniques you can use to ensure data recovery will be easier if there's a problem. Not all DVD blanks are created equal, and not all types of DVD are the same. It's widely considered that the DVD+R writing and recovery strategy is more rebust than DVD-R, so if you have a choice, + is probably a better bet.

Also, look into parity sets. This is some clever computer science type stuff that can allow you to recover all of your data even if some of it gets corrupted. This is MUCH more reliable than just burning two copies of your DVDs. Splitting data sets and parity sets across multiple DVDs (so even if a disk goes bad, you only lose part of each set) can mean that even if half your disks become unreadable, you can recover everything. It's quite a lot of work to be this organised, though, and I must admit I only bother for exceptionally critical data.

Cheers,

Tim.

[Fusion]

I am currently running 3 external hard drives, 2 x Iomega 300GB and 1 Buffalo 250GB, all nice and cheap but appear very reliable. I also make back up copies of important stuff onto DVD's. Ian