How Long To Keep Files

[mshockley]

While I was performing some back-up today of my last 2 sessions from yesterday, I started thinking about Files, and how to manage and keep things under control. My business is quite new, but I can already see this is something that I need to get a handle on and have some sort of plan in place.

I'm curious what everyone does in this regard? How long do you keep current files on your pc, backed up files on external hard-drives, etc.? When do I start freeing up some space or transfering off hard-drives onto what? Do you ever simply delete some stuff???

So How long, let's say for a Senior/Newborn/Family Photo Session, would most of you keep the RAW File, and the Finished Files, etc. around??

Just wondering

[Jim Poor]

Barring a disaster, I keep them "forever."

The cost is minimal and with a good organization system, it's easy to recall photos from past sessions, which can be rewarding personally and financially in the future.

My backup/archive is changing a little, but this is what it's going to.

Current work:
Two sets of raw files for the current year.
One set of DNG files for the current year on site.
One set of DNG files for the current year off site.
One set of JPG files for any photos that have actually been ordered.

At the end of the year, I delete one set of raw files.

Previous years.

One set of raw files on site.
One set of DNG files off site.
One set of JPG files on site.

[andyw]

I have virtually everything I have ever taken since being pro. (a lot of years).
All digital from the past 10 years and all the negs/trannies are slowly but surely being transferred over.

Current 2 or three jobs are on the pc with a backup to external drives attached to pc.
All the last years are on a a couple of external drives, one at home, one at office/studio. plugged in as and when required.
All the rest are on drives stored one at home one at office/studio.

Large hard drives are cheap, take up very little space for what can be stored on them and are a darn site better than cd's or dvd's.

[mshockley]

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

Barring a disaster, I keep them "forever."

The cost is minimal and with a good organization system, it's easy to recall photos from past sessions, which can be rewarding personally and financially in the future.

My backup/archive is changing a little, but this is what it's going to.

Current work:
Two sets of raw files for the current year.
One set of DNG files for the current year on site.
One set of DNG files for the current year off site.
One set of JPG files for any photos that have actually been ordered.

At the end of the year, I delete one set of raw files.

Previous years.

One set of raw files on site.
One set of DNG files off site.
One set of JPG files on site.

All right Jim, this is helpful! I'm only really in year 2 of "business" so I was wondering about 2010 files. Now I have an idea of what I'm going to do. I've already been doing basically what your doing, at least I'm on the right track.

[funcrunch]

I've only been in business for a couple of years, but I've yet to delete anything (other than clear rejects), and don't intend to. I often find uses for old files, not just for possible customer orders but for stock agencies as well.

[lonni]

I have only current jobs on my hard drive. Anything i am working on or waiting for orders on.

Once it is done everything gets burnt to DVD and placed into the hard file with all the paper work and put into an archive box and i store them at a sepperate location to my office. I also keep a complete copy at my office. I also have external hard drives set to automatically back up each week, which are dulpicated and stored at the sepperate location.

You can not be too carefull. There was a flood at our office years ago and all our paper work, negatives and floppies etc was trashed, we all spent weeks trying to salvage the information. Tax that year was a nightmare. So i learnt the leasson, back up back up and back up again and keep them in sepperate locations.

I have everything, i never delete, not even the rejects.

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by lonni

I have only current jobs on my hard drive. Anything i am working on or waiting for orders on.

Once it is done everything gets burnt to DVD and placed into the hard file with all the paper work and put into an archive box and i store them at a sepperate location to my office. I also keep a complete copy at my office. I also have external hard drives set to automatically back up each week, which are dulpicated and stored at the sepperate location.

You can not be too carefull. There was a flood at our office years ago and all our paper work, negatives and floppies etc was trashed, we all spent weeks trying to salvage the information. Tax that year was a nightmare. So i learnt the leasson, back up back up and back up again and keep them in sepperate locations.

I have everything, i never delete, not even the rejects.

Unfortunately, DVDs, even archival discs, are horrible for long term storage. They degrade and you'll not be able to use them.

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

Unfortunately, DVDs, even archival discs, are horrible for long term storage. They degrade and you'll not be able to use them.

roughly 10 years seems to be the average consensus right now on the life span.

RAID array back up drives are the way to go.

[BigFuzzy]

I keep everything forever and ever.
I lost a hard drive once (lost pretty much all of 2006) and I'm super paranoid now, so this is what I do.

Two drives on PC with all RAW and processed images (after a very strict selection process). One drive only turned on when copying files to it.
All photos backed up online via Mozy
All photos backed up online via LiveDrive
All "keepers" kept on a private Flickr account
I sort all images on my drives by year and in the year I have folders from each shoot with a descriptive label such as 20110315_hotmodelshoot" and "20110318_anotherhotmodel" etc.. that way you can sort all folders by "name" and it sorts it for you chronologically.

I've been super selective (especially with portrait sessions) and only keep what I consider to be "good" shot using my "justlikeBenji-sh!tty-lesssh!tty-average-decent-good-niiice-youdaman" scale, really reduces the numbers.

[mshockley]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

I keep everything forever and ever.
I lost a hard drive once (lost pretty much all of 2006) and I'm super paranoid now, so this is what I do.

Two drives on PC with all RAW and processed images (after a very strict selection process). One drive only turned on when copying files to it.
All photos backed up online via Mozy
All photos backed up online via LiveDrive
All "keepers" kept on a private Flickr account
I sort all images on my drives by year and in the year I have folders from each shoot with a descriptive label such as 20110315_hotmodelshoot" and "20110318_anotherhotmodel" etc.. that way you can sort all folders by "name" and it sorts it for you chronologically.

I've been super selective (especially with portrait sessions) and only keep what I consider to be "good" shot using my "justlikeBenji-sh!tty-lesssh!tty-average-decent-good-niiice-youdaman" scale, really reduces the numbers.

Fuzzy this is a good system! I was thinking about using some online locations to back up files. Seems like a decent enough plan.

I'm a bit paranoid also, as I had the same thing happen in December. My PC just took a dump, "experts" could not retrieve anything from hard drive, which they said was quite rare, of friggin' course it would be me! I didn't lose any image files, I had just backed up all but some very recent edits to external hard drive, but I did still lose a ton of files and paperwork besides photo's. (which I had been very lazy about backing up) Lesson learned!

I don't know, I guess there's any number of ways to go about it, I think the key is to make sure your getting it done. I just don't want to blow up a ton of space needlessly either, so I like your being very selective process!