Picture Storage

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Picture Storage

Postby Bobatnathrop » Nov 15, 2006 5:02 pm

How do people store their digital pictures?
I have been storing a working copy on a internal hard drive in a PSD format and keeping a RAW version on CDR.

I just wanted to get and idea of what other people do so that I can see if I want to change my way or not.
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Postby Dave Bunnell » Nov 15, 2006 7:15 pm

I maintain two sets of digital pictures. First are the raw, unprocessed pictures, on one hard drive. On another drive, are the processed images, a subset of the best of the originals, the ones I draw from to print or show.

I'm pretty paranoid when it comes to backup. Both of these sets are backed up on two external drives, one attached to the computer at all times, and a second that I attach only periodically, and then leave in my basement in a waterproof case. Additionally I do backups every six months on two sets of DVD disks, one that I keep in my car and one in my house. If I had a safe deposit box, I'd keep a set of disks there.

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Postby Ralph E. Powers » Nov 15, 2006 9:06 pm

Dave Bunnell wrote:I maintain two sets of digital pictures. First are the raw, unprocessed pictures, on one hard drive. On another drive, are the processed images, a subset of the best of the originals, the ones I draw from to print or show.

I'm pretty paranoid when it comes to backup. Both of these sets are backed up on two external drives, one attached to the computer at all times, and a second that I attach only periodically, and then leave in my basement in a waterproof case. Additionally I do backups every six months on two sets of DVD disks, one that I keep in my car and one in my house. If I had a safe deposit box, I'd keep a set of disks there.

Dave

With your talent Dave... I can't say I'd blame you for all of that (above). It'd be a shame to lose some of your best...hell, even your worse pictures. :grin:

Me, I have a set on my hard-drive, a back up on a DVD and the negatives... (haven't quite gone {completely} digital yet... at least not completely... hint for christmas there folks... :rofl: )
Without the possibility of death, adventure is not possible. ~ Reinhold Messner


http://ralph.rigidtech.com/albums.php
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Postby cavemanjonny » Nov 15, 2006 11:38 pm

My sister is a huge shutterbug, and has a pretty thorough backup system set up. I'm not sure what format exactly she saves her pictures in, but I do know that it is lossless.

At any rate, every night a script automatically runs on a seperate computer that has two hard drives RAIDed together (everything that gets written to one drive automagically gets written to the other) that copies all the new pictures to it. this way, every night she is guaranteed that her pictures reside on at least 3 different hard drives.

She also periodically makes dvd backups. It's a pretty good system.
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Postby Dave Bunnell » Nov 16, 2006 12:22 pm

A Raid system makes good sense. But I came up with the idea of a hard drive attached just for a backup and then removed after hearing of someone who had their computer and everything attached to it fried in a lightning storm. And I've always been wary of the scenario of some virus that wipes out every drive attached to the computer.

Of course, the DVD backups help in this regard. If one really wants longevity, Delkin makes an archival DVD that is supposed to last 100 years plus.

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Postby cavemanjonny » Nov 16, 2006 1:13 pm

Dave Bunnell wrote:And I've always been wary of the scenario of some virus that wipes out every drive attached to the computer.


That is indeed a huge problem. My sister uses windows, which is more susceptable to viruses than the computer that has the raided hard drives, which is running linux. Her hard drive has been wiped due to viruses, but they didn't affect the linux backup server. It's like having a eunuch protect your harem :-).

Another thing which helps minimize the risk of internet-borne viruses (virii?) is that the backup server is not connected to the internet. It is only on an internal network. Any virus/attacker has to be that much more determined.

While this may be a lot of effort to set up a (hopefully) secure and redundant backup system, it's probably worth it in a lot of cases.

That being said, there are other simpler backup schemes that are just as effective.
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Postby bigalpha » Nov 16, 2006 4:43 pm

wow, you guys are pretty thorough. I have a set of all my pictures on my main computer hard drive. Then, occassionally, I'll back them up to an 80gig external that I have for music/pictures.

BTW: If anyone is interested in finding some really good deals on new hard drives for backup stuff....wait till black friday.

http://www.blackfriday.info
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Postby Bobatnathrop » Nov 16, 2006 9:58 pm

Wow I stopped understanding what was being said right when Jprouty posted. :tonguecheek:

Wow Dave you are paranoid but I kinda understand it. It would suck to have some random act of nature happen and get a set of you pictures wiped out.

I guess I will just stick with what I got for now. I am sure later on I will have more picturs than I know what to do with and I will have to change but it seems to be working good enough for now.
I did learn the hard way not to pictures on the same drive as the OS. :doh:
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Postby cavemanjonny » Nov 16, 2006 10:24 pm

Bobatnathrop wrote:I did learn the hard way not to pictures on the same drive as the OS. :doh:


Keeping it on a seperate hard drive is a great idea! Having an external hard drive that you can leave unplugged when you're not using it is also a good idea. Periodically burning CDs or DVDs is also a great idea, and not nearly as complicated as some other systems.

The main idea is to have as many copies as possible, in as many different places as possible. However you can achieve this will work just fine :-).
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Postby Ralph E. Powers » Nov 17, 2006 10:44 am

One OTHER place for storage is on the net (not wholly secure I'll agree) but at least one other place to recover from as long as the server stays up. You can share your photos with others toooo :grin:
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