Checking my hard drive, I see much space is taken and though there is more left I need to archive many folders of photos.  My first thought was to burn CD's, perhaps two of each set for security. The CD is at least a solid format compared to digital storage on a drive of some sort.

If you do archiving or have a way you feel is woriking, please let me know.  Thanks

Some photos are uploaded to printing companies and that is ok. Some are in print but most are not. When saving raw, tiff and images with layers, etc. lots of computer space is occupied.  I was surprised how much was devoted only to photos and the "working" versions of those.

Any advice will be appreciated.      DVD might work but there seem to be compability issues with some formats.

TomDart.

Be careful if you store them on CD! Consumer CDs, burnt at home, have a limited lifetime (some only 2 to 5 years!). Some brands are better than others. Try to make some inquiries as to which ones do have a more substantial lifespan. Most people believe that CDs are forever, but that's definitely not true!

Ahh...thanks very much.  Got alternatives?  Tom.

I read this somewhere, but totally forgot where exactly. The problem, as I recall, was this: the original, professionally burnt CDs were etched in the material itself, and were told to last forever. Professional CDs, like most audio CDs by the record companies, or commercial software CDs, are still made this way. However, consumer CDs are manufactured with an emulsion, or coating laid on top of the material for easy burning in home computers. The life span of these CDs depends entirely on the quality of the coating. That's why the most expensive types of the best brands will last longer than some cheaper ones. Still I read that 15 to 20 years is probably the most that can be expected. I found this very alarming, that's why I wanted to warn you. I don't know of an alternative; maybe you could get a professional burning service bureau to do the job for you, but I don't know if they will do this for one or two copies, and if the price would be reasonable...

Hi Tom and Geert!

Geert suprized my what you said about CDs. I do my storage on DVDs. Some goes back to 3-4 years and I find nothing  wrong with a pictures on it. I always buy good quallity brand, and recently got a habit to reburne them every 6-8 months or so. I have a second copy of them in a safe as well just incase is a fire in a house.

 

Tom! your cat is winking!  How cute! hehe

seeyus

Tom,

Geert said it all about CD storage.
Some time ago there was a thread where this was discussed.

As far as I remember some people store their most important archives (photos or else) in removable (external) HDs.
There are external units where you can insert one HD or even more than one at the same time.
Then you can 'label' those HD by categories and store them outside the external unit.

It may be a good choice to buy good quality HDs as well as good quality external units to insert and remove the HDs as if they where CDs or DVDs.
I must say that I believe that this solution is the best for the the time being.

I hope this helps.

having seen tons of colour slides of a died uncle thrown away after his death (well, some years ago...) I'm not so hard expecting a "very long" lifetime of my digital data:

1. true, self burnt consumer CDs last only some years (at least include always a final comare step after burning).
2. my elder CDs are duplicated on DVDs (1 +R, 1 -R version at least), at least for photos, audio files and documents
3. the working versions are actually held on mobile disks (like momobay)
4. a selection of one year's photos is printed (well: wet chemistry) on quality photo paper (13x18 cm, some fewer on 20x30cm)
5. less quality than a paper print, but acceptable: a selection of photos - perhaps per year again - in a printed photo-book like a port-folio

Besides the durability of CDs and DVDs (what has to come next? remember well the move from ZIP drives to CD not too long ago) - which will require regular copying actions - is the durability of the digital format itself: jpg, tif, raw (which one??), dng,....This emphasizes the importance of initiatives like PASS, now: EVERPLAY....

I tend to use DVD's for the extra storage and continue to trust a USB external drive backing up at regular intervals despite a recent problem on this device which turned out to be a faulty power supply I have had one for a number of years and has proven far more reliable than my Hard drives on my PC.. Which I have had as RAID on Serial drives which for some reason are I have found less reliable than IDE drives.. The new camera  devices may prove to be more reliable for longer term storage as they wont get the heavy use of the PC..

