DVD-R+/ DVD-RW and other DVD formats - bit of a war still going on over what is going to be the lasting format, but DVD is the way to go just now - 6Gb per disk or so, at about $5 per disk. Almost affordable too
A more risky but cheaper solution is multiple harddrives, but if you get a virus that delete JPEGS, that could be painful.
I really need to get a better system than using CD-Rs, I can get about 90 shots onto a CD-R, and I've taken about 8000 in the last 3 months.
CDR or CDRW is a cheap option, I always keep at least two copies, one as a backup. I've also got an old 5Gb hard drive that I backup files onto, it's a large, cheap way of storing files although it's a bit of a pain to connect.
*Important* However you backup your files, store them away from your PC, in another room. If a burglar steals your PC you wouldn't want him to steal your backup files aswell!
Microdrives are not better than CD/DVD-R's. They are expensive and can't cope with water, heavy shocks, magnetism and such. They get full very fast (only 1.5 CD-R and .25 of a DVD-R). Easy for use in the camera, but not a backup solution.
Stay away from rewriteables. It seems cheaper, but they don't last very long compared to recordables.
Make two copies. Save one at a convenient location, try to store the other in another building, a safe, etc. You will have a copy when your house burns down or when you accidentily scratch the surface.
There is significant quality difference in CD/DVD-R's. Best makes are usually Sony, Imation and some Fuji's (all made by Tayo Yuden). Kodak Ultima's are very good as well. I store data on Imation's and images on Kodak's. As soon as I have about 700mb of originals and edits I back them up. Leave the "Verify" function on.
For now I backup on CD-R's, when I get a new pc I will switch to DVD-R's and reburn all my CD-R's on them. :)
I believe that Sony makes DVD-R's that will work in both kind of writers and readers.
remember, people, in order for a storage medium to be effective, you have to have the equipment to read it
ask the people who have files backed up on 5.25" floppies
and from the site www.burncd.com ...
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"The manufacturers claim 75 years (cyanine dye, used in "green" discs), 100 years (phthalocyanine dye, used in "gold" discs), or even 200 years
("advanced" phthalocyanine dye, used in "platinum" discs) once the disc has been written. The shelf life of an unrecorded disc has been estimated at between 5 and 10 years. There is no standard agreed-upon way to test discs for lifetime viability. Accelerated aging tests have been done, but they may not provide a meaningful analogue to real-world aging.
Exposing the disc to excessive heat, humidity, or to direct sunlight will greatly reduce the lifetime. In general, CD-Rs are far less tolerant of environmental conditions than pressed CDs, and should be treated with greater care. The easiest way to make a CD-R unusable is to scratch the top surface. Find a CD-R you don't want anymore, and try to scratch the top (label side) with your fingernail, a ballpoint pen, a paper clip, and anything else you have handy. The results may surprise you.
Keep them in a cool, dark, dry place, and they will probably live longer
than you do (emphasis on "probably"). "
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... which probably means "buy the good stuff, not the cheap stuff - then take care of it"
What it really means, with your correct 5.25" history comment, is buy stuff that is going to last long enough for you to migrate to the next storage technology, and don't forget to migrate before your current storage is obsolete...
I used to have multiple drives... I would dutifully copy new images over to the other drive so that in case of a failure I would have them there all nice an happy. One day I even planned to burn them to CD.
Then my motherboard got screwed up and my main drive crashed and I was forced onto the "backup" drive with a new PC. I was delighted on first bootup to find all my files intact on the partition I had been saving them to.
So, with a new 1.7 gig athlon under the hood, I wanted a fresh copy of XP to see just how well it would run. Do I need tell you which partition I wound up formatting for the new XP installation?
So, I guess the moral of the story is, backup your files to MULTIPLE places if you want assurances against both stupidity and hardware failures :)
remember, people, in order for a storage medium to be effective, you have to have the equipment to read it
Gee, thanks... I haven't thought about the thousands of pictures I have backed up on that Colorado Tape drive I had 10 years ago in a couple of years... Now I'll go home, open the drawer they are in and dream of ways to read them again... In a month or two, I'll close the drawer and be happy once more.
The absolute cheapest way is to just get some cheap web hosting. You can get a few gigs for a little bit a month (50 megs free at brinkster.com, or pbase.com, or webshots.com), you get a place to show off your photos, and they're accessible from anywhere with an internet connection -- plus you can just save the copies on the site if you ever lose your originals.
The absolute cheapest way is to just get some cheap web hosting. You can get a few gigs for a little bit a month (50 megs free at brinkster.com, or pbase.com, or webshots.com), you get a place to show off your photos, and they're accessible from anywhere with an internet connection -- plus you can just save the copies on the site if you ever lose your originals.
Yup, it's cheap, but I would not trust my images on someone else's server unless I had them backed up elswhere, maybe twice elsewhere. There was a photo site (to remain unnamed) that went belly up some time ago & left A LOT of people stranded without their files. I don't know if anyone ever got their files back.
As far as backup hard drives, yes, I do keep one of my backups on a HDD. It's an external, 1394-based drive, so I can take it elsewhere when it's not hooked up. The second copy is on CD-R. Not that I'm against having images on the web, but my "photos" directory currently takes up 3.73 GB. Upload that!
