Storage.

[Javelin]

ok so.. now I have 15g of images on my system. I want to burn them to DVD's and catalog them some how. Is there a piece of software I can use to do this? Maybe keep thumbs or highly compressed versions with exif on my hard drives and have a database that points to the disk they are on ? It seems wrong to just delete off what I don't print/use. what does everyone here do with this situation ? I have backed up to DVD images from previous cameras and past computers but they aren't really cataloged or anything, seems a shame that I never get to look through them anymore.

Ideally I'd like such software to make 4gb chunks of files to burn then make jpgs of all the images and indicate somehow where they wind up so I can say OK this particular photo is on such and such a disk

[Javelin]

Thanks for that I didn't realize LR and ACDsee would handle external storage.

I've been circling around the idea of buying LR after I try out the demo. now that LR 2 is out I may give it a shot. but now I see ACDSee (I actually have a license for a very early version of that... maybe the first one... win 3.1 ) will also process my raw files like LR so i'll have to look at that too.

[bakubo]

Years ago I tried to keep things backed up to CDs, bunches of them. I stopped doing that in 2003 though. Now I use external hard disks. I have several, but I make sure all of my photos are on a minimum of 2 hard disks. I just bought a 1tb USB 2 external hard disk last month for US$200. CDs are a pain in the butt because they take up a lot of space and you can't put all that many photos on one. Also you can only access one CD at a time. I put all of my photos on the hard disk and they are instantly available. Also, if you use CDs then you should have 2 copies and even then some years down the road there is a chance the CD won't be readable.

[David Kilpatrick]

I use external Firewire or USB 2 HDs at the moment. I keep the raw files, and also the processed work which is catalogued using iView Mediapro. I have a 600GB twin drive external unit for the final images, backed up on a 250GB (I don't have anything like that amount of files yet, it works out around 45GB for the finished JPEGs). Each project or month has a separate folder and an iView catalogue of its own; then there is an overall iView catalogue for the 600GB drive. This enables me to search through 7,500 images by keywords and find almost anything, and it is very fast indeed. Alt-Clicking on the iView browser or large media preview opens the source file directly in Photoshop. Everything is in AdobeRGB space, JPEG level 10 to 12.

The files are also (almost all of the processed results) on Alamy.com, which currently produces a useful $10,000 a year or so final return. That is a sort of further backup though I am not sure they store them to the same quality as delivered. Photographers who have had disasters of file loss have been able to get Alamy to give them their files, though it's not automatic at all and might involve some negotiation for a large collection. At some point I may file chunks of the overall collection with other online libraries or agencies. I do not use Flickr but do use pBase, mainly to store large example images for technical web pages relating to camera use.

David

[TimH]

So I am having the same issue as Javelin. I listen to a regular photo podcast from America and they are crazy for this data storage robot called a Drobo. It is like a RAID server without the set up.

Has anyone heard of this and if so what do you think?

Thanks,
Tim

[David Kilpatrick]

I've seen the Drobo and a few similar multi-HD RAID systems which are ready configured to work with Mac or PC, including some which are networked and even wifi equipped - just turn it on, log on to the device using an administration page, configure it and start either automatically backing up your documents or using it as remote storage from any machine on your network/in your wireless range.

They tend to cost about twice as much as low-price separate HDs, are less portable (though individual HDs can be removed, depending on whether RAID is used). We had one of the earliest examples to test about three years ago and you could pull an entire HD out of the cabinet while it was actually running, and lose no data.

I'm tempted by the wifi/network storage options, a bit slow, but with the possibility of having the backup in a different room or even in a secure (locked, safe-type) environment.

David

[Javelin]

I have a raid array on my current system. I'm not really running out of storage space or anything it's just that the images a piling up faster than I can deal with them. my other problem is cataloging them and I have the LR 2 demo now and I must say it's a little overwhelming. Adobe interfaces are quite unique and I find this one hard to master as well. I just need to spend more time with it.

[Javelin]

hard drives kind of worry me. rarely do they last 5 years and sometime a lot less if they are accessed a lot. at least on DVD they will go at least 50 years using decent media... the problem then becomes accessing the files .. hence the catalog I was looking for. I just don't see how LR can handle that, am I missing something?

