file storage pictures/Video

[popolarbear]

recently I suffered another Hard disk Failure. I learned from previous crashes, to back up on CD's/DVD's.. and since they also fail i try to burn two copies and store in two places.unfortunately I stock pile enough files, to make burning disks worth it, and then burn several. the data crash affected afew good files. when i went to check my CD/DVD back up, i found that several of my DVD's have errors in the burned coppies. this wasn't the case originally as i checked them fresh after burning.

in the old days of wet process silver halide film, the negs were stable almost indefinitely. now i hear that unless you specifically purchase archival Cd's that the storage life isn't that long. the ink layer in the CD has less than 10years. archival is longer but not as stable as old silver halide film storage.

flash memory also has problems.

I have a friend that has alot of data backed up in an array of hard disks that self correct for errors. it stores two(i think) copies of data in two separate places, it also encodes the data so that small errors in data reading can be automatically corrected using a mathematical formula that autocorrects random errors in data. I'm thinking perhaps this might be better method for long term storage, assuming i dint get a lightning strike/static electric damage(which i have also suffered afew).


i kinda rate my life in the quality of the pictures i take. so im pissed to lose these files.


any thoughts?

[Hydro]

There are a ton of online storage sites for free or nearly free
Youtube and flickr I use a bit, but there are a ton of alternatives I could list

Also there are usb type hot swap drives, you just pop in a full hard drive like a normal 3.5 disk and backup no prob

[nlintgen]

I use a Synology DS-410 NAS (Network Attached Storage) device at home for all my general storage.  There are many brands and models out there for varying purposes and they aren't terribly cheap, but I've found it to be the easiest way to reliably store data.  If going this route, I'd suggest taking a really quick primer on the various types of RAID (wikipedia, etc) as this is what will store your data across multiple drives (be sure to use some form that mirrors your data!).

My parents and one of my buddies also have Synology diskstations which allows us to do automated remote backups between each house (thus further eliminating lightning worries).  No time spent burning CDs or manually copying to an external hard drive!  Since this means I'm storing my own stuff as well as stuff from others, your usable storage goes down, but it all depends how safe you want to be... plus disk drives are relatively cheap these days anyway.

[jasondbaker]

RAID storage technologies will mitigate data loss due to hardware failure (i.e., failed drive) but will not prevent data corruption. I lost a bunch of photos a couple years ago on a home NAS. The NAS was mirroring all the data correctly. But it was corrupting the data before it was mirrored. A virus could invade your system and corrupt all your data at rest on the NAS/SAN. Storage systems are not data backup system.

I strongly recommend maintaining multiple backups of important photos on different storage platforms in different geographic regions. That way you get both technology diversity and geographic diversity.

Here's what I do. I store images on usb hard drives at my house. I replace the drives every 3 years with larger drives, and migrate the old data. I also upload all images to Flickr and pay $25/year for unlimited photo storage. My house could burn down and I would still have all my images. Flickr could experience a major snafu and I would still have all my images.

This is the best, and cheapest, solution I've been able to come up with so far.

[nlintgen]

I may not have made it very clear in my original post... I completely agree with Jason that you still need to be careful of data corruption.  The remote backups help this some, but you still need to be sure you're not simply backing up corrupt data!  It looks like flickr is a pretty good deal.

[Qix]

My current approach is similar to the others.

1.) Extra hard disk in PC that I selectively backup too. This is fast and easy so I'm always doing it. This could be RAID, or whatever. I consider this backup the most unreliable but it is something that is easy to do and always up to date.

2.) ESATA-III to a external drive holder. Take HDD out of fireproof safe, insert into holder. Run same backup as to the internal drive. Then remove and store in safe when finished. This minimizes failures such as major power supply zapps everything (happened to a friend), lightening (happened to a friend), water (happened to a friend). The ESATA3 is very fast. Then as Jason does, eventually swap this with a new drive (most likely bigger as the storage needs increase).

3.) Offsite backup. Now all website providers pretty much have unlimited storage. For about $6/month you can backup unlimited and you can backup anything (not just images or video). I use the same backup program but re-direct to FTP. Pretty much pleased with this but uploading 500GB can take quite awhile depending on your connection. However, that can be done a bit at a time and then isn't so bad. The biggest concern here is security. But with your own domain which has no external links and mega strong control portal password plus a very strong backup password, only the Israeli's, French, Chinese, NSA and mob will be looking at my scuba pictures

I would like to do optical disks but it would take so many - even with Bluray that it just doesn't seem worth it (but I do have a few really important things backed up that way).

I like the idea of a NAS and would buy Synology first. But it is always plugged into the wall somehow and if lightening takes it out along with the HDD in the PC in another room - what good would it be? If someone could assure me that a certain type of UPS would take any lightening strike then it would be worth it. But it still doesn't cover fire, storm, water or theft.

This is a great topic, I'm curious what others do as well.

[jasondbaker]

Interesting Qix. The challenge I see with dumping images to an ftp site is organizing the images. That's what I like about Flickr. It isn't just storing the images, it is cataloging them. Plus, you can log into Flickr from nearly any device and show off your images.

The downside to Flickr is that the platform will not accept RAW files. I store all RAW files (and corresponding Adobe lightroom databases) on local usb drives. Then I upload the maximum size/quality jpegs to Flickr. Lightroom makes this process fairly painless.

[Qix]

Yeah, if a person also wants their backup to be viewable - the ftp approach isn't gonna cut it.

However, if needed a person could easily steer the backup (let's say just images) under the webroot (public or hidden). I think this would just be a mirrored (not zipped) backup of what's on a computer. As long as what's on your PC has some type of HTML friendly viewing layout already rendered (via Bridge / Lightroom / Picasa /etc ...) then anyone could look at photos.

But that type of approach doesn't place them into a large, active and more visible cloud such as Flickr, Google, etc. I'm okay with that so far and have preferred sharing selective photos with friends and travelers on facebook instead - not a huge fan of facebook in general - but the notification system of newly posted images works good for me so far.

[popolarbear]

since we are on the topic. this is free, with limited space. they also have activities that you compleate to get rewards of extra space.

[popolarbear]

well, I had my SD card partially backed up, just not the last few dives. let my pal stick it into his computer and a video with him in it. and now its gone! I have no idea were my flash card is! this rates up there with when i had my memory card protector case blow out of my boat full with cards(tonka).
don't know what happended. but those files are gone.