Saving and backing up images . . .
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
A file saved on a computer isn’t a secure file, unless it exists in at least two different places. If it exists on two different hard drives, or a hard drive and a DVD- or CD-Rom or more drives or disks, then it has a greater chance of being secure.
Years ago, I would copy my image files from the camera’s memory card to my C: drive and work on them and save them back to the C: drive and when completed to a CD-Rom disk. I had a CD go bad on me once, with the only copies of some files for our then main client on that CD. I panicked. Even though that job was “finished,” if the client called and wanted others on that disk or said they lost the original disk, I would have to say I lost the data. I contacted many people, and no one could repair the disk. The drive would not recognize the disk. I finally located a company in the Bay Area who recovered the files on the disk and burnt them on another.
I made sure all media was good from that point on by checking every image on the disk and making sure all of them would open. I would also keep copies on my hard drive as long as I could. At some point, the CD and DVD+ RW had come out, and, although expensive, I was able to keep the data a little safer with more copies.
Hard drives started getting less expensive, and I bought an external 500-gigabyte USB 2.0 hard drive as a back-up drive. I was still copying the files to DVD-ROMs when the job was finished, clearing the space on the main C: drive in my computer, but leaving it on the external back-up drive. I at least had two copies of my files to make them more secure. One day, I went to access a file on that back-up drive, and the screen went black. The back-up drive ground to a halt. It never restarted. I didn’t lose any files as they were still on my main drive and on disk media. I replaced the 500GB drive with another brand and it was 750GB.
About a year later, I decided USB 2.0 hard drives were relatively cheap, and it cost about the same as several hundred DVD-Rom blanks, so why not back up onto two external drives, and, when full, inventory them, disconnect them from the computer, and store them until images on them are needed. Since I am mirroring the data on two external drives, and since one is full prior to the other, as long as I have an inventory, I can find any files I am searching for. I no longer have to waste time burning DVDs and proofing every image on them as I already have done that on the hard drives.
My current setup is an ultrafast PC with two internal eSATA one terabyte drives, in non-raid configuration. All images are first saved to only one of the internal drives. One drive has all the programs and my document libraries on it with lots of room to add more. The other internal drive has mostly images on it. Once I work on an image on the internal drive, at the end of the session, I copy it to each of the external USB 2.0 drives. This give me 3 copies of each file, guarding against loss. The USB 2.0 drives are a bit slow for the huge amount of data that pours from the eSATA drive in the computer. Once I start the copying, I can go and have a cup of coffee and when I return, the copying is usually done. I just retired the 3/4 terabyte (750GB) drive as it had less than 10% free space left. I don’t think it is a good idea to fill a drive completely, as drives need some free space to efficiently move the data around when reading and writing. Since USB 3.0 is now available, I purchased a new one-terabyte drive, and also upgraded to a USB 3.0 host adapter card with two external ports and a bridge inside to allow upgrading to two faster eSATA drives in the future. I could have purchased a two- or three-terabyte drive instead, but I think one terabyte is inherently safer. Drives run all the time and will wear out at some point, maybe before filling up. I think one terabyte will probably be full before it will fail and will be a good storage medium since it will only be called upon to provide an image that is no longer available to the computer from other means. And, in the end, I will still have at least two copies. I am gambling a little more money buying separate smaller drives, but that is the way I deal with it.
One remark I will make is that the USB 3.0 is way faster than the USB 2.0 drive it replaced. And I have cut the amount of work I have to do to back up my files. I will have a little less expense when I replace the other USB 2.0 drive as I don’t h ave to buy a host adapter card for it.
If you have images or other important files you really care about, do yourself a favor. Back those files up on separate media and/or hard drives. You’ ll be glad you did.
For those of you who want a freeware inventory program that I found on the ‘net that seems to work well, go to the contact page on our website at http://weshoot.com, email me, and I will send you the link to the download page. It can be used to inventory media and hard drives that later will be separated from the computer.
-Gary Silverstein
