Backing up.. how's my plan?

[RMThompson]

So recently I had a scare when i thought I lost some pictures. I HAVE lost SOME in the past, but for the past few years, I've been pretty lucky (knock on wood)

I bought a bunch of DVDs thinking I would transfer data to them frequently, but the truth is, it's not as fast or effective as one would thing.

So today I went out and got two 1TB drives. My plan is to put all the stuff I need to backup on one of the drives, and then store it in the closet. Then, use the other one as an active Hard Drive. Every few weeks or every month, I will take the closet drive and back everything up to it, and then resume using the active drive. I figure this way, I can keep as many of the photos off my computers HD as possible, without having to back up to TWO drives constantly.

The HD's are Western Digital Harddrives (NOT flash drives) with power supplies, which I believe have the lowest failure rate. (I hear the ones that are smaller and ONLY use the USB for power fail more).

So what do you guys think of this?

Also, critical data for my job is uploaded to my website several times a week, but it's a minimum amount.

 

[Derrel]

That is my system, exactly. Two drives. DVDs. Works well.

A couple years ago, my backup drive, the "only one" went down and went down hard. And I lost about a month's worth of images. After that, I got a second drive.

 

[chip]

sound like a good plan. the hard part is to backup frequently!

 

[jubb]

I'm a fan of RAID 1 for backup. Currently I have 2 drives that mirror eachother in my computer. If one drive dies the other still functions and you move them off to someplace else quick, or replace the broken drive and keep moving.

I'm thinking of getting one of these when I have to upgrade my storage space.

Amazon.com: 3.5" USB Sata/raid Enclosure: Electronics

While I like this method a lot, you are still vulnerable to viruses and accidental deleting.

I also backup to DVD every shoot I do. I'm a little paranoid.

 

[jpeters]

That is a good plan, I was running that plan until one night I was working on my final project at brooks, one of my hard drives crashed, and then the second one crashed on me as well. Given they were not the nicest hard drives ever but it still hurt, plus I failed...

Now I run 2 500G WD's, one has everything on it the other has only images. Plus I have two flash drives that I use to transport files, they also have all my images from the last 2 years on them plus important images from before then as well.

I only keep current images and images I am working with on my built in hard drive.

 

[RyanLilly]

I have 2 1tb Firewire drives as a Raid 1(mirrored) and a time machine backup for my laptop, All of my projects have at least 2 copies. My laptop goes with me everywhere, so if anything happens to it, Ill i need is to borrow a friends mac and boot from the backup, and I up and running in no time. The completed projects go to DVD as well, and can be stored at work or anywhere other than my house where the hard drives are located. It would also be wise to not reuse you memory cards until the entire project is complete, that way even with catastrophic failure, you can still go back to the original files and start from scratch.

Another relatively easy backup solution is to setup a server at work or home, either way off-site, and backup to that server as well. It will probably be a little slow depending on your internet provider, But I i were a professional, I think that this would be a wise choice.

 

[SpeedTrap]

We have a current strong backup system, but like all things the better the system the more expensive it is.
We are currently using 2 Drobo backup devices; one is on site, and another at an offsite location. Each Drobo is 4 TB Full redundant and is copied at the local network level and at the off site location before any work is started on the files. Once the backup is complete we load the images to a working hard drive on the machine and go to work. The Working images are updated to the onsite Drobo every night and once a project is completed the final images are copied to the offsite storage and the project is archived. Since the limit of the Drobo is 16 TB we have a while to go before we will need to add a larger device.
If you are backing up images you need to have something more secure than just a drive kept in the closet or a laptop. Dual drive enclosures are not expensive anymore and most can be setup in a RAID 0 Mirror. If you had one at your shooting space and one off site you would have no problems.

 

[dophineh]

I really need to back up. I'm just tempting fate right now.

Plan A is to get a 500gb drive. Then part 2 will be to get another backup of my backup... maybe on a 3rd party server? Or would 500gb be too costly?

 

[.tAylor]

great plan! :thumbup:

 

[battletone]

I just feel a need to chime in. I didn't see mention of what connection you are using for your 1TB external drive, but I get the impression that it is USB since you mention other drives using USB for power (sort of saying yours doesn't, ie it being a USB too).

1TB is a BIG drive. Even if you only have 500gigs on it. Way too much information for a USB transfer. eSATA is the way to go nowadays for an external drive...until USB3.0 comes around.

 

[John Thawley]

I currently run 10 TB - NOT in a Raid. All are Firewire drives.

One 2TB drive contains current client work and my Aperture Libraries. 2009 Motorsports Library, my 2009 Family Library, 2008 Motorsports Library, 2008 Family Library and a Miscellaneous Library.

That is all backed up to another 2 TB drive.

I have 6 other drives with everything in duplicate. One set (3 drives) sits on a shelf in my office, the other set (3 drives) resides off premises.

Lastly, I use a "cloud" solution for images I feel are my "archival work." Since I use a rating system on images in my Aperture Libraries, anything ranked 3-5 stars is considered sale-able inventory. ALL 5 star images are additionally stored (and available to me online.

JT

 

[SpeedTrap]

I am running the Drobos on Firewire.