What do people use to store their digital photos

[MATT]

What are people using to store digital photos?

Some type of image tank? Will it connect straight to the D70 without a PC.

And how about long term storage ie dvd's ect.

Cheers MATT

[birddog114]

I've used and tried XDrive ProII and other PSD/ other external Hdd devices, but none of them can be connected direct into the camera and down load images from its CF card without a PC.

[gstark]

Matt,

I move my images directly from CF to PC. Even when travelling, I usually have my laptop and therefore this solution's availability isn't an issue.

For longer term storage, burning to DVD is the go.

And with a 1x1GB and 2x512 CF cards plus a 2.2GB microdrive, even shooting at raw+ jpg, I don't consider myself to be at too much risk of running out of in camera storage.

[Onyx]

I was gunna say, I store my digital photos in a traditional photo album for the 6x4's.

Digital images on the other hand - hard disks, on laptop and desktop. Plus a copy on CDRs for backup.

[MATT]

I've been using DVD media but I'm concerned about the longevityof such discs.I know this is whole another thread. But I'm still concerned.

My next plan was a external harddisc, that way I could back up to another external as new technology comes out.

But it would be nice to be able to get the images off the CF card with out a PC.


My wife still believes there is nothing better than sitting and looking at 6x4's in an album.

MATT

[MCWB]

I transfer from camera to PC using either a USB 2.0 card reader or the supplied USB cable, depending on whether I care about speed or not. I then process them, and save in a 'processed images' folder. This folder is periodically imaged to a separate HDD, and backed up to DVD+R discs. I always do a kprobe analysis of the disc after it's burnt to verify the burn. I only get photos printed if I want a large image: I rarely print 6 x 4 photos, much to my mother's chagrin.

[W00DY]

I've been using DVD media but I'm concerned about the longevityof such discs.I know this is whole another thread. But I'm still concerned.

My next plan was a external harddisc, that way I could back up to another external as new technology comes out.

But it would be nice to be able to get the images off the CF card with out a PC.


My wife still believes there is nothing better than sitting and looking at 6x4's in an album.

MATT

I keep all my images, music and video on a 250gig external drive (which I keep turned off when not using).

I found out the hard way when I lost over 3,000 mp3 files to a virus... Luckily they were only music and not images.

I also burn all my images at the end of each month to DVD, thinking I might start burning 2 DVD's and keeping one at the folks house or somewhere)

W00DY

[W00DY]

My wife still believes there is nothing better than sitting and looking at 6x4's in an album.

MATT

My wife is the same and I am almost starting to agree with her. I am starting to thnk that printing out most of your digital photos (let's say the good to excellent ones) isn't a bad idea so at least you have a copy in the case that technology fails and you lose your DVD, external drive whatever...

This is actually a very serious issue which I am not sure I think about enough...

W00DY

[ajo43]

I have a 200gb Maxtor USB2 drive. It seems to be a good drive now but soon after I bought it the thing died on me totally randomly and without reason. No data was recoverable.

I got a new one under warranty but the issue for me was reliability. The dealer said it does happen occasionally.

No now I back up on my c: drive, my external Maxtor on CDs which sit in the in-laws fireproof safe. Maybe I'm just too untrustworthy!

[W00DY]

Maybe I'm just too untrustworthy!

I would say you are very smart....

Currently I have 1000 images of my family sitting on an external drive which I am supposed to trust not to become corrupt... I don't think so.

Tonight I am copying all my images onto a second DVD and storing them in my parents safe

W00DY

[birddog114]

I've been using DVD media but I'm concerned about the longevityof such discs.I know this is whole another thread. But I'm still concerned.

My next plan was a external harddisc, that way I could back up to another external as new technology comes out.

But it would be nice to be able to get the images off the CF card with out a PC.


My wife still believes there is nothing better than sitting and looking at 6x4's in an album.

