DVD back up's am I doing this wrong??

[carrbowl]

OK...so now I am getting neurotic, since I had a whole year deleted accidentally. I am going back and putting all my SOOC files on DVD's. But I think I'm doing something wrong!! It's taking 5 DVD's---holy crap~~~ I'm wondering if I can just save the RAW files and not the JPEGs to save space? Am I doing something wrong????

[zeroendless]

No one probably knows WTH is going on unless you tell us the total size of the files you are backing up.

A single layer DVD-R has a capacity of 4.7GB, usable storage space is around ~4.38GB, 5 disks meaning you are burning total of file size around ~17.5GB -> 22GB. If that's not right, then you are doing something wrong.

[J Eddington]

For Back up I only do my raw files, right after shooting. After i am done editing, I may save my tiff files if I did alot of work on them

[carrbowl]

Originally Posted by zeroendless

No one probably knows WTH is going on unless you tell us the total size of the files you are backing up.

A single layer DVD-R has a capacity of 4.7GB, usable storage space is around ~4.38GB, 5 disks meaning you are burning total of file size around ~17.5GB -> 22GB. If that's not right, then you are doing something wrong.

well Daniel therein might be the problem..I don't think I know WTH is going on!!!! I never seem to word my questions correctly---maybe when I grow up?? I searched and didn't seem to find any answers as to why we should back up both JPEG and RAWs...

Obviously you would keep the both for a certain length of time, but I'm thinking for the emergency back ups or the long term back ups..why should we be saving both?

[Roy]

One reason to save both would be if you did a lot of work on the jpeg or there is something special about it and you don't think you can recreate it. Otherwise, the raw files are all you should save IMHO.

[zeroendless]

Personal choice. Which one do you care most and can't live without. Obviously you only need Raw files as jpeg is a duplicate, unless you spend countless of hours to process the images in Jpeg and wish not to repeat the work flow again. Then again, who is saving the processed images in Jpeg ?? unless it's for web size, in that case, the files are too small and do not take much of your storage space.

I only shoot Raw, have several Terabytes of them but do keep two copies of both. Keeper are processed, saved in PSD and the only Jpeg files are web images;all of them are kept and backed up accordingly.

Hope ya backup method is not limited to DVD disk, It's time consuming and not as reliable as many would think (unless they are kept safe in weather control area with better material made) Don't be surprise if the data is unreadable in 3-4 years.

A physical disk, likes 500GB HDD is going for $50 a piece, buy two and keep one at home, another in remote area -- that's what i call a peace of mind.

Anyway, RAW files are much bigger than SOOC jpeg, if you are insisting of keeping them, find out what's total size of all the jpeg, then make a logical decision.

[KdLaneJr]

Originally Posted by carrbowl

well Daniel therein might be the problem..I don't think I know WTH is going on!!!! I never seem to word my questions correctly---maybe when I grow up?? I searched and didn't seem to find any answers as to why we should back up both JPEG and RAWs...

Obviously you would keep the both for a certain length of time, but I'm thinking for the emergency back ups or the long term back ups..why should we be saving both?

I save it all. RAW, PSD's and jpegs. The raw and psd's are saved locally and back up on a raided NAS drive. The jpegs are loaded into online galleries. I can alway reproduce a jpeg from a psd file or raw (lightroom). I wouldn't consider backing up anything on a DVD. They are simply not large enough, nor easy enough to search and pull images off of when needed.

Whatever you do, be consistent in your file naming convention and method of backing up your work.

[carrbowl]

Well now y'all have me second guessing myself!!! Here is what happened. I have two hard drives that I thought I backed up the same. Come to find out (the hard way) they were not. Apparently I lost some files---alot of files from last year. So I thought, Ok..I will solve the problem, and everytime I shoot, I will put the files on DVD's put a copy in the safe and then put a copy on both of the hard drives.

So the dvd's are not a good idea??? Maybe I just need to get better at backing up the two hard drives??

[zeroendless]

Originally Posted by carrbowl

So the dvd's are not a good idea??? Maybe I just need to get better at backing up the two hard drives??

Ironically, it might be the only copy survived in an EMP environment.

Well, if you have the time and energy, why not? An extra copy won't hurt. But larger optical such as Blu-ray may be a better choice though i am done with the media, magnetic archive all the way.

[Rson]

Why save all extranious images? On paid gigs, save the Final images and save the room.

[dminton]

Would ya'll clip out the bad frames on a roll of film and throw those out? Then why would you not keep all your digital images? Hard drive space is cheap, SAVE EVERYTHING ALWAYS.

[d2creative]

I agree with David. HD space us cheap!
When i run out of hd space I buy another hd.
Burning dvd's takes too much valuable time.

[carrbowl]

thanks for the input...after burning only a few dvds...it didn't take much to talk me into not doing that. I'm going back to hard drives and will just have to be more careful and do it a little different. Thanks so much for the input....you guys are so technical...something I am not and have no desire to be!!! And I always appreciate your input---all different views!!

[Footin' Shool]

Renae,

You might want to take a look at these:

http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperDrive...-UDMA-s/64.htm

If you search this forum you'll find discussion on it.

Dick