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Photo Storage and backup


vegs1

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I am one of those people who takes thousands of photos on vacation, gets them onto my computer and never ends up doing anything more than that...although I'd like to. I'm so far behind at this point that I'm afraid one of these days my computer will crash and I'll lose them all. I really need to get a system for printing and copying to a disc or something but for now...I need a secondary storage idea.

 

What is the best backup/storage for them. I was considering a Netbook or a Storage Media Player (I found an Epson-3000). Do these work as a backup/storage to my computer hard drive?

 

Thanks for any help you can offer.

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If you already have the computer and just want to back up everything, including all the photos, then I'd suggest you get an external hard drive and use that to back up the whole computer hard drive. I prefer Seagate hard drives myself.

 

If you are looking for a portable storage device, the Epson unit is really a great piece of technology.

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If you already have the computer and just want to back up everything, including all the photos, then I'd suggest you get an external hard drive and use that to back up the whole computer hard drive. I prefer Seagate hard drives myself.

 

If you are looking for a portable storage device, the Epson unit is really a great piece of technology.

 

Thanks bruce-r. I have a main computer. I just thought if I got a netbook or the Epson, I could then take it with me, download my photos and be able to see them. This would give me 2 places they were stored as I'd store them all on my main computer when I got home. I just didn't know which one was better....or if one actually is better than the other.

 

Is the external hard drive a better idea?

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For home backup, it's hard to beat the cost/value of an external hard drive. I won't bore you with my backup scenario from the RAID array to the various externals...let's just say that any disaster that destroyed all copies of my files would make the news for sure! (If there were anyone left to watch it...)

 

On the road, I have used an Epson P2000 that the Wonderful Wife gave me for years. It has the best screen of the pack with a bright 4" display with full color VGA resolution. I love the darn thing, but will never replace it with another. I shoot with a Sony A700 now and since Epson stopped issuing firmware updates for it in 2006, it will not now, and never will, read RAW files from my camera. I seldom shoot RAW, but their dropping support the minute that the next $500 model rolled out of the factory has left a bad taste for me. Honestly, it still works great, if a little slow, with the big JPEGs from the Sony. I won't toss it until it it expires on it's own, but the next backup utility for travel will be a netbook with a big ol' hard drive.

 

My 2¢...

 

Dave

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For home backup, it's hard to beat the cost/value of an external hard drive. I won't bore you with my backup scenario from the RAID array to the various externals...let's just say that any disaster that destroyed all copies of my files would make the news for sure! (If there were anyone left to watch it...)

 

On the road, I have used an Epson P2000 that the Wonderful Wife gave me for years. It has the best screen of the pack with a bright 4" display with full color VGA resolution. I love the darn thing, but will never replace it with another. I shoot with a Sony A700 now and since Epson stopped issuing firmware updates for it in 2006, it will not now, and never will, read RAW files from my camera. I seldom shoot RAW, but their dropping support the minute that the next $500 model rolled out of the factory has left a bad taste for me. Honestly, it still works great, if a little slow, with the big JPEGs from the Sony. I won't toss it until it it expires on it's own, but the next backup utility for travel will be a netbook with a big ol' hard drive.

 

My 2¢...

 

Dave

 

Thanks for your opinion Dave. Am I totally out of my element here...what on earth are RAW and RAID????

 

I hope you don't think I'm totally daft but I don't really understand why an external hard drive would be better than a netbook or the epson. You can view on the latter two and I realize you can't on the external hard drive. Is it just that the external hard drive is cheaper?

 

Also, do you have a system for downloading your photos to your computer and then saving them to a disc/computer/hard drive or whatever? (I'm CERTAIN you do!!! ;)) If so, can you put it into simple terms so maybe I could learn something.

 

I've learned the hard way...I lost some photos that were very important to me a long time back and I don't want to lose anymore but I can't seem to figure out a logical system.

 

Would I be best off to get both an external hard drive AND a netbook and keep my photos in all 3 spots?

 

Do you copy your photos to discs? I've tried doing that but can never come up with how much to put on one disc...whether I've already put it on one or not...where to store them all. I find this whole digital photo thing confusing!!!

 

Thanks for your valuable input. I read many of your posts on these boards and have been a lurker on your classes and really appreciate your knowledge and willingness to help people. Thank you.

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My suggestions would be an external backup drive. A small portable 2.5" hard drive costs about $100 for a 320 GB currently.

 

I too used to have an Epson P2000 but now I would recommend a netbook and hard drive if the netbook has a small SSD drive. If the netbook has a HDD or large SSD over 64 GB I would use the hard drive and do not reuse the camera memory cards until you get home and get the photos onto another media like the hard drive of another computer.

