Question - storage of digital images

[RailBus63]

A questions for those who have made the leap into digital photography – how do you store and backup your images?

I still shoot 35mm slides, but I’ve been scanning my slides and have already begun to run into a storage issue. My preference is to scan images as TIFF files and convert to JPG only when e-mailing or posting. My computer is a few years old, so storing these images on the hard drive is not an option due to space limitations. I’ve been burning these images onto CD’s for now, but a recent news report questioning the longevity of CD and DVD media has me concerned.

Proper long-term storage of images is my biggest concern about digital photography. I could conceivably shoot over a thousand images in a calendar year, and it would be helpful to hear from other rail photographers as to what methods they've found for storing and accessing their photos.

Jim D.

[MEC407]

I backup my images on CD-R discs. I check my backups every six months to make sure they're OK, and I replace them once a year.

Making multiple backups and storing them in different locations (such as your office or a friend/relative's home) is a good idea too, in case something catastrophic happens to your home.

One nice thing about digital is that it's possible to have "multiple originals" -- compared to film, in which case you have only one original.

[MEC407]

Heads-up if anybody is looking for a good deal on storage media to backup your digital photos:

HP 52x 700MB 80-Minute CD-R Media 200-Pack, $31.99
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid ... -N&cat=MED

Verbatim 8x 4.7GB DVD+R Media 50-Pack, $22.50
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid ... DT&cat=MED


(I don't work for this merchant but have been a customer for several years and have always had good experiences with them.)

[Hudson Terminus]

I've also read about the CD rot that apparently occurs long term. In which case, I've avoided backup on them.

I use a 200 Gigabyte external harddrive for my primary storage, with my best pictures (the ones I just couldn't live without) backed up on my laptop and on zip disk. I'm sure there's a better way, but I like having everything (all of my music is on that external too) in one place. I print out the best stuff as well to keep hard copies.

[MEC407]

I've also read about the CD rot that apparently occurs long term. In which case, I've avoided backup on them.

The key words are long term. It's not something that's likely to happen overnight or even in a year or two. As long as you re-do your backups on, say, a yearly basis -- which you should be doing regardless of the type of media used -- you'll be fine.

I use a 200 Gigabyte external harddrive for my primary storage, with my best pictures (the ones I just couldn't live without) backed up on my laptop and on zip disk. I'm sure there's a better way, but I like having everything (all of my music is on that external too) in one place.

Hard drives can -- and almost always do at some point -- fail. All it would take is one big power surge to destroy your external HD and your laptop, and then you'd be out of luck. And that's why it's a good idea not to store everything in one place. At least put your vital stuff on CDs or DVDs and put those discs in a fire-proof box or something, so you have something separate in addition to what's on your external HD or your laptop. Re-burn them on new discs once a year -- the discs are like 20 cents a piece! It's the cheapest insurance there is.

[Hudson Terminus]

With my luck, anything could happen.

Better backup is certainly in my future.

[MEC407]

I've had several hard drives fail over the years... always abruptly and without warning... so I tend to be a bit paranoid when it comes to my data and backing it up.

I'm also cognizant that in the event of a fire or some other catastrophe that forces me to leave my home immediately, it'll be a lot easier to grab a stack of discs than to grab the computer.

[mxdata]

For critical files that are used in business I have often had two hard disks on the computer and backed one up onto the other. Considering that Windows XP will detect and set up most hard disk drives correctly without removing data already on them, and that the price of hard disk drives is coming down quite steadily, printing a full backup to a conventional internal hard drive and then removing and storing it separately from the computer is also very feasible. I recently "walked" the entire internal archive of one computer to another this way. The internal drives are still a bit cheaper than the "portable" ones.

[dj_paige]

This thread has lots of good advice and lots of things to be wary of. Here are my thoughts.

1) Backing up to a hard drive is easy and convenient, but if there is a fire or flood or other catastrophe, you have no backups. Same is true for backing up to CD or DVD, unless you keep a copy off-site, at a friends house, or at your place of business. Thus, keeping a second set of back-ups off-site is highly recommended.

2) Backing up to CD or DVD requires more effort, and you don't know how long these media will last. But since they are so cheap (blank DVDs now well under one US dollar), make backups regularly. I usually do an "incremental" backup once a month (or more often if you are so inclined) and then I create a whole new backup set on DVDs every 6 months. Thus the media I use for my backups are never older than 6 months. And you can store the older set of backups off-site -- or you can make 2 complete sets of backups, whichever. Someone said that he is "paranoid" about making backups, but I think if you value your photograph collection, then being "paranoid" is the only way to go.

[kevikens]

From having done many years of film photography i have gotten use to storing images on archival paper. I have recently gone digital but still prefer to print the images on paper and store them in high quality albums. I know that paper photgraphs properly stored will last for decades. I know this as I have black and white photos back to the 1920's and color prints to the 1950's, still in excellent shape. To make sure they survive I give copies to friends with similar interests. OK, this is not state of the art but if the purpose of railroad photography is to preserve images I know that many of my best pictures will long outlive me.

[jtbell]

This thread has been dormant for almost exactly two years now. A lot of the advice is still valid, but advancing technology may have shifted some factors. In particular, external hard drives have become very cheap in terms of cost per gigabyte. Last week I bought a 500GB USB 2.0 drive for $130 at Best Buy, specifically for archiving my film scans and images from my digital cameras.

My current strategy is to archive to both external hard disk and to DVD, and to check them regularly. Capacity is in issue for me with the film scans especially, because my scanner and software produce "raw" files of about 60-65MB including the infrared channel that my software uses for dust and scratch removal.

[dj_paige]

External Hard Drives are a good way to do backups now.

I still worry about fire and flood and theft. So I have recently begun uploading files to my web site/ftp server. You can obtain 50gb of online storage from companies such as 1and1.com for about $6 per month. I use it not only to post slide shows and similar displays, but now I also use it as storage to protect my photos from fire, flood and theft.

[mxdata]

One of the best tools I have found for backing up digital images is absolutely free - it is a program called "SyncToy" that you can download from Microsoft. It allows you to mirror drive contents in a variety of ways between two or more computers on a home network. I use it regularly to copy all the photo archives from one computer to another so that there are two photo files maintained on two different machines, providing a complete backup in case of a crash. You can copy either to internal or external drives on a machine, you just have to put them in the "shared documents" folder so they are accessible to the other machine on the network. While this sounds kind of difficult at first, it is actually very easy to set up a home network if you have Windows XP. You can also back up data from drive to drive within one computer with SyncToy, and since XP does not require you to format an auxiliary drive if you move it to another machine, the auxiliary drive can be installed in another machine if C: crashes, taking the data with it.

[Terminal Proceed]

They also manufacture "certified archival CDs & DVDs" These are used to archive data & images and supposedly will not degrade over time. They cost more than reglar CDs but may be worth it in the long run. I know people who use them an swear by them.

Kevin