In the end I think the only safe way is to continue to back up your data and reburn them after a period of time.. It is quick and cheap to do this nowadays.. No system is going to be 100% reliable whatever you chose but the above method is the best way I have found,,

I look forward to the arrival of Lightbox type software as I tend to store images that are not worh saving and then is a real pain to sort through them all at a later date, which may say something about my lack of organisation!!

Attached Link: Bob's Achiving Tips

This is an ever popular subject and I always learn something new when someone posts about this. You all make good points. The attached link has some very good info about storing digital data (ie. photos) on CDs or DVDs. Forgive me if I repeat some of what was said. I think a major consideration though is to use CDs and DVDs made for the intention of storing data for long periods of time. The link above suggests some. They cost more...but how much do you value your images? Once burned, store them properly in a controlled environment. Make a back up set as well. If the only place you have your images is on your HD, then you are asking for trouble. Your Hard Drive will eventually fail, it is just a question of when. Hopefully not for many years. A back up of your images on a dedicated HD is a good idea, but not as "failsafe" as the CD/DVD option. And don't even start me on the topic of Zip/Jazz/Syquest disks. I have many early images I can no longer even access -- sigh.. The more copies you have of your photos and the more places you have them stored, them better your chances of always having a copies of those precious photos. Some other interesting links: http://digitalcontentproducer.com/e-newsletters/Archival_DVDs_Good_as_Gold090905/ http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,113716,00.asp http://www.igraph.com/IPServices/digital%20to%20micro.htm http://www.everplay-spec.org/

I've posted this before, but I'll say it again :)

Either use a server to backup your photo's to, or get some external HD's (USB2). I just got a 300GB Lacie HD for 129 EURO. If you want to be more sure you can get 2 so you have 3 copies (1 pc and 2 external HD's).  The chance of all 3 failing at the same time is astronomicly small. And an external HD can easily be stored 'off site' . So in case of a fire or robbery you still have a backup somewhere.

So you recommend the LaCie HDs Rinze? I need to get some to back up mine and my wife's data. She had a scare this morning because when she tried to access her current external drive (her old Mac HD that I salvaged from her dead computer) she could not see her files. Luckily, rebooting solved the problem but we want a more reliable solution. So, what HD's does everyone use and which ones you reccommend, or not? We could probably both fit all our data on a 250 GB drive, but perhaps we should each have seperate ones? Just looking for ideas here. Price is an issue as always. ;]

I'm not recommomending one specific brand. I just got this one last thursday and sofar it's perfoming admirably. I use it as a backup tool. I have all files on both my PC and the external HD. So if the external causes problems I have the originals on PC. If the PC messes up I have backups on the external.

"I'm not recommomending one specific brand. I just got this one last thursday..." Understood. I was hoping maybe someone else could chime in with their own experience regarding this. I know that some HDs have a higher failure rate than others. These would just be for backup so would not be used much.

ALL these CD's and DVD's sure pile up...its like FLOPPY disk deja vu all over again!  These days, it doesn't take much to fill up  A CD OR DVD with all the pix in RAW, tif or PSD formats.

Backing up to CD/DVD gets tedious to me.    My dvd burner takes about 45 mins to an hour to make a data Dvd.  I just decided to do my burning at night...just let it go through the motions while I'm catchin'  zzzzz's.  Yeah,  I could probably upgrade to a newer/faster Dual layer DVD drive,  but I'm not so sure that its worth it!   Catalogging them all is a whole OTHER story in itself! 

I'm seriously thinking of going the external HD route myself.   Burning a dvd here & there as needed. 

It does sound easier...and with formats always changing, probably the wisest route.

Well you can build yer own very cheaply rather than buy a custom made one I did another External USB.FIREWIRE one with case and 250gb for under £70 

Also x4 speed DVD With double density can back up over 8gb of data thats a lot of images Joe!!

