Where do you store your Images

[Maximus57]

Casey:

How do you store your digital images before, during and after any work has been done on them. How much memory is enough. I just ordered Lightroom3 and Silver Efex. I'm planning on buying an external drive for storage. Any suggestions? Brand, amount of memory, etc. I have someone here at work that said he has 4 terabytes on his external HD. That just seems so outrageous.

[C Withers Media]

My work flow for saving looks something like this.

1. download from camera to computer.
2. copy from computer to Tb drive 1
3. create folder on Tb drive 2
4. edit, process and save edited files to Tb drive 2
5. copy files from Tb drive to Tb drive 2
6. delete files from computer.

I have 2.5 Tb of space for storage and will need to upgrade another Tb this year.

[mr hish]

i usually keep them on an external hd

[mimalmo]

Nobody uses RAID array or other redundant backup methods?

[kayger12]

Also, when considering storage size options remember that the type of file you're using to capture (jpeg vs raw, etc.) can make a big difference along with how many megapixels your camera has.

I have a Canon 50D (15.1mp) and shoot raw. The file size is ridiculous at generally around 18 megs a photo. Drives fill up in a hurry at that size...

By comparison, raw shots on my old starter Rebel xt ran about a third that.

[mr hish]

i agree with kayger12

[billschusteriv]

Nobody uses RAID array or other redundant backup methods?

I've been concerned lately about this because I would like to ensure the photo memories of my daughter remain safe.

I use the normal online sites (Shutterfly, Flickr, and Photobucket) - but mostly for sharing and photo gifts.

I currently backup my phots to DVD and store in my firesafe. I was just saving on my HDD but the jpegs from my Canon were getting corrupted. Weird. I used to save RAW but was having some difficulty using a photo editor I had with the files so I switched to jpeg.

I've been thinking about using online storage to backup my data. An old school computer radio talk show guy, Leo Laporte, does "this WEEK in Tech" @ TWiT.tv. One of his sponsors is Carbonite.com. Unlimited encrypted backup space for $54.95. There are others - may have better deals. Something to check out.

A RAID wouldn't be a bad idea locally, but after considering the potential risk for disaster, I'd prefer off-site in the long term.

[kayger12]

I've been concerned lately about this because I would like to ensure the photo memories of my daughter remain safe.

I use the normal online sites (Shutterfly, Flickr, and Photobucket) - but mostly for sharing and photo gifts.

I currently backup my phots to DVD and store in my firesafe. I was just saving on my HDD but the jpegs from my Canon were getting corrupted. Weird. I used to save RAW but was having some difficulty using a photo editor I had with the files so I switched to jpeg.

I've been thinking about using online storage to backup my data. An old school computer radio talk show guy, Leo Laporte, does "this WEEK in Tech" @ TWiT.tv. One of his sponsors is Carbonite.com. Unlimited encrypted backup space for $54.95. There are others - may have better deals. Something to check out.

A RAID wouldn't be a bad idea locally, but after considering the potential risk for disaster, I'd prefer off-site in the long term.

Agreed. I've been thinking about carbonite myself. I have all my photos backed up on an external backup drive. For off-site insurance, I back them up again onto DVDs and keep those is a fire safe at my Father's house. Giant pita burning all the photos to DVD, not to mention if my house burns to the ground I'll lose whatever I've shot over the last few months since the last off-site backup.

Going to look into carbonite again. Any chance for an affiliate advertiser deal with them, Mark?

[az3579]

Nobody uses RAID array or other redundant backup methods?


I've been concerned lately about this because I would like to ensure the photo memories of my daughter remain safe.

I use the normal online sites (Shutterfly, Flickr, and Photobucket) - but mostly for sharing and photo gifts.

I currently backup my phots to DVD and store in my firesafe. I was just saving on my HDD but the jpegs from my Canon were getting corrupted. Weird. I used to save RAW but was having some difficulty using a photo editor I had with the files so I switched to jpeg.

I've been thinking about using online storage to backup my data. An old school computer radio talk show guy, Leo Laporte, does "this WEEK in Tech" @ TWiT.tv. One of his sponsors is Carbonite.com. Unlimited encrypted backup space for $54.95. There are others - may have better deals. Something to check out.

A RAID wouldn't be a bad idea locally, but after considering the potential risk for disaster, I'd prefer off-site in the long term.


I use a Network Attached Storage unit with RAID-enabled Terabyte drives. If a drive fails, no worries; the other drive still carries the data, and you can swap out the bad drive and it will replicate once that's done.
BUT, the safest AND best way is to have two backups of your data. So, have a copy off of your computer, AND an off-site location if it's data that you cannot afford to lose.
The problem with carbonite is that it's a recurring charge. For many of us, it's an extra bill we don't want.

Personally, I have lots of data I don't want to lose, but wouldn't make me lose my job or some other major aspect of my life if it got destroyed, so I just keep my RAID-enabled NAS and leave it at that.

[kayger12]

Just signed up for Carbonite today.
3 years for $129.
Unlimited data.

[billschusteriv]

I use a Network Attached Storage unit with RAID-enabled Terabyte drives. If a drive fails, no worries; the other drive still carries the data, and you can swap out the bad drive and it will replicate once that's done.
BUT, the safest AND best way is to have two backups of your data. So, have a copy off of your computer, AND an off-site location if it's data that you cannot afford to lose.
The problem with carbonite is that it's a recurring charge. For many of us, it's an extra bill we don't want.

