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09-09-2009, 04:09 PM   #1
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File storage

Greetings all.

I'm new to the world of DSLR, new to Pentax (having bought a K20D earlier in the year) and new to forums - I'm hoping someone out there might be able to offer some advice.

Although new the DSLR, I find that the folders on my PC are filling fast and I was wondering about storing of my pics. I had thought of buying an external hard drive, but have heard rumours that these can be unreliable. I've also heard that my PC's hard drive can also be unreliable and that the best way to store digital pics is on DVD. What experience do people out there in Pentax land have in this area?

Thanks.

Peter.

09-09-2009, 04:59 PM   #2
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There is safety in numbers. You need one or two external hd's. One is really necessary to back up your images and two is even better for the same reasons.

My setup has one external just for images and the other for a periodic pc hard drive back up.
There is safety in numbers.
09-09-2009, 07:25 PM   #3
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Your best bet is to get a RAID array so that there's always redundancy; this can either be internal or external.

Thread moved to Everything Else.

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09-10-2009, 07:16 AM   #4
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RAID array is not the way to go, read this blog. Another reason to not use RAID arrays: Raid 0 - all data is evenly split between drives. If any drive OR the controller dies - you loose everything.

As a computer tech, I would suggest you buy an external drive (they come in bigger sizes now) and after you upload your photos to this drive, turn it off and unplug it and store it somewhere not in your home.

09-10-2009, 10:51 AM   #5
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Ultimately, no one solution is a solution. Everything fails. Whether you're talking about an optical disc, a hard drive just sitting on a shelf, or a RAID array, everything has the potential of failure.

At minimum, the general recommendation is to have some sort of backup on site, pick your poison, and then another off site. Another option not mentioned is online backup. Whatever you do, just be aware that everything fails.
09-10-2009, 10:05 PM   #6
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DVDs "usually" have a 10 to 15 year usable life span depending on how they are stored. You can read the labels and see your space limitations. I haven't seen anything solid yet on the lifespan of most backup drives. Depending on the format of your files, continuous copying from backup drive to backup drive is sooner or later going to lead to file degradation.
Backup drives are great, but if you want to be safe you have to have two in case one fails. The old "all your eggs in one basket" argument. Backing up and moving drives back and forth to storage has it's own set of problems.
If you are not talking about huge amounts of data, discs are a good place to start. If you need large amounts of storage, try to find two reasonably priced backup drives.
Discs are good if you want to separate your files into groups
Also, sooner or later, discs will require more space for storage than a couple of backup drives.
I wouldn't recommend it, but I know of one person who stumbled across a sale and has a batch of flash drives in labeled envelopes.
09-10-2009, 10:16 PM   #7
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I like to backup my favorite photos on PRINT
you can get archival grade prints that will last a LONG time and resist fading in the sun and all that jazz.

for your computer stuff...
i direct you to the attached file.


but really, for backing up in digital format you have to do it like three times at least if you want to be real about how secure the backup is. i like to give clients archival grade dvd's as part of the battle against time. you can get 100 yr archival disks....or more.

but let's face it: we take photos to preserve memories...and we want to preserve them forever. forever is a damn long time. so lets just try to hit the 200yr mark for now (ok maybe 300)

make prints.

attached file borrowed from www.whattheduck.com copyright Aaron Johnson (awesome cartoonist...buy WTD stuff like I do)

Attached Images
View Picture EXIF
Canon EOS 40D  Photo 
09-17-2009, 04:33 PM   #8
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That WTD comic is very funny and relevant. I have been going through a similar exercise to decide how to store the growing number of images as well as other files that PCs tend to accumulate over time.

My solution started out by taking an old PC, that wasn't currently running and some old drives of various capacity and put them all in one box. Shake it around a bit, add a helping of Windows Home Server and Viola, I had a server that could not only store all those files, but could back-up every PC I had on my home network. At the same time it could stream media to our two Xbox360's.

