im not sure if this thread is in the right forum but it seems related to post production.

i wanted to find out how other photographers handle the archiving of their photo files and to find out if my system good enough.

here's how i archive my photos:

- burn in dvd with printed contact sheet as cd sleeve. date of burning marked on cd to note when to re-burn (i understand that dvd have a 3-4 year lifespan), then this is kept in a plastic container, away from sunlight. important files are burned in an additional dvd for safety.
- soft copy of contact sheet is kept in the computer for reference, and i also make a word document to keep track of the cds

I back up my photos on two removable hdd's and on to another pc
then I burn a DVD copy
then I burn a CD-R copy

and i'm still feeling paranoid, to think that i shoot for fun and not for profit.

it's just that my relatives rely on me to capture family memories, and that gives me more pressure than anything

i don't know if my question is OT, but prior to archiving, to be efficient about it, one needs to sort, collate, organize photos appropriately.

does any one has a tried and tested procedure in doing this? I have archived alright, but my hard disk is a mess.

help!

RAW and PSD files are burned in DVDs (I wish Blu-ray systems are already set to market) with duplicate copies in twin external HDDs... Relevant files are still kept in my workstation or mobile computer's HDD... :)

chewychua - yeah nakaka paranoid nga even if you have back ups. have already experienced hard disk crashes and it really is heart breaking if you havent backed up your files

art - im not sure if my system is tried and tested but maybe someone can post a example :)

earl - i wish blu ray was here too so there wouldnt be a need to burn two or three dvds per subject!

has anyone heard of an archiving software wherein you punch keywords and your photos tagged with those keywords come up?

thanks all for the feedback!

has anyone heard of an archiving software wherein you punch keywords and your photos tagged with those keywords come up?


You need a personalized CMS or DMS application for that... It can be done using Flash, PHP, Java, or XML etc. for that matter; and could function both On and Offline (requirement-dependent)... The only hurdle is pricing of course since this is cater-specific. :) HTH

You need a personalized CMS or DMS application for that... It can be done using Flash, PHP, Java, or XML etc. for that matter; and could function both On and Offline (requirement-dependent)... The only hurdle is pricing of course since this is cater-specific. :) HTH

ahh ok, will look into that but will most probly have to go about it the old school way (manual contact printing and archiving). its just annoying when you see a cd one day and cant seem to find it anywhere when you need it.

btw, what brand of external hd do you use? do you know which are the good and reliable brands? and would you know if it already comes with a case/ firewire.

thanks! :)

my folders are chronologically arranged: "2007 04 13 - friday the 13th fun shoot at work" all the way down to "2004 04 summer in bicol"

easy to find stuff this way

but work stuff, i keep in a different folder. besides, i've only had 5 paying gigs pa lang. hehehe.

Mobile hard disk drives have become very popular and readily available. Choose 2.5" hard disk drives which are actually for laptops since they were really meant for travelling. Bigger 3.5" HDD are more cumbersome not only because they are big but that they require a separate power supply. The smaller 2.5" hard disk drives when attached to a USB 2.0 enclosure is a ready storage for your files and you can bring them wherever you go. The USB connection already provides the internal power supply of 5.0 volts.

The mobile hard drives are now readily available and cheap, approximately P3,100 to P3,500 for an 80GB and add probably another thousand to get a 120GB or 160GB HDD.
The USB 2.0 enclosure would cost you between P350.00 to P1,500 depending on the brand and the store. Choose USB 2.0 since data exchange is several times faster than USB 1.0.

You can also have an identical set of files in your computer internal HDD as a matter of back-up.

Mobile hard disk drives have become very popular and readily available. Choose 2.5" hard disk drives which are actually for laptops since they were really meant for travelling. Bigger 3.5" HDD are more cumbersome not only because they are big but that they require a separate power supply. The smaller 2.5" hard disk drives when attached to a USB 2.0 enclosure is a ready storage for your files and you can bring them wherever you go. The USB connection already provides the internal power supply of 5.0 volts.