[David Kilpatrick]

You transfer between media and file formats at intervals like 5 years - that is how digital images will be preserved, by continual repeated lossless replication and multiple copy propagation. This will replace the durability of single archive sources in future. Services like NYUD.NET (New York Uni heading up an international network of servers, I believe) already do this - invisibly - with large files over internet.

If you want to deliver, say, a 10 or 20MB JPEG from your website, alias-cache the file to NYUD.NET:

The original file lives on your own website - I've used hxxp to avoid creating a fake link in this post

hxxp://www.fred.com/bigjpeg.jpg

Instead of putting that as the link, you put:

hxxp://www.fred.com.nyud.net:8080/bigjpeg.jpg

The first time anyone accesses your file, it is streamed to the nyud.net servers and eventually gets propagated between many different servers which can share future downloading/viewing. Every time after the first time, you impose almost zero bandwidth on your site, because the file is actually delivered by this network.

In return, they get your image/soundfile/video or whatever large file is involved, and it becomes part of their archive of the content of WWW with its datestamp and origin. They then plan to keep this for all time, constantly updating their servers.

Similar methods will eventually keep all your digital archives intact for eternity (which of course is until 2013, we must not forget the imminent foreclosure of the current material world - we are a bit overdue in airplay revival for David Bowie's 'Five Years'...)

David

[Javelin]

(which of course is until 2013, we must not forget the imminent foreclosure of the current material world - we are a bit overdue in airplay revival for David Bowie's 'Five Years'...)

David

HAH yes of course. there was a guy with a sign saying just that downtown earlier! Course his sign just said "the end is coming" your "imminent foreclosure of the current material world" is much more eloquent

[Javelin]

double post ... doh!

[Javelin]

thats a pretty complete looking system alright. how do the naming conventions work forthe disks/photos? for example I don't so much worry about the file names for the photos but the folders they are in are dated

[Javelin]

I see in one of your screen shots there is a burn cd or dvd button, does this batch the files to fill the media properly then burn them? or do you use nero or something to do the actual burning

[Alain]

Hi

Using DVD's for backup is cumbersome and it's a safe practice to always burn two identical sets.

HD's are probably cheaper per GB and far easier to use. I my experience backups are made more often.

Using write once DVD's has one advantage, they are protected against accident -user error- overwrite.

Oh and try to get at least one copy off site (family/work/...).

As a DAM (Digital Asset Management) solution I use IdImager and I'm quite happy about it.


Alain

[braeside]

So I am having the same issue as Javelin. I listen to a regular photo podcast from America and they are crazy for this data storage robot called a Drobo. It is like a RAID server without the set up.

Has anyone heard of this and if so what do you think?

Thanks,
Tim

I have the Drobo 1 - the USB 2 model, though there is now a new Drobo 2 with FireWire 800 interface, much faster.(I may get one of those in the future). You can stick in any combo of sizes of SATA hard drives up to 4 in total. The data is stored redundantly so that if one drive fails, your data is still safe. You CAN yank a drive out while it is running. You can also just put in an extra drive if you are running out of space and it will automagically reconfigure itself to spread the data over the new drive. I currently have 3 x 1TB SATA drives in the Drobo, leaving a spare slot for future expansion.

I primarily use my Drobo for a Time Machine backup of my main iMac hard drive and my external Firewire 'Photos' hard drive where all of my RAW and JPGs reside. Apple's Time Machine is an incremental backup system with a superb interface for going back in time on your computer to locate files that you may have deleted or corrupted in someway and allows you to easily recover them.

I also keep an Aperture 'Vault' on a partition of the Drobo, this stores not the actual photo files, but the edits that have been made and the catalog, a very important safety net to have.

I have another large 1TB FW800 drive (partitioned in 2) that once a week clones my main iMac hard drive (Bootable) and my Photos hard drive. This is kept off-site in case of fire/theft. I use SuperDuper! software to clone the drives, which is very fast once the initial clone has been produced as it smart copies just what it needs to update the clone.

After I download a CF card to my iMac, I also stick it in to a Vosonic portable HD/card reader and so have a backup there for a good few months just in case something silly happens.