Backing up photos on DVD

DoubleT

DoubleT

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Matt
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i have 20,000 photos stored on my hard drive! including
35gig of photos taken in my one years Dslr ownership:eek:

now, i really dont want to think about loosing them due to HDD failure, i have a seperate HDD just for my photos with a capacity of 250gig.
im looking at ways to back it up and think DVD will be the safest and cheapest option for me.

something im not sure about though is how to do it:thinking:

by that i mean , how can i back up what ever ive got, then keep backing up as i go without over writing or having loads of the same catorgory,

for instance, i put my photos into folders stating the location,

like "woburn safari park" , then if i visit it more than once i put another folder in stating the date of visit.

theres many places that i visit time and time again naturally and worried about how i update the files on the DVD , i know you can burn using a multi session, but once its full i cant add anymore.

what do you suggest? is there a better way for me to back up my photos? or maybe i need a photo organising software,
im currently just using a standard folders system in windows XP


thanks

:wave:
 
The one I do is:
Backup photos to CD (I don't have DVD burning software readily available - shocking, I know)
Since atm my photography collection is about 2.5gb, only takes 4 CDs.
I simply burn one, write 'Photos 1', etc etc.
Then in a month or so, I chuck the CDs away and reburn the whole collection.
 
Mmm tricky one this. It may be the cheapest option to back up to DVD but as you identify maybe not the easiest. At the moment my backup system is a little haphazard. I haven't backed up my processed photos but I always put my originals onto DVD before I erase my memory card.

Not a great method and what I have been thinking about is getting a USB hard drive for back up. A lot easier to back up using the method you have mentioned before where certain directories might get updated when you revisit a location. Just copy and paste your 'photos' directory onto the hard drive. You can get a 500GB drive for £60-70 on Dabs or Amazon.
 
majorgeek.com is a fabulous resource for free software. I use one called deepburner for burning DVD's. I archive my pics to a separate HD then I burn to DVD based on when I did the pics. I tend to do them Jan-March, April-June etc. I also burn specific projects like a studio session to a separate disc. You can buy boxes in Argos that hold about 100 discs so it will take me a while to fill that!
 
CPC are doing 120-160 gig USB powered external hard drives for around £60.Thats how I back mine up, the best ones, not many of them.....:lol:.....go on DVD as well.
 
Hi DoubleT,
this is a question I've asked recently on here, only because I've had issues with DVD's degrading over the last 6 months,and basically they contain all my images as DNG files from the beginning of last year! Solution is to look at Taiyo Yuden DVD blanks or consider 2 x 250GB external hard drives and back one up to the other. I realise now that I must do something quick to avoid losing all my photos!
Try this link regarding DVD's has been posted on here before.

http://adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/30/how-to-choose-cddvd-archival-media
 
The best way is to do a full backup to DVD, close the session. Then (at some interval) do another. I would label the DVDs but keep old ones in case of file corruption etc.

DVDs tend to 'age' anyway so a complete current new one is a good idea.

I use CDBurnerXP which is free : http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

.
 
I categorise everything by month. So once the month is over I add it to my external HDD and DVD. I never need to update the DVD or reburn the entire collection because (as I say) it's done by month/year.
 
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