 

It is best to have 2-3 copies of your important files with at least one copy in anther location for ultimate safety.

 

I would only copy photos to CD or DVD as a third backup. for several reasons, it is a slow write process, discs have potential for easy damage. Media size is too small for my current needs.

 

RAW is an unproccessed image available on all DSLRs and RAID is a set of hard drives grouped together stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks often used for backup. I prefer a Drobo which is a similar idea but if one disk fails the others can rebuild itself.

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Thanks bruce-r. I have a main computer. I just thought if I got a netbook or the Epson, I could then take it with me, download my photos and be able to see them. This would give me 2 places they were stored as I'd store them all on my main computer when I got home. I just didn't know which one was better....or if one actually is better than the other.

 

Is the external hard drive a better idea?

 

Uuummm, not if your house burns down. If the photos are valuable to you, there should be more than one physical location at which you keep a set.

 

Think of the New Orleans disaster caused by Katrina....

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Thanks compulady and websailor. Point about house fire taken.

 

I think I shall go with an external hard drive and back it up and keep it at my office. I will also get a netbook to take with me and download my photos onto it so I can also see them. I guess the Epson P3000 isn't in my future.

 

Now I have to figure out about netbooks! There is SO much to learn.:)

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Thanks for your opinion Dave. Am I totally out of my element here...what on earth are RAW and RAID????

 

Compulady covered this, so I'll jump to the next.

 

I hope you don't think I'm totally daft but I don't really understand why an external hard drive would be better than a netbook or the epson. You can view on the latter two and I realize you can't on the external hard drive. Is it just that the external hard drive is cheaper?

 

An external hard drive would be best used to copy all of your images (and personal files, for that matter) from your main computer on a regular basis. I do this on a regular basis to external drives attached to my PC and monthly to a small portable drive that travels with me (hurricane, fire, meteor proofing). It is purely back up with no provision for viewing other than attached to a PC.

 

On vacation, I take the Epson to back up my cards at the end of each day and view the images. The netbook would provide the same function.

 

Also, do you have a system for downloading your photos to your computer and then saving them to a disc/computer/hard drive or whatever? (I'm CERTAIN you do!!! ;)) If so, can you put it into simple terms so maybe I could learn something.

 

I use Google Picasa for organization and it has an excellent utility for loading photos from you camera and is a superb organizer. It also has an excellent backup utility that will write to a external drive or to a set of DVDs. On the DVDs, it automatically fills the disc, stops when it's full and prompts you for the next one. Subsequent backups add only new or changed files if you want.

 

Here's a link to Picasa:

http://picasa.google.com/

 

The first C.C.P.I.C.S. class has a step by step for installing Picasa:

http://www.pptphoto.com/ArticlePages/Class1.htm

 

It is really easy to install and set up. My only caveat would be to choose "only search in My Documents" when it asks where you want it to look for pictures. Otherwise it will scan the whole drive and pick up all the little button images from Program Files.

 

Here's a lik to a file organization article I wrote:

http://www.pptphoto.com/ArticlePages/OrganizeOrDie.htm

 

I will probably expand it fairly soon to include more details and how-tos with a section on backups.

 

I've learned the hard way...I lost some photos that were very important to me a long time back and I don't want to lose anymore but I can't seem to figure out a logical system.

 

Picasa backup is a good place to start. It is really intuitive, but if you need specific help, let me know and I'll be happy to go step-by-step (or speed up the organization article re-write!)

 

Would I be best off to get both an external hard drive AND a netbook and keep my photos in all 3 spots?

 

In a word; yes. The external is a good failure recovery for home. The traveling netbook helps disaster-proof your files.

 

Do you copy your photos to discs? I've tried doing that but can never come up with how much to put on one disc...whether I've already put it on one or not...where to store them all. I find this whole digital photo thing confusing!!!

 

Again, Picasa's backup utility is a godsend for this purpose. Auto spanning over multiple discs and tracking which images are new for the next backup is just great.

 

Thanks for your valuable input. I read many of your posts on these boards and have been a lurker on your classes and really appreciate your knowledge and willingness to help people. Thank you.

 

Thank you. I'm happy to help where I can. This stuff isn't (quite) rocket science, but it can seem like it with so darn many options! We've come a long way from little sticky tabs in a five-pound family album, haven't we?

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

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Ok...I just reread...what is a SSD drive?

 

Solid State Drive.

 

This is not a new technology, but the drives are getting cheap enough (almost) with enough capacity to be practical for the average user.

 

SSDs are basically hard drives with flash memory for storage instead of spinning discs and read/write heads.

