How Do I Safely Store My Data..Long Term

I just had another HD (and 1TB at that) go south, suddenly and with no warning. Luckily I had backed up images only the week before but lost other historical data. And it is not the first and won't be the last. I used to backup to DVD but it has become such a pain and from what I hear, no guarantee. So it's multiple HD's.

But I still have all the negs I have shot since 1983. Last week I took only film on a shoot for the first time in many years in protest of the failed drive. And it felt good :) These negs will be around as least as long. Doesn't help when I'm shooting digital at 8fps at my son's soccer match though.

I like to also do a 'blurb' book of my travels which is another useable backup of sorts.

John
 
BTW.. I have all of my film stored since 1966. Today, much of my digital storage is actually of film images. Oh.. and I know right where to find the images from 1966 onward.
 
maddoc said:
I heard that pros were making copies of their best printed digital images using Kodachrome film.
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Kodachrome seems a bit problematic due to the high contrast.

I have one tried to put my hands on Ilfochrome, which theoretically may be the optimal solution for long term archival storage of color photography.
It is more stable that Kodachrome, and suited to reproduction of both transparency and prints. It even seems easy to process at home.
It was impossible though. Only large corporates or museums buy the stuff in batch from ilford.
details here:
http://www.microcolour.com/mci03.htm

and once you reach the conclusion that it's perfect for the job, try to get some...:bang::bang:
 
storage outlook ....

storage outlook ....

On a monthly basis, my favorite family images are sent up to the cloud, but only at web size .... This is bad.

Once a year, a book is sent up to Blurb, and I have a printed copy. If they go under, this is bad for a long term archive plan, but the printed copy will not self destruct. :eek:

I have two full sets of hard drives, on internal, and one external, over a decade, I'm up to just over 2 terra. Just bought 2 new 3 terra drives, and they will allow me to take the two old 1 terra drives to have a third off site set. As some have mentioned, even with a careful naming scheme, I still have trouble finding photos. With lightroom, I really need to start tagging, and this will help. I have been on the ever increasing M-Pix/Gigabyte merry go round, and see no way off it!

I scan then dispose of all my negatives, I was trying to archive them in a physical world, but it's just not worth it for me.

YMMV.

Dave
 
This is one of those threads that constantly amazes and amuses me for so many reasons. :angel:

Upon my own demise, I would only hope that a handful of worthy prints, negatives and digital images will pass on to my grandchildren. The other tens of thousands of images...meh.;)
 
Johnmcd said:
I just had another HD (and 1TB at that) go south, suddenly and with no warning. Luckily I had backed up images only the week before but lost other historical data. And it is not the first and won't be the last. I used to backup to DVD but it has become such a pain and from what I hear, no guarantee. So it's multiple HD's.

But I still have all the negs I have shot since 1983. Last week I took only film on a shoot for the first time in many years in protest of the failed drive. And it felt good :) These negs will be around as least as long. Doesn't help when I'm shooting digital at 8fps at my son's soccer match though.

I like to also do a 'blurb' book of my travels which is another useable backup of sorts.

John
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Oh, CD's and DVD's not reliable? How about confirmation on that rumor?:angel:

8fps...Nikon F5? Dang, wish I still had mine even though I don't do sports photography anymore.:)

As far as books, it is probably the very best way to assure that at least some of your work survives a long time with the negatives...just place them in a fireproof safe and distribute a lot of books and prints.
 
Mike Johnson covered demise in a good post on his Online Photographer site. For a few good pictures not to be thrown out with thousands of rubbish ones you will have to edit out a small cache before you die.
 
Much of the 3.6TB (Aperture Vault 463GB) is video. If I had more time I could edit that down. Of course, this is like items in my garage.. what is the point in keeping it if you don't view it with some regularity? I actually know the answer to that. When my wife wants to see the kids when they were just learning to walk, talk, play sports.. or fill-in the blanks, I want to be able to show her what she wants to see. In other words, I would like to stay married. I wonder if my father has any old 8mm and if he does, what condition and how would he view them? Somewhat the same problem.
 
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My 8mm, Super-8, and Sound Super-8 films are in great condition. I found an Ektasound movie projector at a yard sale for $1, and an 8mm projector at a thrift store for $10. My original projectors wore out, a Eumig/Fairchild 711R and a K-Mart Dual 8.
 
Finding anything among 3Tb of data, even if you could look through it, will be the daunting task of your heirs. If it's too much for you to edit down, they might just toss the whole thing.
 
To the people who keep insisting 'shoot film' I wish you luck.

I've done a couple of archival scanning jobs from negatives dating back to the early part of last century and some of them were serioulsy on their last legs. Admittedly storage had been pretty casual but a negative is not a permanent storage solution for a photographic image. It may be so within your own life time and that may be enough for you ... but for future generations film is just a material on it's way back to mother earth!
 
dave lackey said:
Oh, CD's and DVD's not reliable? How about confirmation on that rumor?:angel:
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I can't say anything definite but... I've got a lot of burned CD's from perhaps 5 or 6 years ago (not photos however).
Today half of them are unreadable or when opened have no data on them even though looking at the CD you can see something has been burned. They used to work when I opened them so I'm pretty upset that I cannot access the files any longer. The only explanation I can give to why no data can be read from them is either time or the technology is outdated (though they are just simple CD's so i'd say it's unlikely).

