How do you save your photos?

[riphoto]

I save all my photos to my Drobo (external drive with 2 600GB disks in a RAID like array), and have my Drobo backed up to Amazon S3 with JungleDisk (It checks every 6 hours if there are any changes and uploads the changes, keeping changed files for 60 days).

This way I have redundant locally but also offsite. And technically I have a backup on Smugmug because I could download from there, but since they use Amazon S3 for storage if my S3 goes down there's a good chance theirs did too LOL

I've been contemplating the whole keep RAW+JPG or just RAW. I'm only using 20% of my disk space, so for now I'm keeping both. That way I don't have to re-generate the JPGs if I want them again.

[Agata]

I use Time Machine. It's set up to back up my files wirelessly to an external HD everyday -- very useful program if you ask me.

Last summer I lost a lots of photos because I didn't save regularly so I do recommend saving your photos at least every week.

[Chad Z.]

The safest way is to set up redundant drives (raid storage). I use NAS which is basically hard drive storage that isn't in a computer. It's network storage. So on my home wireless network I have one of these connected directly to my router and working as a hard drive for all my computers in one location. Here is a cheaper example: (I've never used this particular unit, it's just an example since really good ones can be thousands)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...3662&CatId=207

I use desktops and laptops all in my home network and save all my edits past and current that I'm working on on my network storage. That way I dont have to mess with external hard drives and messing with taking them with me any time I leave but still want to get some work done. You can set up your NAS to have redundant drives so that everything you save is backed up on another hard drive the exact same way. This is good especially since you can get 1TB drives these days for under $200 from tigerdirect and newegg type places.

In my router settings I 'port forward' so that I can access my home network outside of my home so this way I can edit my photos no matter where I am in the world and not have to worry about backing up info or messing with external hard drives. I just open up my laptop and get working. It's the best and easiest I've found so far but would love to hear if anyone has any other options that they do.

[JerBear]

You mentioned going cheap in your message.

Add another HD to your existing machine, 750 gigs are now available for less than $100.

COPY, you photo file over to that drive as your primary backup.

Burn your photos to CD's, or if you have one DVD's (preferred) which store 6x the amount of data. Ideally, make three copies of each disc, but a least two.

If you have three copies, keep one there with you, keep the other two different locations other than your office/home.

A word to those that keep their back ups at the same location of the source, what if you have a fire, flood, burglary, etc.. YOU HAVE to have the back ups off site to truly be secure.

As for the Online services, Don't be surprised when they go out of business and you lose everything. If you read the agreements that they have, not responsible for anything.

YOU WANT to back up and have full control of the data, not some third party.

Good Luck

JM

[philippe99]

Originally Posted by Sooner

My typical procedure is:
1. download to my computer
2. upload to off site host
3. burn to dvd (you may choose to copy your dvd's and keep 1 offsite)
4. back up to external hard drive

This is also my typical procedure; the off site host is a host I pay for secure backuping; however, I less and less burn to DVDs

Phil

[bsolah]

I save them to my hard drive but after my last laptop got stolen and thousands of pictures went with it, I'm thinking I should be backing them up somewhere. I might get a new external hard drive.

I do print some photos out though, but been wanting to print more and hang them up.

[piku]

Originally Posted by Chad Z.

In my router settings I 'port forward' so that I can access my home network outside of my home

Just what are you forwarding through your router?

I was going to do the RAID thing too, but using consumer-grade hard disks in that kind of way is a great way to shorten their lives. I've instead bought a 1TB drive and parts of that get backed up automatically in various ways.

All my photos are copied off my camera and stored on my own server, which runs the fantastic Gallery2 software so I can easily look at the images I have.

They're all then burnt as DVDs, and depending on how paranoid I feel they also get copied onto the various laptops I own as an extra backup.

The worse thing anyone can do is empty their camera into their computer, then write the images to CD/DVD and delete them off their computer "to save space/to make it run faster". A 'backup' means there is more than one copy of your data.

In all the years I've been using computers, I've had quite a few hard drives emit scary noises and stop working, or Windows has crashed and I've lost files, or the computer itself breaks down. I've also had DVDs and CDs either become scratched, or the shiny layer has started to peel away with age.

Offline storage is the best method, let someone else worry about all the hardware. Unfortunately for a serious amount of storage it can cost quite a lot.

[blarg]

I shoot in RAW and jpeg. Jpegs go to the desktop computer for all to see.

RAW stays on my laptop so I can edit and play when I want.

Then I have an external hardrive that I back up my docs once a month or so.

[kukolka2008]

Any advise on the offline storages please?

[Hockey-whino]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

Like jdepould, I also have multiple external hard drives and that are mirrored. I don't keep images, only programs stored on my computer HD, as images take up space and therefore the computer runs slower. I also burn everything to DVD's as well.

Jim, I think I want to go the same route that u did. Just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly. One external hard drive as a back up only. One external hard drive as a working hard drive with all your photos on it (basically what you carry around with you) and no photos on your main computer. Then DVDs also in case of fire and brimstone.

So far, if i follow your example, I have a WD 320g (main backup), Seagate 500g (working backup), epson 400 (for on the road) and I burn new DVDs once a year. I have learned the hard way, after a two computer crash in the same week. (I lost a lot of family photos)

Take care, HW