Digital BW, The Print

I use both DVD (now Blu-ray) and hard drive backup. I also backup between two of my systems so I have four online copies and an occassional blu-ray. 

The easiest to use program for Windows is free. Microsoft has something called SyncToy 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=C26EFA36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en#Top

I use the Echo policy (changes made on my working disk are reflected on the backup copy but not the other way around). There are many other options. I have tasks scheduled every night on each machine. Doing it this way means I don't have to worry about proprietary backup formats and my external drives are readable anywhere. Technically I also have an extra copy since my working drive is a RAID1 set, but I won't be doing that much longer.

For DVD I use whatever came with my drive (currently Cyberlink but I've used Nero as well). I get a little under 25GB on a drive and it was surprisingly fast. Then I store those disks offsite (currently in my car).

I think about offline storage but even as an amateur I have over 500GB between video and photo.

As was pointed out hard drives can and will fail with alarming frequency, even a drive sitting around unplugged. I guess I should try reading my old DVDs while I can still make a copy.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "E.Neilsen" <e.neilsen2@...> wrote:
>
> As we a mass even more digital data, the chances get greater that we'll have
> an issue at some point. Markers are a source of problems for CD and DVDs.
> Out gassing of the sleeve. bad disk. 
> 
>  
> 
> Who's running the show? the computer guys or the artist? Yes it's a PIA. Do
> you really have time to open all those backed up folders just to check it?
> Do you trust the back up program? How many people make a mirror back up and
> then don't use it to make sure it worked? 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Eric Neilsen
> 
> Eric Neilsen Photography
> 
> 4101 Commerce Street, Suite 9
> 
> Dallas, TX 75226
> 
>  
> 
> www.ericneilsenphotography.com
> 
> skype me with ejprinter
> 
> www.ericneilsenphotography.com/forum1
> 
> Let's Talk Photography
> 
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Richard
> Smallfield
> Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 6:52 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] CD/DVD failure?
> 
>  
> 
>   
> 
> I've had CD/DVD failures, too. But I've also had hard drive failures that
> have combined with the failure of the backup program and resulted in
> unrecoverable data loss.
> 
> I use Mirror Folder for backing up (it's rather complex) and twice I've had
> unreadable data on the source disc - and then found that the mirror disc has
> also lost not just the corrupted data, but folders of tens of GBs of data,
> for no apparent reason. (It was set to backup any deleted files and keep the
> backups for two weeks but is now set to keep such files for three months, as
> I now know that I might not see an error within two weeks. And I'm no longer
> letting it delete unmatched files.) 
> 
> So ... although hard drives are easier and cheaper, even with hard drives,
> one has to be very careful about the ramifications of the options chosen in
> the backup software, and have more than one backup copy. And check the
> program is working as intended, regularly - something it is easy to fail to
> find time to do.
> 
> Any further suggestions would be appreciated from me, too.
> 
> thanks,
> Richard
> 
> Richard Smallfield Photography 
> 
> 
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>