[MikeH]

Anyone using flash memory as a permanent backup doesn't understand what they are doing, and their methods should not be followed.

I don't trust flash memory any longer than it takes to get the photos off the card and into my computer. They're very volatile compared to optical or magnetic media.

[matix]

My step Daughter shoots with a Kodak P&S which uses an SD card.
When I asked her if she kew she could erase them, she told me that the cards were her permanent record of photos she had taken. I told her that she could copy all of them to a back up CD, but she insists on keeping them on the card.

Go figure.

One thing in life is guaranteed, and that is that there are NO Guarantees.. let alone the laws that Mr. Murphy expounds, 'If anything can go wrong it will go wrong'

I too get my images off the SD or whatever card as soon as possible. Any memory card can be damaged by heat, cold, humidity, impact, static or just lost.

My images are copied to my notebook pc at the end of each day, and from then to my desktop pc once a week, and then periodically backed up to top quality CD's or DVD and put is a safe dry place.

A second copy is backed up on to a second large capacity external hard drive on my network. Paranoid? A bit.. but I have seen many people lose image files. (These hard drives are also available as USB drives and not expensive)

Memory cards do fail, hard drives in computers can die with no warning (this happens a lot really, sometimes a new pc or a very old one.), CD and DVD media does deteriorate, especially if you put on labels or chemical based inks, permanent markers etc. This is known to possibly damage the media making the CD unreadable over an extended term.

My wife rode a bicycle through Europe last year, and was very careful to have her son in law, an IT guru in London copy the SD cards to CD's for her. He did that, and erased the SD cards, but screwed up the copy to CD process, and wrote the same group of shots 3 times to 3 differen CD's. She lost half the trip, I managed to recover files from the SD cards that had not been reused, about 50%

By the same token, film, slides and prints deteriorate with age in various ways, I have 10,000 plus slides, and many prints and negatives that I have not looked at in years.

There are no guarantees, but we can take all the precautions and it is not expensive as insurance.

Phil

[NaClH2O]

snip

The reall offset cost is the new 250GB external hard drive I need to buy every 6 months to hold all the new shots

But Steve, hard drives are much cheaper now too. I can get a 200gb external storage type hard drive for about 80USD, that's a little over 40 British pounds. That comes out to less than 7 pounds per month. Don't know about you, but I spend more than that on coffee.

NaCl(but the price of used Pentax glass more than makes up for it)H2O

[trog100]

they cost a wee bit more over here nac we tend to get zapped for a dollar for pound rate in the stores.. but i long ago gave up burning dvds and just buy another usb drive when i need to..

mine are not going to wear out either cos they are switched off and stacked next to my PC.. i just shift stuff over to em when i need to..

course the only down side to this cheap mega storage thing is that "those that watch over us" are useing it to database everything we do from birth to death.. he he he

trog

[NaClH2O]

I like candy. Chocolate is my favorite food group, followed very closely by pizza.

??? but in any event Dave, I heard the "new" food groups are:
Salt, Sugar, Caffein and Fat.
That way you can go to your local favorite burger stand, get a value meal with a cola and be 100% nutritionally complete!

NaCl(I have to agree with you about pizza, tho I'd place it at #1)H2O

[davemdsn]

??? but in any event Dave, I heard the "new" food groups are:
Salt, Sugar, Caffein and Fat.
That way you can go to your local favorite burger stand, get a value meal with a cola and be 100% nutritionally complete!

NaCl(I have to agree with you about pizza, tho I'd place it at #1)H2O

Woo hoo! Happy meal here I come! I wish pizza parlors had value meals. One giant slice of pepperoni, one large cola and a piece of mile high mud pie. Get a punch card and get a free angioplasty after ten meals.

[*isteve]

But Steve, hard drives are much cheaper now too. I can get a 200gb external storage type hard drive for about 80USD, that's a little over 40 British pounds. That comes out to less than 7 pounds per month. Don't know about you, but I spend more than that on coffee.

NaCl(but the price of used Pentax glass more than makes up for it)H2O

But I only have 14 free drive letters remaining....will need one of those terabyte ones soon...and a tape backup drive.

[trog100]

i have four similar usb external drives.. i leave one power supply lead and one usb lead permanently plugged into the computer..

the drives are book sized and simply get stacked on a shelf next to my computer when full.. if i want access to one i simply plug it in when i want it..

the joy of the things as mass stage devices is u dont need them all connected up to your PC and running.. in essence there is no limit to the amount u can have.. just keep adding to them as u need them..

and they certainly aint gonna wear out.. and keeping your stuff on several different drives is safer than all on one big one u have permanently connected to your computer and running all the time....

trog

[davemdsn]

the drives are book sized and simply get stacked on a shelf next to my computer when full.. if i want access to one i simply plug it in when i want it..
trog

Same here. My external drive is the WD MyBook. Looks like a book. When it's full I'll get another, and another. Right now the 250 gigabyte version is only $139.

[trog100]

yes i am due for another one dave.. i would add i mostly fill mine with films and not still images thow.. he he

trog