File Back Up System for long term storage

OutdoorPhotographer wrote:

2oldman wrote:

vermilye wrote:
eventually your older stored data may become inaccessible, or very expensive to have someone specializing in data rescue retrieve it for you.

It's also my opinion that not being a data hoarder will serve you well. I doubt I'll ever need a Terrabyte of storage, since I do my best to delete lousy pictures and unneeded documents before deciding to store them.

Things you cannot find are things you do not have.

Depends. My DSLR is 30 MB per photo which adds up quickly. I go into Lightroom and delete poor photos or duplicates but at 30MB per pop, a TB is easy to fill. I would love to buy a Nikon D800 but that's 50 MB per photo! Part of what kept me at a D600. File sizes will only go up if shooting with a DSLR.

Terrabyte drives now days ARE dirt cheap and external drives are pretty darn stable for long term storage when not connected..

So even 50MB files would not be all that big of a problem, just buy a few external drives and have at it..

1 TB External USB DRIVE HERE for a whopping $49

OR 5 TB External USB drive for $129!

1TB of memory cards or even USB flash drives would cost a small fortune if you used them for storage or backup..

2oldman wrote:

vermilye wrote:
eventually your older stored data may become inaccessible, or very expensive to have someone specializing in data rescue retrieve it for you.

It's also my opinion that not being a data hoarder will serve you well. I doubt I'll ever need a Terrabyte of storage, since I do my best to delete lousy pictures and unneeded documents before deciding to store them.

Things you cannot find are things you do not have.

Depends. My DSLR is 30 MB per photo which adds up quickly. I go into Lightroom and delete poor photos or duplicates but at 30MB per pop, a TB is easy to fill. I would love to buy a Nikon D800 but that's 50 MB per photo! Part of what kept me at a D600. File sizes will only go up if shooting with a DSLR.

2oldman wrote:

vermilye wrote:
eventually your older stored data may become inaccessible, or very expensive to have someone specializing in data rescue retrieve it for you.

It's also my opinion that not being a data hoarder will serve you well. I doubt I'll ever need a Terrabyte of storage, since I do my best to delete lousy pictures and unneeded documents before deciding to store them.

Things you cannot find are things you do not have.

So true of words!

Deleting old outdated documents which are no longer relevant or needed helps to thin out the herd of files to backup.

BUT, pictures and digital movie files (camcorders) to me are extremely valuable and worthy of at least a half hearted attempt to ensure they do "survive" over the years.

I just finished two major and time consuming projects that I started nearly 10 yrs ago..

#1 was to scan in all of my Dads old 35mm slides,then identify places and people on the slides. Additionally many of the slides had deteriorated, badly either darkened or the dyes shifted color severely.. 1,500 slides..

Unfortunately I did not "complete" the entire job before my Mom passed so I had well over 400 slides that I was only able to partially identify the people..

Burned data DVDs and gave those to my Brothers and Sisters for this years Christmas.

#2 was to digitize all of my Dad's Super 8mm film, Dad's projector broke back in 2008 (unrepairable due to a plastic gear giving up) so I managed to find another used projector and was able to repair it, ran until the bulb burned out then had a difficult time finding a good bulb.. Finished this project this year and it turned out 3.5hrs worth of video.

Planning to copy all the slide files plus the HD video files of the film to several USB HDs shortly..

As far as deleting "bad" photos, I rarely delete photos.. I find even ones that didn't turn out the way I want tend to be cool or a different perspective.. Only badly blurred/focused might hit the cutting room floor..

Digital photos take very little storage space considering the size of todays HDs..

The main thing now days is to not get hung up on depending on ONE form of backup.. Optical media, flash memory (USB flash and digital memory cards) can and do fail and when they do ALL the data will be lost.

You also need to be "flexible" in your file formats, just like 35mm slides, negatives and even super8 film can and will deteriorate over time and are rather obsolete.. And are irreplaceable memories when damaged are gone forever..

You may need to revisit your stored away files in the future and "convert" them to a file format which is being used at that time (yes, I do feel eventually even file formats may become obsolete and finding software to open them could get difficult in the future).

Not to mention the possibility of memory cards going obsolete (Sony Memory stick, Multi Media Card, Xd, Smart Media Card just to name a few obsolete cards)..

vermilye wrote:
eventually your older stored data may become inaccessible, or very expensive to have someone specializing in data rescue retrieve it for you.

