Backing up images

[MartyD]

I believe that a backup strategy should protect you from hardware failure, file erasure and corruption, and disasters. A raid array does protect you from a drive failure but it does not protect you if you accidentally erase files or if folders become corrupt. If you use RAID storage you still should have another backup. I also think you need some type of off site backup, something that will still be available if your work space is hit by some type of disaster. The Marshall fire in Colorado in 2021 is a reminder of how quickly homes can be destroyed.

 

[cr_wildlife]

I believe that a backup strategy should protect you from hardware failure, file erasure and corruption, and disasters. A raid array does protect you from a drive failure but it does not protect you if you accidentally erase files or if folders become corrupt. If you use RAID storage you still should have another backup. I also think you need some type of off site backup, something that will still be available if your work space is hit by some type of disaster. The Marshall fire in Colorado in 2021 is a reminder of how quickly homes can be destroyed.

Good advice, Marty.

 

[Anjin San]

Good advice, Marty.

We have a bug out plan at our house…grab passport and cash from the safe, laptops and phones…and all the server/LR computer drives. Water and granola bars from the kitchen…we haven’t timed it but I’m sure we could be out of the house in 20 minutes if we had to.

 

[MartyD]

We have a guy out plan at our house…grab passport and cash from the safe, laptops and phones…and all the server/LR computer drives. Water and granola bars from the kitchen…we haven’t timed it but I’m sure we could be out of the house in 20 minutes if we had to.

The problem is being away from home when something bad happens.

 

[Anjin San]

The problem is being away from home when something bad happens.

In that case I would still have BackBlaze…and if I was on photo travel the master LR catalog and current year images are with me anyway along with Smart Previews for the images on the RAID instead of the SSD.

 

[MrFotoFool]

I have two matching external hard drives. If one fails then I will buy another and copy the remaining one to it. I have had them I don't how long, I would guess around fifteen years, and they still work fine. Although they are in different rooms, they are both in my home which is not ideal. I need to figure out something.

Another alternative - which I have not done - is to have a corruption proof analog copy of most important images. This is physical prints made on archival photo paper (large enough to make good copies, at least 11x14 inch or maybe 16x20 inch). If they are stored in an archival dark box in a freezer they will last generations.

Forgive my ignorance, but can someone please explain to me what RAID is?

 

[PhotoLover]

I have two matching external hard drives. If one fails then I will buy another and copy the remaining one to it. I have had them I don't how long, I would guess around fifteen years, and they still work fine. Although they are in different rooms, they are both in my home which is not ideal. I need to figure out something.

Another alternative - which I have not done - is to have a corruption proof analog copy of most important images. This is physical prints made on archival photo paper (large enough to make good copies, at least 11x14 inch or maybe 16x20 inch). If they are stored in an archival dark box in a freezer they will last generations.

Forgive my ignorance, but can someone please explain to me what RAID is?

Standard RAID levels - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There are different RAID "levels." RAID 1 and RAID 5 are perhaps the most common.

I personally don't see a big advantage for RAID in home systems. One thing you get with some RAID levels is that you can lose a disk, but retain access to all data while a new drive is installed (note you still need a backup to protect against a double drive failure). Money no object I might have a RAID system, but I'm not a business and if I get a disk failure and lose access to that data for a day or two while restoring that data I'm fine.

For home use, I'm quite happy with a local backup (something like Apple's time machine) and a cloud backup. Three copies of the data, and protection (via the cloud backup) if the house burns down or the computer + drives are stolen.

 

[MartyD]

In that case I would still have BackBlaze…and if I was on photo travel the master LR catalog and current year images are with me anyway along with Smart Previews for the images on the RAID instead of the SSD.

I do think something like BackBlaze is necessary. It has been really nice since we had a fiber internet connection installed, 500mb up and down sure speeds things up.

 

[Archibald]

How does one protect oneself from data corruption? I have everything backed up with at least 4 copies of all files that are a week old or older, but some of those files were written years ago. By chance I found that a very small number of RAW files were corrupt. I was able to find good copies, so it's OK, but now I'm concerned I might have doc, xls or pdf files that are corrupt too, and no way of knowing unless I test each one.

I've found that old xls files especially show slight bit-level changes over time, but they still seem to function OK. I don't know what is up with that.

 

[Anthony]

How does one protect oneself from data corruption? I have everything backed up with at least 4 copies of all files that are a week old or older, but some of those files were written years ago. By chance I found that a very small number of RAW files were corrupt. I was able to find good copies, so it's OK, but now I'm concerned I might have doc, xls or pdf files that are corrupt too, and no way of knowing unless I test each one.

I've found that old xls files especially show slight bit-level changes over time, but they still seem to function OK. I don't know what is up with that.

I have had a similar problem.

Since then I have installed a separate hard drive which I only use as a backup for unedited raw files. When downloading from the card PhotoMechanic automatically copies the raw files to this separate hard drive. Any editing is done on the image on my main hard drive, with the backup raw left untouched. This may seem like overkill, but it gives me peace of mind.

 

[Anjin San]

I do think something like BackBlaze is necessary. It has been really nice since we had a fiber internet connection installed, 500mb up and down sure speeds things up.

We're on a 1TB connection but the computer with the photos is wifi and not ethernet…so it took most of a month to get my going on 3TB of originals uploaded to them. Now that that's done…shoots go up in a day or so…I normally get about 8GB/hour upload speed since it's on wifi. I've threatened to run an ethernet cable through the attic but haven't gotten off my lazy butt to do it yet.