Backing Up

Alex53 · 14 Apr 2006 at 22:20

I back up all my images manually without any software. I keep the images in folders which I create after each 'shoot' and ordered using a date in the folder name.

2006-04-02 Beach
2006-04-05 Cordoba Street Shots
2006-04-10 Gig (SuperWookie)

and so on.

Basically I copy all these folders to an external hard disk, and occasionally I also burn a DVD with all the folders I can fit in, so my backup DVDs go in ranges of dates, 'April 2005 to August 2005' and so on.

One of the things I'd like to do is save just the RAW files in these folders not every jpeg or tiff I create while processing.

Is there some programme out there that could help me automate all this a little? Something aimed at DVD archives which creates sets adecuate for the size of a DVD would be great.

rickyt · 14 Apr 2006 at 23:14

I wouldn't know about automated software for back up , but I'm a little curious about your storage format .......DVD . Are these things really secure for back up ??. It's just I've done a few DVD movies and they have played fine at the time of writing , went back to them a year later and they are corupted half way through and will not play ,in fact I've just thrown a one away today for that very same reason. I read in a magazine that these DVD disks can deteriate after a length of time.It's a bit worrying to think all your back ups could be useless after a year or two. I have allways used CD's for for downloaded software and even after 5 to 6 years they will still play in a CD Rom . Maybe it's a good idea to back your pictures up to CDR just in case .What do you think ??

feenster99 · 14 Apr 2006 at 23:17

I think Cobian Backup should do everything you want and more.

Matt

rpstewart · 15 Apr 2006 at 07:56

rickyt said:
I wouldn't know about automated software for back up , but I'm a little curious about your storage format .......DVD . Are these things really secure for back up ??. It's just I've done a few DVD movies and they have played fine at the time of writing , went back to them a year later and they are corupted half way through and will not play ,in fact I've just thrown a one away today for that very same reason. I read in a magazine that these DVD disks can deteriate after a length of time.It's a bit worrying to think all your back ups could be useless after a year or two. I have allways used CD's for for downloaded software and even after 5 to 6 years they will still play in a CD Rom . Maybe it's a good idea to back your pictures up to CDR just in case .What do you think ??

While it's true that there are no true statistics about the lifespan of DVDRs the same can be said of CDRs to a certain extent. We simply have not had recordable media for long enough to know the true lifespan of each type. I would agree however that DVDs do seem to be more susceptible to damage and deterioration that CDs, most likely due to the reduced width of the track on the disk.

Having said that I still use DVD rather than CD for backups, I churn through DVDs pretty quickly so I'd hate to think how many CDs I'd need. Personally I hedge my bets when it comes to backups, firstly I never have only one copy of anything. If it isn't on DVD it's on an external HDD and the internal disks, once anything goes to DVD it goes to two, one I keep here and the other I leave at my parents, the originals stay on the PC too. Finally, don't skimp on the media! If you're relying on it still being readable in a few years then go for a trusted brand - Verbatims or Taiyo Yuden. Even then I still check them occasionally, each disk is burned with a CRC file created in CheckCD so I can run them back through the program and it compares the CRC on the disk with what it's reading back from the disk.

Alex53 · 15 Apr 2006 at 11:08

Thanks for the software recommendation, it looks very good and I like the easy interface. Its already doing a backup as I type.

About the durability of DVDs, now you've got me worried. Problem with CDs is they are way too small. I only have one set at the moment but I guess I can always make two sets like rpstewart and take one set to my office.

rickyt · 15 Apr 2006 at 19:25

One other thing , When I bought my Pany DVD recorder , I read about the RAM disks . I have started to use these all the time now , in fact I bought a RAM drive for my PC.They say these disks can be over writen thousands of times and will keep there data for 30 years .I must admit I've had absolutely no problem with them and they are quite robust , some even come in a caddy for safe keeping.You can buy a DVD RAM drive [Pioneer 110 super ] for £26 maybe cheaper , and may be worth looking into for a safe and secure storage medium.Hope this helps.