It's also my opinion that not being a data hoarder will serve you well. I doubt I'll ever need a Terrabyte of storage, since I do my best to delete lousy pictures and unneeded documents before deciding to store them.

Things you cannot find are things you do not have.

sh410 wrote:
I Have been asking myself: "what will I do with all of these photos that I have stored on dvd-r's?"

After I'm gone, the components used to store photos may well be considered obsolete. For example, dvd read/writers are not included on many computers and certainly not on tablets or phones. Further I'm not sure my decendants will be interested in digital photos. They do like photographs.

What do you all think.

Burnable optical media tends to fail over time, I have had countless amount of burned CDs that were good when burned but in a few years of being stored out of light started to become unreadable.

No one really knows the actual life span of the dyes used in burnable CDs, DVDs and even bluRays..

And I suspect over time finding a working optical reader will become a huge problem..

So I am not sold that they will ALL be readable in a few years let alone 20 or 50 yrs down the road.

I have also had several USB flash drives and a few SD memory cards fail.. Even had two brand new SD memory cards fail right out of the packaging.

I have seen a few SSD drives fail in the very short time they have been out.

I have had several ONLINE storage outfits go belly up and disappear into the wobbly web with my online content so I do not have any faith or trust in paid or free "cloud" type storage as a long term safe place to store important docs..

So far the only real "dependable" storage I have found is the good old fashioned mechanical Hard Drive.

External HDs at this time do seem to be the best way to store your important files..

As far as folks concerned about on site storage, why worry, don't you have a fire resistant "safe" for your important paper docs? You SHOULD if you don't..

External USB hard drives can be had in Laptop size and are no bigger than a pack if cigarettes.. Should have no problem fitting it into even a small portable fire resistant safe..

Or store one drive in your RV..

Many ways to go about it.

Unfortunately, RAIDs also need to be backed up. Though depending on your RAID config, they offer protection from drive failures. Not necessarily file corruption. Which can result from malware, or even glitches in apps themselves which happened to me once.

I use Apple's Time Machine to a portable drive for a continuous backup, and run 2 4TB hard drives that I store duplicate files, usually once a week. Since I have lost data on line, had hard drives fail, and CD's & tape backups become unreadable, I've found that duplicating data on a couple of drives the most reliable. I've even had a RAID disk array fail, so nothing is foolproof...

One suggestion - what ever method you use for backing up your files, you need to be an active archivist. It is a good idea to be sure, particularly when upgrading your computer, that what ever media & technology you use is available with the new equipment. How many of us could mount an 8" floppy disk? While one or two generations may not be a problem, eventually your older stored data may become inaccessible, or very expensive to have someone specializing in data rescue retrieve it for you.

I've always considered a backup to mean at least 2 copies exist. If one is lost, then a second needs to be created without delay.

If only one copy exist, then I would consider it an archive, and would look more toward high quality optical disc storage such as DVD/BDR. They do make archive discs specifically for this purpose, though more expensive than regular DVD/BDR. I would stay away from from relying on HD, SSD, cloud storage for archiving. These are more than fine for backup purposes.

Personally, I would setup an automated backup system. One you don't even have to think about. I can't tell you how many times this has saved me. From a failed HD, I was back up and running in 10 minutes. To files deleted or corrupted which were restored in minutes.

I tend to use a combo of system image backups, and two times daily automated backups of key files or libraries such as My documents and My photos. I keep these encrypted on both the source and backup drives. So when logged off my user account, no one has access to these even if the computer is being used. Not even if my user account has been breached. As in a lost or stolen notebook or PC. My personal files would be nearly impossible to access.

For key critical files that require immediate backups, I setup backup upon change detected. But these tend to be limited to a few key folders.

All my backup software is available as open source or freeware, and have never had a restore issue when needed. However, not all open source backup apps are intuitive, and may require some work to learn. Whereas paid versions tend to be more user friendly.

joebedford wrote:

I'm thinking of getting a bluray writer for backing up tens of thousands of photos and store the blurays in my safety deposit box.

I have been having the same thoughts...up to 50gb on a single Blue Ray...I have read some on using archival quality BRD's...something to look into for sure.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

sh410 wrote:
I'm not sure my decendants will be interested in digital photos. They do like photographs.

What do you all think.

If that were true, you would have very unusual descendants.

If they want hardcopy they can easily print your digital photos. You are storing them at full resolution, not compressed or resized, right?