 

No moving parts = bump/drop proof. Great for laptops since they use a lot less power than a mechanical hard drive.

 

Dave

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To add to the info on SSD (Solid State Drives) drives:

 

They are currently available in sizes from 4 GB to 128 GB with 256 GB being announced but very expensive.

 

Some netbooks have SSD, others HDD (conventional spinning hard drive) current HDD capacity on mobile computers sold today 60 GB -500 GB.

 

For example a Dell mini 9 is a netbook that is only available with SSD from 4 GB-64 GB (though is only available with ubuntu Linux operating system in 32 and 64 GB sizes and 4-16 GB with Windows). On the other hand the Dell mini 10 and 12 use HDD and is available in sizes up to 160 GB.

 

I shoot alot and shoot RAW + JPG I can shoot 80-100 GB or more on a trip so I bring at least 2 x 320 GB mobile hard drives and a small computer, a 13" MacBook Air.

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In addition to an external H/D I use an online photo site that allows unlimited storage. I have several unlisted, password protected galleries that I use to archive my stuff. I've only been into digital for 5 or 6 years, but I have thousands of photos and slides that I've been scanning - like for 3 years... :rolleyes: Basically, anywhere I have internet access, I have access to my photos.

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In addition to an external H/D I use an online photo site that allows unlimited storage. I have several unlisted, password protected galleries that I use to archive my stuff. I've only been into digital for 5 or 6 years, but I have thousands of photos and slides that I've been scanning - like for 3 years... :rolleyes: Basically, anywhere I have internet access, I have access to my photos.

 

I've considered the online storage like Mozy, but the initial upload of 170GB of images has me hesitating. I just upgraded my internet to 20/5, so it has moved into the realm of possibility.

 

Thanks for posting this and reminding me.

 

Dave

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I think I uploaded a total of about 75gb in several sessions. I don't have a DSLR so I still archive and upload everything as max quality jpeg's. I can imagine the load when you're archiving RAW files... To upload, I go to the wife's office and use her super-duper connection.;)

 

By the way Dave, there's some amazing stuff on both of your your websites! Very nice!:D

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I think I uploaded a total of about 75gb in several sessions. I don't have a DSLR so I still archive and upload everything as max quality jpeg's. I can imagine the load when you're archiving RAW files... To upload, I go to the wife's office and use her super-duper connection.;)

 

By the way Dave, there's some amazing stuff on both of your your websites! Very nice!:D

 

I actually shoot very little RAW, but I do shoot at max quality JPEG and it still adds up to a bunch of gigs with 60,000+ images!

 

Thanks for the kind words about my galleries. There was a lot of fun had while making those images!

 

Dave

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Thanks everyone for you help...especially you Pierces. I tend to read just about anything I can find that you write...seems I can actually understand most of it (OK...with that exception to RAW and RAID which I NOW understand).

 

I shall get an external hard drive (what size do you recommend...I have thousands and thousands of photos) and will probably get a Netbook also. My husband is checking into the P3000 so maybe we'll get that too. I haven't looked at Google Picasa yet so I will have a peek at that tomorrow. I guess I don't understand how that really works...is it a backup to my computer or to a "place in space" so to speak. What if "they" crash? Will they then lose my photos?

 

Sorry for the many, many questions but I am not very technical and don't really understand how a lot of this works.

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Thanks everyone for you help...especially you Pierces. I tend to read just about anything I can find that you write...seems I can actually understand most of it (OK...with that exception to RAW and RAID which I NOW understand).

 

I shall get an external hard drive (what size do you recommend...I have thousands and thousands of photos) and will probably get a Netbook also. My husband is checking into the P3000 so maybe we'll get that too. I haven't looked at Google Picasa yet so I will have a peek at that tomorrow. I guess I don't understand how that really works...is it a backup to my computer or to a "place in space" so to speak. What if "they" crash? Will they then lose my photos?

 

Sorry for the many, many questions but I am not very technical and don't really understand how a lot of this works.

 

Thank you. Glad the articles and postings are of use to you!

 

The external hard drives come in all sizes. I would suggest checking how much space your files take up and double it, at least for future growth. I have 60,000+ photos and they take up less than 200GB, so a 320GB or 500GB drive might do. Another good measure is to get a backup drive as large or larger than your computer's hard drive(s).

 

The netbook and P3000 are both going to provide the same function. Keep in mind my comment about Epson discontinuing support when new models come out. Updating a netbook can be done by downloading software patches, you'll havbe to buy a new Epson to update it.

