Briefly comment on the best way you have found to backup and catalog your digital images.

Briefly comment on the best way you have found to backup and catalog your digital images.
I backup all my digital images on CDs.
44% (54 votes)
I have switched to DVD backup because of the larger capacity.
20% (24 votes)
I work with a separate hard drive.
27% (33 votes)
I haven't started that yet and all my images are on my computer hard drive.
9% (11 votes)
Total votes: 122

COMMENTS
James Gillispie's picture

I have a dedicated portable external 40G hard drive for working with my pictures but my backups are to DVD. Have been using DVD's for several years for all my backup work.

Dicksdaily's picture

DVD's offer a reasonable amount of storage however it's frustrating when searching to have to swap them around - an external firewire drive - like a lacie or the like - offers the best of both worlds - and for me they're great because they're pc/mac compatible ....

Larry Lohrman's picture

I backup to both an external hard drive and DVD.

Andrew Pike's picture

CD's are the easiest way to back up my film scans, plus, it saves room on the hard drive for other, more important things (if indeed there IS anything more important than photography).

Justin's picture

Another mehtod of backup I use, which is not listed above, is an online service. I keep all of my pictures at smugmug.com, as well as archiving on DVD, just to be sure I dont; lose those pictures of my kids being born...

Stuart Koslov's picture

I store all master image files in Photoshop Format on DVD. I also keep all master images on an external hard drive for fast access. DVDs are stored by Year and roll number, eg: 2005-01. Contact sheets use the same numbering system as does the backup files on my external hard drive.

Joe 's picture

Just started with digital, the only way I know of, at this time is save my images on cd's or my hard drive.

Ed's picture

I use a Combination of CD and DVD at the present time. I probably will gravitate to all DVD sometime in the future.

William Pate's picture

I backup my images to a separate hard drive and put them on a CD later for processing prints.

David Sarti's picture

I have both cd's and external hard drive for back up

Erik Kopp's picture

I back everthing up on a seperate hard drive after each addition to my collection. Then, at least 4 times a year, I back up everything on DVD as well.

Bradley's picture

I've just recently begun to use the RAID 1, a hard drive system with my new Dell.

Mark Van Doren's picture

I have tried about everything, but to get to the photo a client wants it's the external hard drive that is the best. I use a 200 Gb USB 2 into three major cats, and five supporting cats under the major. JPEG, TIFF, and RAW, and then into different subject classes like - Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Wildlife, etc.

Dede 's picture

At this point, I have an album for each year into which I place the CD's. I make a proof sheet to go with each CD. As the size of the files grow, so does this collection of CD's. I backup my moneymakers numerous times since I have already had corrupted CD's.

Bill's picture

I store all my images on a seperate Hard Drive. I then back them up a second time on DVDs, but have not been pleased with this part of the procedure. I haven't yet found a good backup utility that will do what I want.

Terry Paula Hoffman's picture

Actually, I make 2 copies of all my photos with each set stored in separate places just in case.

Tom Palko's picture

I shoot mostly FILM. Scan to digital, keep the negs., Enlargments any size, any time, NO PROBLEM!

Mindy Duncan's picture

Each client's images are on a CD in their file. As I shoot another job for that client I add the images to a CD until it's full. Client files are catalonged by name and date.

Henriette's picture

I have my nice own negatives, and stay proud with my analogue photo's.

Richard McCabe's picture

I backup all Raw pictures to CD as well as all final processed JPEG versions to CD.

J.  Williams's picture

I use disk imaging software (Norton Ghost) to create backups of my digital images. I store those backups on a different hard drive in my computer. Then, I also copy them to two separate external hard drives. I used to be an IT guy and know the importance of taking regular backups and storing them separately from your computer. You also need to regularly run hard disk utilities to minimize the risk of your hard drive losing data. But, always take a backup first!

B.  Milton Cuppy, Jr.'s picture

I print out proof sheets & number the disks. They are stored in a 200 disk floppy type & zippered holder.

Don Pasieka's picture

I use a Road Stor and burn my images directly from my SD cards. That way I know that I have my images. I do that periodically, I don't wait for my cards to get full.

Doug Abbott's picture

I keep original RAW's and DNG's on archive CD's. I then keep an original RAW copy on an external hard drive, and copy edited and final pixs (usually in TIF or PSD) again onto CD's with thumbnail prints. I presently have two ext. HD's. Working files are kept on my primary int. HD until finished. I use CDFinder as my primary CD database, with a copy on my int. HD and a copy on an ext. CD.

John Ellis's picture

I just bought and installed a DVD burner in my computer. I plan to use (try) that next.

John George's picture

I use an external drive with a USB 2.0 interface. This is fast and has lots of room.

Dana Smith's picture

I know I need to, I have two years worth on my computer.

Mark C.'s picture

I have used CDs to back up my digital images for the past 2 years. I have found that using CDs to catalog my photos is becoming more and more cumbersome. I am currently considering using a high capacity separate hard drive to catalog my images in the future.

D.  A.  Thompson's picture

I have used CDs and DVDs and still will back to DVDs occasionally; however, for the past year or so, I have been using an external USB drive. I also use another HD separate from where my OS is located as another back up. You guessed it; I lost quite a bit of work when a hard drive went belly up.

Paul Sikora's picture

I use both DVDs and hard drives. I use three usb-connected 250GB hard drives to back up each raw filmscan twice and I use DVDs to back up each good, edited shot twice plus a copy on one of the backup hard drives. I store the DVDs off site.

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