SO … you’ve been shooting digital for a while now. Perhaps you have thousands of images all saved to a single drive? What would you do if you suddenly had a hard drive crash? Short of spending hundreds of dollars for a professional company to retrieve your data, you are pretty much out of luck … and thousands of images. You might think, “Well, I can make DVD copies of my images as a backup.” Yes, this is true, and for short term backups it is a good option. However, if you shoot often, then your DVD backups are always going to be a few days, if not weeks, out of sync with your onsite collection. Not to mention spanning quite a few DVDs. Hit the Jump for three levels of photo backup from general backups to a data critical, ironclad, method of never losing anything.

Data Level Green: This is for the casual shooter. Perhaps you haven’t made the jump to DSLR, yet you have 500+ shots and a high megapixel camera. Since these cameras usually save images in JPEG format the file size is generally smallish, no more than ~3MB per shot on average. At this level, the aforementioned DVD option is probably your best bet. However, normal DVD-R’s only hold ~4.3GB of data, if you have been shooting awhile there is a good chance you have well over this. Enter Dual Layer DVDs … DL-DVDs can burn two layers of data to a disc by using special plastics and a dual wavelength recording laser. These discs are able to store ~9.5GB and are a much better option for the casual shooter who needs to backup every two weeks to once a month. The best part is that more than likely your current DVD burner already supports Dual layer discs, so all you need to buy are the discs.

Data Level Orange: This level is the advanced amateur. You have moved to an entry level DSLR camera and shoot either exclusively in RAW or you have 5000+ JPEG images. Chances are good you shoot several hundred images per week, and the thought of losing a large amount of images makes you uneasy, but a few here and there is acceptable. For this level, it is time to move into a multi-faceted storage option. Enter external hard drives. With the cost of external storage so low there is no reason why a person shouldn’t consider this option.

You should purchase 2 external hard drives that are 2-4x bigger than your current TOTAL amount of images. ie. 250GB in images? Buy at least a 500GB, but a 750GB or 1TB drive is better. Both of these drives should hold the exact same thing, aka mirrored, but not in a RAID format. In many photo management programs there is an option to save all items to 2 separate drives. For those managing their own filing, there are “Sync” programs available that will automatically sync 2 drives/folders/files etc. (insert Sync program for both Mac and PC here). This level of storage is redundant and your data is saved in the event one of the drives fail. The multi-faceted portion is that you should dedicated yourself to completing an entire DL-DVD backup at least once or twice a year. These discs should be store off-site in a safe location. Personally, I store all off-site images backups in a safety deposit box, but in a friend’s closet shelf can work as well. This is more for the case of catastrophic circumstance as natural disasters, tornados, house fires, etc. You WILL lose some data, but only those images you have taken since the last DL-DVD burn off.

Data Level Red: This is for the Semi-Pro to Full Professional Photographer. You have tens of thousands of dollars in equipment, and an image collection of 15,000+ image. (probably A LOT more) The thought of losing a single image not only makes your blood run cold, it would also take money out of your wallet. Since eating is something we all enjoy, and that takes money, our data storage and backups needs to be double redundant AND multi-faceted. Basically, were taking everything from above, combining it, and adding double redundancy to it.

In this case we need at least 4 external hard drives, but no larger than 750GB in size. 1TB (single drive) units are prone to a higher failure rate and don’t meet the standards for data critical applications in most situations. If you must seek out 1TB drives, try to find dual 500GB enclosures. You should keep two drives on-site, and 2 drives off-site. Off-site drives should be kept in secure SEPARATE locations. Perhaps 1 in a fireproof box at a friend’s house and the second in a safety deposit box. Depending on your own schedule, once a month, every other week, every week, or even every other day, one of the off-site drives should be switched out with one of the on-site drives. Be sure to alternate the drives around to ensure they all have up-to-date data on them. I know, I know, it sounds complicated, but it is really easy, I promise …

Week One
Drive A > Onsite
Drive B > Onsite
Drive C > Offsite
Drive D > Offsite

Alternate Drive A with Drive C

Week Two
Drive A > Offsite
Drive B > Onsite
Drive C > Onsite
Drive D > Offsite

Alternate Drive B with Drive D

Week Three
Drive A > Onsite
Drive B > Offsite
Drive C > Offsite
Drive D > Onsite

Alternate Drive C with Drive A

Week Four
Drive A > Onsite
Drive B > Onsite
Drive C > Offsite
Drive D > Offsite

Alternate Drive D with Drive B

I hope that made it easier to understand.

In addition to the hard drive swapping I suggest a DL-DVD backup once per year to be kept in a safety deposit box. I hope you see the running theme here with the safety deposit box. Most banks offer them for next to nothing. (mine runs 10.00/year and is my banks second tier size. It holds 2 drives, 1 DVD backup, as well as other things I need to store) Bank vaults are all but bomb proof, so they’re an excellent option for protecting data from fire, theft, damage, etc.

The Bank Breaker: Let’s assume you are a Professional who wants a super simple method of redundant backup, and price isn’t too horrible of an issue. In that case, I would recommend purchasing two Drobo units in either the 2TB or 4TB sizes (in these RAID units the full size is halved, so a 2TB will show up at 1TB and the 4TB will show as 2TB). With this option you would follow the alternating cycle of Data Level Orange, syncing and switching out the devices at a set interval of your choosing. Because the computer handles it as a RAID the data is redundantly backed up inside a single device. While it is less of a headache the $750.00/EACH pricetag for the 2TB option (1000.00/each for 4TB) can be off-putting for the average user.

Note: As just a point of personal preference, I have found Seagate’s Freeagent line of products to have VERY good build quality and be quite stable. Remember though, the 1TB rule applies to all brands of drives, even my favorite. However, this shouldn’t be the only reason to shy away from them, logic tells us the larger the drive is the more data you stand to lose in a single failure. Try your best not to chance it.

Thats all for now, if you have questions or suggestions feel free to email me directly or leave a comment! Take Care.

Tags: backup, drobo, external drives, freeagent, hard drive, image backup, photo backup, seagate

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Digital Darkroom. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.