 

Picasa offers about a gigabyte of free online album space, but that is for display and sharing. Picasa's value is as an organizer and it is also a great utility for loading your images to the computer (you can put Picasa on the netbook and use it to load your images from the camera on the road). It has a growing set of simple editing tools that can perform a wide range of non-destructive corrections, effects and enhancements (it records the changes in it's database and only applies them when you export to print or upload to the web, never changing the original) to photos with little training needed.

 

Online backup services like Mozy (https://mozy.com/home) have all kinds of redundancy and safety features to protect your backup files. While it's possible they could be wiped out in a disaster, it is very unlikely.

 

Don't worry about questions...if you don't ask something, the chances of someone just stopping by, knocking on your door and telling you what you want to know are very, very slim! :D

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

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Thank you. Glad the articles and postings are of use to you!

 

The external hard drives come in all sizes. I would suggest checking how much space your files take up and double it, at least for future growth. I have 60,000+ photos and they take up less than 200GB, so a 320GB or 500GB drive might do. Another good measure is to get a backup drive as large or larger than your computer's hard drive(s).

 

The netbook and P3000 are both going to provide the same function. Keep in mind my comment about Epson discontinuing support when new models come out. Updating a netbook can be done by downloading software patches, you'll havbe to buy a new Epson to update it.

 

Picasa offers about a gigabyte of free online album space, but that is for display and sharing. Picasa's value is as an organizer and it is also a great utility for loading your images to the computer (you can put Picasa on the netbook and use it to load your images from the camera on the road). It has a growing set of simple editing tools that can perform a wide range of non-destructive corrections, effects and enhancements (it records the changes in it's database and only applies them when you export to print or upload to the web, never changing the original) to photos with little training needed.

 

Online backup services like Mozy (https://mozy.com/home) have all kinds of redundancy and safety features to protect your backup files. While it's possible they could be wiped out in a disaster, it is very unlikely.

 

Don't worry about questions...if you don't ask something, the chances of someone just stopping by, knocking on your door and telling you what you want to know are very, very slim! :D

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

 

WHAT????????? You mean no professional photographer is going to knock on my door, give me free lessons on my camera, show me all about storage and backup and then print and file away my pictures? Now I'm disappointed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

 

Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you. You have NO idea how much you have helped me. I have been very neglectful of my photos although it never stops me from taking them. I shall start implementing your suggestions and hope it will help me feel more organized with my photos.

 

My one last question (OK...it's probably not my last but you said to ask)...does Picasa load onto MY computer or out there in space somewhere. I'm still not sure I entirely grasp where I'm downloading pictures to through Picasa. Is it downloaded onto my computer and therefore is helping me organize them there?

 

Thanks again for all your help. You are WONDERFUL!!!!

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My one last question (OK...it's probably not my last but you said to ask)...does Picasa load onto MY computer or out there in space somewhere. I'm still not sure I entirely grasp where I'm downloading pictures to through Picasa. Is it downloaded onto my computer and therefore is helping me organize them there?

 

Picasa downloads from the web to your local system. It then searches your system for image files, creates a database and lists all the folders. It allows you to make collections, rename photos add tags to make finding them easier and generally gives you great access to review and enjoy your pictures.

 

I'll be doing a tutorial article I guess...you're not the first to ask many questions about organization.

 

Go get Picasa and get started. Post questions as you hit the bumps. I'll be offline for a week while we go get more photos in Mexico on the Mariner, but there's a lot of really nice, knowledgeable people here to help.

 

Dave

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Just wanted to share that I continue to love having the netbook to download pics from my cards....plenty of storage and takes the place of both the external hard drive AND my laptop while traveling. Writing on it now while on vacation in Hilton Head....

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Sheila which netbook do you have? I was thinking about getting the Acer's 10.1-inch Aspire One netbook instead of the 8.9 inch one because of better battery life and the fact that it is easier to add extra RAM. However I have no idea which RAM to get, does anyone know?

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Sheila which netbook do you have? I was thinking about getting the Acer's 10.1-inch Aspire One netbook instead of the 8.9 inch one because of better battery life and the fact that it is easier to add extra RAM. However I have no idea which RAM to get, does anyone know?

 

It will support up to a 2 GB 533mhz or 667mhz DDR2 soDIMM memory module.

 

 

 

Dave

 

BTW, I think Sheila went with the eeePC and is quite happy with it.

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Thanks Dave! Once again, I appreciate your help. Shall be looking at Picasa today! Have fun collecting more photos on your cruise in Mexico...we just came back from a land stay...it added a couple of thousand photos for me to organize!!!

 

Host Sheila - thanks for reinforcing the positives about the netbook. I think I will definitely be going that way. Just want to find one with lots of hard drive space.

 

Thanks again everyone. Have a great day!

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