The mobile hard drives are now readily available and cheap, approximately P3,100 to P3,500 for an 80GB and add probably another thousand to get a 120GB or 160GB HDD.
The USB 2.0 enclosure would cost you between P350.00 to P1,500 depending on the brand and the store. Choose USB 2.0 since data exchange is several times faster than USB 1.0.

You can also have an identical set of files in your computer internal HDD as a matter of back-up.

wow where can i get these cheap hardrives? :D and what are the brands? thank you!

Mobile hard disk drives have become very popular and readily available. Choose 2.5" hard disk drives which are actually for laptops since they were really meant for travelling. Bigger 3.5" HDD are more cumbersome not only because they are big but that they require a separate power supply. The smaller 2.5" hard disk drives when attached to a USB 2.0 enclosure is a ready storage for your files and you can bring them wherever you go. The USB connection already provides the internal power supply of 5.0 volts.

The mobile hard drives are now readily available and cheap, approximately P3,100 to P3,500 for an 80GB and add probably another thousand to get a 120GB or 160GB HDD.
The USB 2.0 enclosure would cost you between P350.00 to P1,500 depending on the brand and the store. Choose USB 2.0 since data exchange is several times faster than USB 1.0.

You can also have an identical set of files in your computer internal HDD as a matter of back-up.

Dude,make sure your 2.5" HDD is using two USB ports or else, you might overload the motherboard of your PC for sometime. Well, for short transactions 1 USB port for the HDD is enough.

Log in to www.pcx.com.ph (http://www.pcx.com.ph) and click on Launch Price List. PC Express Online posts their prices daily. As of today, 80GB 2.5" HDD whether its Western Digital, Segate or Fujitsu would cost P3,170 and 120GB at P4,320. I believe the store still gives you a 3% discount on cash purchases. Also try to pass by PC Options, they also have competitive prices.

Buy the USB2.0 enclosure and have them install it for you. All you have to do then is to partition the HDD and format it using your computer.

Attached it to your computer USB connection, click on Control Panel, click on Administrative Tools, click on Computer Management and then Disk Management. Partition the disk if you want to and then format the drive. Once formatted, it is ready to accept your files.

Mobile hard disk drives have become very popular and readily available. Choose 2.5" hard disk drives which are actually for laptops since they were really meant for travelling. Bigger 3.5" HDD are more cumbersome not only because they are big but that they require a separate power supply. The smaller 2.5" hard disk drives when attached to a USB 2.0 enclosure is a ready storage for your files and you can bring them wherever you go. The USB connection already provides the internal power supply of 5.0 volts.

The mobile hard drives are now readily available and cheap, approximately P3,100 to P3,500 for an 80GB and add probably another thousand to get a 120GB or 160GB HDD.
The USB 2.0 enclosure would cost you between P350.00 to P1,500 depending on the brand and the store. Choose USB 2.0 since data exchange is several times faster than USB 1.0.

You can also have an identical set of files in your computer internal HDD as a matter of back-up.

great thanks! i guess ill be looking at the 3.5HDD since i dnt have a laptop. and would a firewire enclosure cost more than a usb enclosure? its kinda draining transferring large amounts of files using usb.

Even with a desktop, use can still use a 2.5" HDD with a 2.5" USB 2.0 enclosure. It is smaller, more adept to being mobile. A firewire or IEEE 1394 would cost more and data transfer speed is more or less 400 MBits/sec. for the S400. USB 2.0 theoretically operates at 480 Mbits/sec. I also suggest that you partition the hard disk drive so that you don't have to defrag your drive in its entirety but by partition, e.g. it will take a long time to defrag 80GB than to defrag 40GB at a time. Defragging your disk is part of regular maintenance.

As mentioned earlier by Cezar H. Zarate, Jr. the USB 2.0 enclosure comes with 2 male usb connectors: one is for data transfer and the other one for extra power supply.

....... Defragging your disk is part of regular maintenance.


defragging your hard drive is a regular maintenance if you regularly write and delete files randomly. you don't need to deferag if you just add files to it.

has anyone heard of an archiving software wherein you punch keywords and your photos tagged with those keywords come up?

thanks all for the feedback!




You can try ThumbsPlus (http://www.cerious.com/featuresv7.shtml) -"its a highly customizable image database with thumbnails and batch editing. It makes it easy to catalog, organize, locate and maintain all of your graphics, multimedia and font files".