Now fast forward 20 days (10 days left on the trial version of WHS) and now I decided to try something even more radical. I have another old motherboard, with even less power than a Netbook, I plan on runing FreeNAS, add some cheap Green drives in some sort of RAID configuration, no monitor, no mouse and I will have a full on Network Attached Storage box. Easy to manage, easy to scale up as the need arises. Able to stream to XBox or PS3 or any PC on the network. Enough room for my 3 years of images plus the images I am adding daily as well as 95 GB of MP3 not to mention 100's of GB of DVD rips. Will use free MS Sync Toys to make sure directories are backed up to the NAS device.

So what that means for my pictures is that they are stored in multiple places, but all easily accessible and that means easily recoverable. The only thing saver would be off site storage, but my shed isn't climate controlled so that is out of the question. Maybe I should just save a backup at my neighbors house.
09-17-2009, 05:56 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by opfor Quote
Depending on the format of your files, continuous copying from backup drive to backup drive is sooner or later going to lead to file degradation.
No, that's the point of digital storage. There won't be any degradation.
09-17-2009, 07:41 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by photolady Quote
RAID array is not the way to go, read this blog. Another reason to not use RAID arrays: Raid 0 - all data is evenly split between drives. If any drive OR the controller dies - you loose everything.

As a computer tech, I would suggest you buy an external drive (they come in bigger sizes now) and after you upload your photos to this drive, turn it off and unplug it and store it somewhere not in your home.
Mirrored raid is most definitely the way to go. granted you lose hard drive space but a mirrored raid will rebuild the drive when replaced. I've had 3 drive failures on my work machine. Rebuilds work perfectly. And losing that info would cost me 10,s of 10,000s of $$$$. So I swear by mirrored raid
09-17-2009, 10:35 PM   #11
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I don't think Adam was referring to using a RAID-0 array for storage and more likely either a mirrored (RAID-1) or multiple drive (RAID-5) array instead.

Given that neither are inexpensive to put into place, you'd probably be best off using some sort of application to manage your photos, then to backup the organized library of photos to multiple hard drives/locations/media; the key word being "multiple"...

QuoteOriginally posted by photolady Quote
RAID array is not the way to go, read this blog. Another reason to not use RAID arrays: Raid 0 - all data is evenly split between drives. If any drive OR the controller dies - you loose everything.

As a computer tech, I would suggest you buy an external drive (they come in bigger sizes now) and after you upload your photos to this drive, turn it off and unplug it and store it somewhere not in your home.
09-18-2009, 12:30 AM   #12
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I use an external HD as a backup and as a depository for my photos besides having them on my internal HD.

File sizes aren't a bother at all since the cost of memory is falling more and more each year. You can get a terabyte of memory on an external HD for $129 now...unheard of 2 years ago. Try filling one of those up!!

Jason
09-18-2009, 09:59 AM   #13
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Start shooting in RAW and I think you could fill those up pretty quickly depending on how much you shoot!

I'd almost prefer 2x500GB drives for redundancy's sake. Aperture allows you to maintain multiple "Vaults" which are complete backups of the entire photo library; each time you plug in a Vault, it updates the contents and brings the archived copy up to date.

QuoteOriginally posted by Jasvox Quote
You can get a terabyte of memory on an external HD for $129 now...unheard of 2 years ago. Try filling one of those up!!

Jason
09-18-2009, 11:20 AM   #14
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Check out the Drobo units.
Somewhat pricey, but mine seems to be very reliable and dead simple.
09-18-2009, 06:12 PM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by legacyb4 Quote
I don't think Adam was referring to using a RAID-0 array for storage and more likely either a mirrored (RAID-1) or multiple drive (RAID-5) array instead.

Given that neither are inexpensive to put into place, you'd probably be best off using some sort of application to manage your photos, then to backup the organized library of photos to multiple hard drives/locations/media; the key word being "multiple"...
Mirrored arrays aren't all that expensive. 2 hard drives and a card. My 4 yo dell has the capability. I just never set it up before. Right now I use Bridge to download to 2 external drives. This is for personal shots though. My paid gigs are kept on another box with raid, external hd and 1 offsite box.
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