MATT

I have three copies of my keeper photos in 3 difference formats:

1/The Verbatim DVD Armor Plate media with robust longevity in archiving my keeper photos and other important documents.
2/ A Sony Tape backup AIT-3/ 50-150Gb with 3 set of back-up tapes (6 tapes each set) rotation/ incremental daily and total backup on the week-end on my W2K server. and my small NAS.
3/ 2 x external 250Gb Western Digital hard disc (USB and Firewire)to Ghost the entirely Hdd from my server and my W2K with SCSI RAID5 running with 04 x 73Gb SCSI U320.
4/ All the tapes + DVD disc (media) are stored away at my BIL (Brother In Laws) fireproof safe, and we swapped them every week-end.

[Greg B]

I have a 200gb Maxtor USB2 drive. It seems to be a good drive now but soon after I bought it the thing died on me totally randomly and without reason. No data was recoverable.

I got a new one under warranty but the issue for me was reliability. The dealer said it does happen occasionally.

No now I back up on my c: drive, my external Maxtor on CDs which sit in the in-laws fireproof safe. Maybe I'm just too untrustworthy!

Crikey! I read one of your earlier posts and noted mention of the external 200gig drive. Sounded like a fantastic thing. Checked them out, there is a maxtor and a seagate.

But I don't like the sound of the inexplicable and disastrous meltdown, oh no, I don't like the sound of that at all.

It is a tricky business.

[ajo43]

you put me to shame....

That is a serious system. I didn't even know what half those things were but I was suitably impressed

[W00DY]

I didn't even know what half those things were but I was suitably impressed

[jethro]

ive lost about three drives over the last 6 years. most of this data can be recovered but it will cost you a bomb. data recovery companies can charge up to $100 per gig. believe me i have backed up thousands of jobs we have produced over the years and the most reliable is cd rom or now dvd. tape drives can mangle and so do hard disks. can be damned expensive

[bigfix]

Hi Guys
Interesting to see how everyone is coping with file storage.
I used to work in IT and have seen enough hard drives fail to know they are temporary storage.

So here is what I do.

Set-up
1 laptop with 1 external USB standard size hard drive.
I setup a Windows Briefcase on the ext drive.
Drop my Photos folder from laptop onto the ext drive.

Method
Transfer camera image files from CF card to laptop as usual.
Hit up briefcase regularly and do "update all"
This ensures I have and identical copy of my laptop photos folder on the ext drive.

Printing
Photos that I like and have done some photoshop on I burn to a CD and take to get printed into 6x4's for my physical album.
This burnt CD becomes and additonal backup of photos I really care about.

[Greg B]

Yes jethro, I have had 100% success with CDR since my first brief flirtation with inferior media.

Since I have been using TDK - which cost about $0-40 each (which is about $0.0007 per meg - cheaper than an external HD but, I guess, not as compact or convenient), I have not had a failed archive disk.

I have probably used a few hundred.

[birddog114]

ive lost about three drives over the last 6 years. most of this data can be recovered but it will cost you a bomb. data recovery companies can charge up to $100 per gig. believe me i have backed up thousands of jobs we have produced over the years and the most reliable is cd rom or now dvd. tape drives can mangle and so do hard disks. can be damned expensive

Lucky me, I haven't got any trauma in the past 15 years in back up my stuff, I had some failed Hdd but they're common and with my current setup, I can do a disaster recovery in a hour for all my needs with my gears and setup, that why I'm very seriously in archiving my stuff (work + photos + personal documents). I scanned all our family passports, birth certificate of my kids, Marriage certificate convert to digital and put them away from home. They're expensive, of course, you won't need them everyday but when you need them they're there and if you can afford them then more peace in mind.

[MATT]

Birddog. That is some serious backup. At this stage i think that may be overkill for me .

I dont trust harddrives either, to many times they are working today dead tomorrow.
MATT

[MHD]

I have a few lines of defence...

I download all photos to lappy where they are store temporarly and then saved pre-processed to CD

My nice shots go post proccessed on to my gallery computer (which does my webserving) this one I back up (not often enough) using works DVD burner...

Which reminds me I must do it again

[jethro]

if you back up to cd a good reliable shareware program available is disk tracker. ive used it for a long time.