I used it before, but mine was just an evaluation copy..(was not lucky to find a pirated copy hehe..)

Right now i'm using ZoomBrowser EX by Canon which was included in the CD when I bought my DSLR just a month ago. .

Even with a desktop, use can still use a 2.5" HDD with a 2.5" USB 2.0 enclosure. It is smaller, more adept to being mobile. A firewire or IEEE 1394 would cost more and data transfer speed is more or less 400 MBits/sec. for the S400. USB 2.0 theoretically operates at 480 Mbits/sec. I also suggest that you partition the hard disk drive so that you don't have to defrag your drive in its entirety but by partition, e.g. it will take a long time to defrag 80GB than to defrag 40GB at a time. Defragging your disk is part of regular maintenance.

As mentioned earlier by Cezar H. Zarate, Jr. the USB 2.0 enclosure comes with 2 male usb connectors: one is for data transfer and the other one for extra power supply.

yeah your right, checked the net also and the present firewire has around the same speed. thanks so much for the info man!:)

Good info, all.

Is anyone using tape drives to back up data?

I've just started taking photos in earnest with a DSLR and am now trying out RAW with roughly twice the data storage requirement over JPEG. I currently have copies on two laptops, mobile HDDs and am considering burning archives to DVD/CD. However, I understand that optical disks aren't that proven yet in terms of long-term storage (consumer RW optical media has only been around for less than a decade), and working in the IT industry has shown me that tapes are reliable (with the caveat of proper tape care).

Tape storage is quite expensive though, but there are some "prosumer" desktop tape drive models that might be affordable/cost-efficient if one values his/her photo data enough. If it's good enough for banks' financial data, it might be good to have at home or in the office for a serious enthusiast or pro.

i don't know if my question is OT, but prior to archiving, to be efficient about it, one needs to sort, collate, organize photos appropriately.

does any one has a tried and tested procedure in doing this? I have archived alright, but my hard disk is a mess.

help!I guess archiving is the same as file management. And file management is still based on the same process as data management. And data management really depends on the priorities and prerogative of the user/s.

The first step is to list all the possibilities of sorting or classification, e.g. by date taken, by events, by location, by client, whether personal or business, etc. Then do a segregation by level, e.g. what is personal cannot be business. But what is personal or business can then be classified further by dates or location or event, etc. By doing this, you are now creating your own database tree with the corresponding directories, folders, sub-folders therein.

The basic windows file management system can then arrange by name alphabetically, by date picture taken, by size, date modified, etc.

The problem with backing up to DVD's, blue rays, tapes, and CD's is that it's very hard to test the integrity of the disks, until it's too late. What is worse than having no backups is false backups, making you think your files are safe when in fact it has deteriorated. I find hard drives more easily searcheable, expandable, dependable, faster, more secure and doesn't cost much more nowadays.

Recently i went with a server based RAID 5 configuration and it's easy to check the integrity of the data/disks. and give lots of performance and storage. 300gb SATA hard drives are now just 5k.

Plug and play, USB2.0 External Multi Hard drive enclosures using eSATA are now available locally like the "addonics". Allowing 1.6 terabytes (5x300gb) of data. PM me if you want the local contact numbers.

Having lots of storage is great especially for those doing videos.

I believe the first and most important step in archiving is having a good file naming system. Then to help you organize and catalog your photos a digital asset management (DAM) software is needed. An example of this is iView MediaPro (now Microsoft Expression Media), Extensis Portfolio, and ACDsee. Here you can manage and organize your photos by category, ratings, keywords, and some even allows you to read the metadata of your files like the EXIF files embedded in every digital photo.

I usually backup my photos in DVDs and yes, given the unpredictability of optical media, it is advisable to invest in an external HDD. This will not only ensure archive integrity but it also makes it easily accessible. I was able to learn this not only by experience but also through this book-The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers

I briefly shared my archiving workflow in this thread, feel free to comment and suggest.

http://digitalphotographer.com.ph/forum/showthread.php?p=279534#post279534

For those who do not have access to the book, I will try to share what I got from it in my future post.