Backing up photos

[eclipse79]

Hello,

I'm just getting started in photography! And am looking for ways of backing up my data. Anyone have any intricate set-ups? I have a reasonable budget, and am willing to spend a decent amount to get a set up that works and lasts. If you can explain what you do from when you take the photo to transfer/back up and storage, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

Nima

[klam]

My backups are simple. I take memory card and backup on Epson P-6000 when on the road. Transfer the files from epson on to computer, then copy image to external hard drive. I will later(way into the future) burn the files on the a DVD, i'm really lazy about doing the DVD part.

If you got lots of money to burn check out Chase Jarvis workflow and backup. it's nuts Complete Workflow, Storage & BackUp for Photography + Video | Chase Jarvis Blog

[eclipse79]

WOW to Chase Jarvis. So I'm not at the Chase Jarvis level to buy all that gear. I guess I can have the same set up but lower the capacity to suit my needs. Thanks for the post!

[mattdm]

Remember, it's not a backup until you know you can do a restore.

I upload all of my pictures to a remote server (which also serves as my web site). This is replicated automatically via rdiff-backup every night to my hard drives at my house, my friends house in another town, and my parents' house in another state.

[Shokinen]

Raid 0 (mirroring) is a good way to start. You basically have 2 drive in your computer with the same information so if one fails, the same information is on the second one. Get some knowledge and check if you current PC can do it, it's fairly simple to do it.

--> Make sure you start with 2 new drives or you save your pictures somewhere else. Creating a Raid 0 will erase the FAT table and you won't be able to access your picture unless you deal with a specialized compagny that can extract the information from the disk (expensive).

A very important part of the backup process is what Mattdm explained. A backup is useless if you don't have an offsite solution. You may be doing some RAID 5 but if your house gets on fire it doesn't change anything... you still lost your pictures.

[TFord.LTTP]

Just be careful with RAID as a whole, even with the best setups I've known too many people to have one drive fail and lose it all even with the safer configurations.