I take 10,000 to 15,000 photos every year, and storage and archiving are important concepts to me. Most cameras have only a four-digit number, automatically preventing you from using the number as a unique locating tool. I shoot in raw mode and immediately use an Excel macro to add one or more digits to the front of the camera's number. Currently I am in the 60,000 range with my present camera. Other letters distinguish the file name from those taken with my other cameras. So, every photo I take has a unique number. The next step is to relate a name to that number so you can find the photo whenever you need it.

I store raw files sequentially on DVDs by the file numbers. These files are unchanged raw files. A disk might be marked 47312 - 47794 for example, the next DVD might be 47795 - 48231, and so on. Every DVD is completely filled so very efficient.

Now the tricky part. Edited files, usually JPGs, are placed into folders with a name that will be searchable, such as "Sweet Carousel Corsetry Fashion Show 2012 02 10" for a recent file. I edit all photos so there may be 600 photos in this folder. It can be searched by several different words and the date is there too, 2012 Feb 10. These folders are also stored on DVDs, all of which are marked with the word "Photofiles" followed by a unique number, say, 0241. I try to have as many folders as needed to fill the DVD. Next we need an Excel file to store and relate the information. It has two columns. The first is the Photofile disk number, 0241 in this case. The second is that title shown above. You can add additional descriptions if needed, but I rely on my first description in the folder title. When I burn the Photofiles DVD, I copy the folder titles into the Excel file under this same number, 0241. Often there may be ten or more folders on any one DVD, each with a unique name. When done, sort the Excel file by the second column, the titles. Now you have an alphabetical list which will tell you which Photofile disk number contains the folder you are looking for. When you retrieve the correct folder, the photo numbers are unique and would allow you to quickly find the raw file if you wanted to make something else with it.

What about different versions of the same pic? I append a number to the file name that will not affect its searchability. My D300 files all begin with WMH, my initials. So I might shoot another photo tonight and the camera sequentially numbers it as WMH_0642.NEF, and my Excel macro changes it to WMH_60642.NEF, a unique number. I convert it to WMH_60642.jpg and edit it and decide to make several variations which then will become WMH_60642-1.jpg and WMH_60642-2.jpg and so on. My Lumix camera uses the letters LMX rather than WMH, and those raw files are stored sequentially on DVDs but in a different box than the Nikon raw files.

Finally, to those who do not trust disks, research has shown an expected life of >200 years if handled correctly. Any DVD might fail and I might lose 350 photos. It is unlikely to have multiple failures. I have many hundreds of CDs and DVDs. I handle them correctly, access them very often, and have had NO failures. Handling is important and is another subject entirely. I have had many hard drives fail. A bad bearing can cause a failure of the entire disk and you may not be able to retrieve anything. Perhaps you lose 500 GB of data all at once. Think about it. Look into the MTBF (mean time between failures) for hard drives. If it does not fail, you have everything right there handy. That's nice! If it does fail, you lose everything. That's not nice!

Please don't tell me about your bad experiences with DVDs. Few people handle them properly, and your experience is anecdotal, as is mine. I deal with facts and research. Hope this is useful to someone.

Wayne (whaleman)