Sheeeez...this is a lot of info! I will be likely hd shopping..and it is portable with USB.

maybe expensive...

i save a backup copy on 2 different (one external)  hard disks... and to dvd...

too much pain loosin' all my works

but for the moment a lots of gb are required :(

I'm sure you can Danny, but bought an external HD case for my wife's old system HD and it was rather a pain to put together and configure, and it isn't always recognized by the system. :cursing: I think I'll pay a little more and get portable HD (or two) that is purpose made and comes wth a warranty (:m_thumbu:), but that is just me. ;]

Quote - If the only place you have your images is on your HD, then you are asking for trouble. Your Hard Drive will eventually fail, it is just a question of when.

Hear, hear. My (only) hard drive suddenly refused to work a couple of months ago. And everything was there. Fortunately, it was only the matter of Windows getting confused and wwriting where they shouldn't have, so I rescued all the data I had, including the photos, with a nifty little program called Restorer 2000 Professional.

Yes when you say Old system it may have been in the days of plug and pray!!    The latest external cases are a doddle to put together all you do is connect the HD  to the cable Your will be covered for warranty in the same way with the products you buy this way!   If one of the units is going to be for older OS then you may find the same recognition problems,,   I had the same problems until I installed service pack 2 which resolved  problems with windows XP.. Anyway the cased versions are not that much more expensive but may not give you the choice of a quality HD that you will have if you select your own devices to build, some Drives are far more reliable and speeds can vary a lot..

Which brings me back to the question of which, if any, drives out there in the 200 - 300 (or even 400) GB range would anyone recommend? I know that the Oxford chipset is a must... Danny, when I said old, that was just in the broadest terms. Her drive came from a G4 Mac running OSX, though not the most recent version. I shopped around and found what seemed to be a well recommended external case for it and have/had the problems I mentioned. Just the other day we had a scare that she had lost all her files on it, but a simple restart and they were there again. Perhaps this is a USB2 issue...I can't say. The drive won't connect at all using the firewire port. I may just get her the new ministack V2 and go the cheaper case/HD route for myself when I find a combo I feel comfortable purchasing. I have to say, I love living in an era where HDs are over 40GB and prices for 500GB drives are lower than they were for 160GB drives not too long ago... :thumbup

Ah yes well that is not old lol so yes I  think it may well be a USB2 issue as it was with my Windows XP based system so maybe worth checking out your OS for any updates.. I am unable to offer advice re Macs having never owned one.. And the XP based sytems I have always favoured as a builder I can make a better specified machine for less money, and have invested much in my existing software like most tographers do with lenses to change now.. But the 24 in Cinema monitor is very tempting..

 

 As for what drives are the most reliable that is like asking which car is best etc but, or the Canon Nikon debate but,  I have found Western digital to be poor and Maxtor the best or I used to use Quantum hard drives because they were the only ones that actually met military specs for G force shocks etc. Since Maxtor purchased them, I imagine they too incorporated that technology into their drives.  I have talked to a few server admins and they always complained of WD drives dying.

 

Yes it is wonderful how the price of drives have dropped I recall paying less  than a recent 250gb  than for an old 8gb one 5 years ago My experience with SATA drives though has not been very good.. Nor has RAID configurations possibly due to Motherboard implementations the external USB2 drives apart from an external   case power supply going down have thus far never failed me in the 2 years plus I have used them.

Attached Link: DISPLAYS

> Quote - .. But the 24 in Cinema monitor is very tempting.. > >  

...ah, but why not go the extra mile and get the 30"? ;o] I have to say that I love my 23" Cinema Display. Thanks for that added info Danny. I know that being a Mac user, I am a minority here, but the drive information you have provided is valuable. Perhaps someone else can chime in too. Any external HD enclosures that you would recommend?

Attached Link: DataFortress

I came across this and had to add it to this thread. I'm sure most of you won't run out and plunk down $2K+ for this monster, but it makes for an interesting read. Enjoy.