My Basic & Practical Back-Up Strategy

[mackguyver]

Damn you Mack, I feel old now...

Anyone else remember using a hole punch to make single-sided floppy disks into double-sided floppy disks (back when they were actually big and floppy)?

That only worked on 5 1/4" floppy disks - the 8" floppy disks were truely one sided. Cassette tapes for program loading? Commodore 64/128 or Leading Edge Model D with an 8086 chip running DOS 2.11. Ah click of death - what a painful way to die... I actually used to carry around the parallel ZIP drive back when I was working tech support, Windows 98 fit on a single disk. Remember SyQuest also had their 'EZ Drive'?

To add more knowledge, a "clone" type backup is more inline with the included backup tools in Windows7/8 and Mac (Time Machine). File based backup is like what Carbonite/Backblaze/iDrive offer - where you select your directories and they back them up.

File backup is better for photos and documents, while Image backup is better for programs and personal settings. Thankfully you can stack your backup options - especially when you have multiple drives. Use a clone or image based backup for your c:\ drive, while your photos out on e:\ are backed up using a file based technology.

Yes, lots of memories there, and I didn't mention cloning, but I use Acronis True Image for that, and have for many years. It's saved my work many times and is a great program.

 

[AcutancePhotography]

I remember when DEC had their single sided quad density 5.25" disks. Pretty much making sure there would be no compatability with any other computer system of the day. :-\

 

[lexptr]

Thanks for the overview! I do similar backups in general, but with some differences in particular

1. Same. But I don't rate them, just choose what is worth to process and publish and put in subfolder.

2. I output only chosen content for publishing. The rest is left as CR2.

3. Upload to the web (site/blog/Facebook) downsized jpegs, but not a 100% quality. I have tested different settings and found that there is no really visible difference between 100% and something between 96-97% but there is a big difference in file size, which is still important for web these days. So I use 97%.

4. I backup on 2,5" external drives. They are small and don't require separate power connector. I usually backup only CR2, as I don't see notable profits from saving additional formats while much more space is required for that. It is always obtainable from the original CR2s. And it will be even exactly the same, because I do save Lightroom's XMP files from processing. In some cases, if I did a complicated PP in Photoshop – I do save a PSD files too. I don't use a fire safe. Will it really help in case of fire? I believe the fire won't enter, but I think disks will just melt inside (their plastic parts at least).

5. Well, shame on me, but I still did not settled offsite backup. I plan to do it in the nearest future. House of my mother-in-law will be used as a deposit box

6. Old hard drive in bank? An overkill level of redundancy for me

Some additional safety measures I use: I do not delete images from CF cards until I have a double backup on hard drives.

 

[wickidwombat]

are there any raid NAS devices that can be configured to replicate with a like device over the internet?
i haven't been able to find anything

 

[nvsravank]

I use some thing similar I use Raid 1 as my working drive and main storage, a Drobo as my onsite backup and a seagate Goflex as my off site backup. I keep both the lightroom catalog as well as the raw files on the backups. I exclude the previews folder from the backups.

I have set Drobo to do backup every hour so i am very current with my backups and the seagate external i do it everytime i have an event that i covered.

While this works well for regular safety, I am getting more and more concerned abut data corruption at rest for my personal photos. Any consumer oriented products that protect from data at rest errors? I believe some Raid 6 solutions can protect from data at rest errors? I know Raid 1 cant protect since the system wont know which copy is correct if there is a conflict.

At work i know the EMC centerra etc do periodic checks for data at rest corruptions. Any consumer oriented solutions out there?

I keep reading about ZFS and have read somewhere that it does have such support, but other than a roll your own solution i dont see commercial solutions for ZFS targeted to consumers. Any ideas?