Personally, I have lots of data I don't want to lose, but wouldn't make me lose my job or some other major aspect of my life if it got destroyed, so I just keep my RAID-enabled NAS and leave it at that.

Agreed. Not excited about the recurring charge. But thats about the cheapest I can find - considering the unlimited data.

[billschusteriv]

Glad to hear you got a good deal on it. Was that through the twit.tv affiliate deal?

[kayger12]

Glad to hear you got a good deal on it. Was that through the twit.tv affiliate deal?

No-- Just went to their website and they had one, two, and three year deals available. Think it was $54 for one $99 for two, and $129 for three.

[billschusteriv]

Glad to hear you got a good deal on it. Was that through the twit.tv affiliate deal?

No-- Just went to their website and they had one, two, and three year deals available. Think it was $54 for one $99 for two, and $129 for three.

Great! I'll have to check it out again.

[ryankokesh]

I would highly suggest crashplan. Did a lot of research and they seem to be the best. I used to use mozy, but their client took up a completely unacceptable amount of cpu threads. Crashplan is incredibly light though- you honestly don't know it's there.

[danewilson77]

I would highly suggest crashplan. Did a lot of research and they seem to be the best. I used to use mozy, but their client took up a completely unacceptable amount of cpu threads. Crashplan is incredibly light though- you honestly don't know it's there.

Is there any benefit to Crashplan free. Use laymen terms please.

[M0nk3y]

What brands of external drives should you look for?

I'm thinking at just starting at 500GB. I won't shoot that much to fill it up.

[danewilson77]

I have heard good things about Seagate...

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

[Rovert]

I use a Western Digital dual 500GB Raid setup. I set windows to use a custom drive letter near the end of the alphabet. I use SyncToy 2.1 from Microsoft to cross sync selected folders on my notebook, as well as an archive folder on my external to store the stuff I don't need on my notebook anymore. Nice and easy! Every time I do a large change of files, I plug in my external Hd, load synctoy, and click sync all.

[ryankokesh]

What brands of external drives should you look for?

I'm thinking at just starting at 500GB. I won't shoot that much to fill it up.

Lacie makes the best external drives. You'll pay a premium for them though.

[ryankokesh]

Is there any benefit to Crashplan free. Use laymen terms please.

The free version doesn't back up to their servers - that means it'll back it up to another computer in your home, or even a friend's computer if you can convince them to let you use their storage and bandwidth!

[az3579]

Lacie makes the best external drives. You'll pay a premium for them though.

It doesn't matter what hard drive you use. Best not to pay the premium. LaCie isn't a hard drive brand; they use common brands of hard drives such as Seagate.
You really are better off either getting your own hard drive with a longer warranty and throwing it in an external case or buying one ready-made, such as the Western Digital MyBook or the Seagate FreeAgent. I recommend the SeaGate because of the long 5-year (many models) warranty.

[Rovert]

I have used Seagate since the start of PCs...LOL. No Seagate has failed on me yet. I have a server downstairs that's been running since 2002 and rarely turns off unless there's a vacation. That Seagate harddrive is still running with no odd noises and it's been more than 8 years!

The ones I have had fail or diagnosed other's failures are Hitachi, Toshiba, and Maxtor.

[danewilson77]

The free version doesn't back up to their servers - that means it'll back it up to another computer in your home, or even a friend's computer if you can convince them to let you use their storage and bandwidth!

Thats crap.

[C Withers Media]

Dane, you could always use 3.5" floppy disks in a magnetically sealed lunchbox.

[danewilson77]

Mmmm.........lmao!!!!!

I'm just gonna get a 1TB drive.....ass monkey.

[ryankokesh]

Thats crap.

Lol

For what it's worth, I've had two western digital external drives fail on me. My seagate's still going strong though.

[ryankokesh]

Mmmm.........lmao!!!!!

I'm just gonna get a 1TB drive.....ass monkey.

If you're using an external drive as a backup, make sure it's actually that- a backup. As in all the content is actually stored somewhere else. My parents' external drive was used to store all their pictures, and it physically failed. It would have cost them about $2k to have the data professionally restored, but I was lucky enough to be able to fix it and recover most of their stuff. Took me many many many hours...

You could get a RAID device though - I think it's raid 0 that you'd want? I forgot... But it's basically a couple of drives grouped together in one box, and then if one drive fails you can swap it out without losing any data. It could definitely save you a whole lot of pain. Or you could be totally fine with a normal drive. It'd just be like insurance. Except that every drive, given enough time and use, will eventually fail. Some sooner than others I guess. Oh, and if you ever hear weird clicking, immediately back it up to a new drive!

I'll stop rambling now :)

[Kudos]

I've had a bad experience with seagate. i had a 320 gig drive fail on me. had a lot of data that i wanted to keep. my western digital drives have not failed ever even 40gig drives that are 6 to 7 years old. essentially the best type of hdd to use is a ssd (solid state drive) so a large flash drive in a sense. They make up to 60 or 100 gig ssd drives though they are much pricier than standard magnetic drives. No moving parts= less chance of failure.

[ryankokesh]

Yeah, in a few years I bet most everything but the xl capacities will be ssd...as far as I'm concerned, that day can't come soon enough!