But on the other hand, other CD's work. Music CD's always seem to work, so too do movie DVD's that I've bought years ago.

So I can't explain it, but the fact is that something has happened to those CD's that were sitting safely in storage and what was on them is lost forever. There's always a risk of storing anything. The best bet is backing up in multiple locations.
 
Nike, Adidas and a couple others....

Nike, Adidas and a couple others....

Originally, running shoes came in them. Now they hold hundreds and hundreds of my negs and transparencies. Nothing digital matches their longevity.
 
Keith said:
To the people who keep insisting 'shoot film' I wish you luck.

I've done a couple of archival scanning jobs from negatives dating back to the early part of last century and some of them were serioulsy on their last legs. Admittedly storage had been pretty casual but a negative is not a permanent storage solution for a photographic image. It may be so within your own life time and that may be enough for you ... but for future generations film is just a material on it's way back to mother earth!
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Keith,
How do you think would have printed pictures saved on a hard drive of the early part of the 20th century kept in a pretty casual storage?:rolleyes:

Film is a chemical support and as such has a limited lifetime, even if well taken care of, but this lifetime can be very long for B+W material.
It is also more sensitive to physical destruction since you have one original.
On the other hand, digital support is very sensitive, and if not properly backed up every few years, the data will eventually disappear. And it's not a slow fading. Without full continuity in the back up process, you loose everything. think about it: If I die and my kids are at a point where they are not aware of the problem, and do not backup properly my pictures. Even if they suddenly re-value the digital family archive ten years after, it's most likely to be too late.
I remember that what brought me to photography was a couple of shoe boxes with hundred of family pictures, some dating form the late 18th century, that was just put in a closet at my grandmother's for decades.
Try that with a HD/CD/DVD...
Digital and chemical (B+W) can both be maintained for long enough. The dangers are different that can harm them and both present some advantages over the other.
If I was a pro photographer backed with a large agency that I know will take care of my pictures, I would think digital is the best. For my small home operation, meanwhile, I choose film, and invest a great deal in trying to keep them safe.
 
Neare said:
I can't say anything definite but... I've got a lot of burned CD's from perhaps 5 or 6 years ago (not photos however).
Today half of them are unreadable or when opened have no data on them even though looking at the CD you can see something has been burned. They used to work when I opened them so I'm pretty upset that I cannot access the files any longer. The only explanation I can give to why no data can be read from them is either time or the technology is outdated (though they are just simple CD's so i'd say it's unlikely).

But on the other hand, other CD's work. Music CD's always seem to work, so too do movie DVD's that I've bought years ago.

So I can't explain it, but the fact is that something has happened to those CD's that were sitting safely in storage and what was on them is lost forever. There's always a risk of storing anything. The best bet is backing up in multiple locations.
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Ari,

Music CD's, movie DVD's sold to you are printed in a press. Unless they are heavily scratched, you can read them because the metal supporting the data is fine in the plastic.

On the contrary, when you burn a blank CD, you use a laser to alter a support that is sensitive to light, and remains so after the burning. That is why we are advised to store optical data in the dark, and apparently that's also why you better buy good media.
Exposure to light slowly alters the metal layer in a burnt CD, and the sensivity of the support may even make it degrade (although slower) in darkness.
If you want to use safely CD/DVD technology, buy the best support possible (it was TY a couple of years ago), burn at least TWO copies. write down the date of burning, and I suggest reburning new copies every five years or so. Of course, dark storage...
 
sanmich said:
Keith,
How do you think would have printed pictures saved on a hard drive of the early part of the 20th century kept in a pretty casual storage?:rolleyes:

Film is a chemical support and as such has a limited lifetime, even if well taken care of, but this lifetime can be very long for B+W material.
It is also more sensitive to physical destruction since you have one original.
On the other hand, digital support is very sensitive, and if not properly backed up every few years, the data will eventually disappear. And it's not a slow fading. Without full continuity in the back up process, you loose everything. think about it: If I die and my kids are at a point where they are not aware of the problem, and do not backup properly my pictures. Even if they suddenly re-value the digital family archive ten years after, it's most likely to be too late.
I remember that what brought me to photography was a couple of shoe boxes with hundred of family pictures, some dating form the late 18th century, that was just put in a closet at my grandmother's for decades.
Try that with a HD/CD/DVD...
Digital and chemical (B+W) can both be maintained for long enough. The dangers are different that can harm them and both present some advantages over the other.
If I was a pro photographer backed with a large agency that I know will take care of my pictures, I would think digital is the best. For my small home operation, meanwhile, I choose film, and invest a great deal in trying to keep them safe.
Click to expand...


I'm not saying film isn't effective to a point but by the laws of nature it has to degrade over time ... whatever that time period may be I'm not qualified to say.

A digital file can be duplicated when necessary and transfered to fresh storage media ... but of course here I'm making the assumption that the technology to do so and the ability to read the file remains accessible in the future ... which is pretty optomistic I guess. :D

There is no real solution I suspect and like film the jpeg, tif or whatever may be long gone and we'll be left wondering what what we should have done!
 
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