# How do you back up your photos? How do you keep them organized?



## Destin (Nov 11, 2011)

Alright, lets start with: I just got a new desktop to replace my old crappy laptop. I used to use a 1tb external hard drive to back up my photos (there was always a copy on the laptop itself too, and select photos were backed up on my smugmug site). 

Anyway, I now have a 1.5tb internal drive in my computer, plus my 1tb external. I'm looking for the best way to keep photos organized. My old way sucked because I did all the backup manually by copying and pasting the new photos whenever I imported new ones. Is there software that you use to keep your photos backed up? Can I achieve this with LR3?

As far as organization, I currently have them organized by what type of photo they are (landscape, sports, wedding, etc..) with subfolders in each category for individual shoots. I like this, but is there a better way to do it?

Tell me what YOU do to keep your photos organized and backed up.


----------



## BlairWright (Nov 11, 2011)

There are quite a few books written about this and everyone has a different opinion.

I use the date first on photos and folders, the the customer name / Shoot name

so today (November 11 2011) would be "11112011 Photoforum example"

I shoot professionally and guarantee my customers that I will have their photos available for 1 year. Due to that I have an 6TB RAID 5 SAN that everything is moved to after copying from cards. I work from an external Firewire 800 drive and use LR for importing and workflow management. 

Card >> rename and copy to external Edit Drive in DNG format >> copy to backup SAN >> edit photos >> export jpg files >> Copy jpg files to external backup SAN >> send jpg files to MPIX


----------



## 480sparky (Nov 11, 2011)

Back-up consists of multiple hard drives.  One on my desk, two in my safe, and two stored off-site.  Rotated every two weeks.









I create subdirectories and sub-subdirectories for organization.

Under my "Master" photo filename, I'll have something like:

Master
--East Village 2011_6_9
----JPEGs
----NEFs
------Edited Finals
--------Resized to Post
--Red Bridge Shoot 2011_10_6
----JPEGs
----NEFs
------Edited Finals
--------Resized to Post
--Village Park 2011_7_11
----JPEGs
----NEFs
------Edited Finals
--------Resized to Post


----------



## Buckster (Nov 11, 2011)

Similar for me.  External redundant drives.  I use AllwaySync to keep them mirrored up.  My Folders are named and dated a little differently so that they'll sort well, with Year/Month/Day format.  Under Master Photos I have the Year folders, going back to the early 1990's:

1991
1992
etc., etc., ...
2010 
2011 

In each of them are the individual shoots for that year, like

 20111011 - KC Scenics
20111102 - Bill Smith Seniors
20111110 - Smithfield Offices Interior

It's pretty straightforward and easy to manage that way for me.  More about my setup: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...180437-looking-file-storage-alternatives.html


----------



## unpopular (Nov 11, 2011)

Mirroring is definitely the way to go, and Sparky's method, albeit a bit excessive, is the best option - I had a boss who I was trying to convince that an off site server would be a good idea, he even had a fire before and lost everything and owned a warehouse where it could be located - some people just don't learn.

The next best think would be to put your offsite backup online, but if you're backing up RAW's that might be a bit inconvenient.

If you're like me and loosing your originals would "suck real bad" but not cost you your living, then a local backup would suffice.

I use Apple's time machine on a 1.5tb external drive that is patched every hour.


----------



## joealcantar (Nov 11, 2011)

Basically same units that Sparky is using Seagates, that automatically backup any changes one makes to the computer.  Will one day go to Drobo FS , but not in the cards at the moment. 
-
Shoot well, Joe


----------



## jwbryson1 (Nov 11, 2011)

I have 2 500GB external hard drives, but my file organization is pretty weak at the moment.  I have mainly family photos and they are organized as follows:  C:\family photos\ and then I have a sub-directory that describes the event such as \Easter 2008 or \Christmas 2010 or \July 4, 2009 or \2007 Disney Vacation.

I also have 3 copies of all my photos on Blueray DVD's.  Nothing off site at the moment.

I am going to buy a 2TB hard drive at some point but before I do that, I am going to add an eSATA card to my desktop so I can transfer 49,000+ photos.  USB 2.0 or even Firewire 800 would take FOREVER to transfer that many photos.


----------



## MLeeK (Nov 11, 2011)

However you decide to arrange things, KEYWORD!!! Keyword everything and you will never have to search for anything. If all of a sudden you need a photograph of an apple you can put apple in as your criteria and find it. 

DPBestflow is a government funded study on the preservation of photography. They have a great section on file management: File Management | dpBestflow


----------



## ImChance (Nov 11, 2011)

Internal raid setup, external drive, and backup disks. And backup disks of the backup disks.


----------



## KmH (Nov 11, 2011)

Someone mentioned guidance on organization of images and books - The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers 

It's the best resource I've found and I keep it handy for easy reference.

Great link MLeek! :thumbup:


----------



## Futurelight (Nov 11, 2011)

External Hard drives! the only way!


----------



## Trever1t (Nov 11, 2011)

I do it the hard way but ...

a 2TB networked drive and 2 external drives all mirrored so a total of 3 drives.


----------



## 12sndsgood (Nov 11, 2011)

5.25 floppy.




anyone buy that?


----------



## MLeeK (Nov 11, 2011)

KmH said:


> Someone mentioned guidance on organization of images and books - The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers
> 
> It's the best resource I've found and I keep it handy for easy reference.
> 
> Great link MLeek! :thumbup:



I have actually done a seminar by DPBestflow and that's what turned me on to their site. If you ever get a chance to do one it's VERY interesting and I actually learned a LOT more than I thought I would. 
That website is an AMAZING wealth of information if you really explore it. Everything from setting your gear and computer system up to archiving. Workflow, colorspace... EVERYTHING from start to finish.


----------



## Bjarvis29 (Nov 17, 2011)

My question is does everyone back up their RAW files along with the JPGS or only the JPGS?


----------



## 2WheelPhoto (Nov 17, 2011)

So far I just backup to am external drive, I have an upcoming course  "*PHO11021 - Digital Image Management*" and perhaps I'll learn new trick or two


----------



## skieur (Nov 17, 2011)

I have blown external hard drives, and DVD recorders, so obviously I personally do not find them very reliable. The most reliable item that I have found has been the thumb drives of the 32 or 64 gig variety.

skieur


----------



## Buckster (Nov 17, 2011)

Bjarvis29 said:


> My question is does everyone back up their RAW files along with the JPGS or only the JPGS?


I especially backup the RAWs.  RAWs are my digital negatives.  I can always re-create anything I made from them as long as I have them.


----------



## pacman10 (Apr 27, 2012)

MLeeK said:


> DPBestflow is a government funded study on the preservation of photography. They have a great section on file management: File Management | dpBestflow


 Thanks for flagging this excellent source. Full of solid information.


----------



## 480sparky (Apr 27, 2012)

Bjarvis29 said:


> My question is does everyone back up their RAW files along with the JPGS or only the JPGS?



It would be nuts/crazy/dumb to back up only your jpegs.


----------



## Garbz (Apr 27, 2012)

One should mention quickly before you get the wrong idea, mirroring / RAID is not a backup solution. It is a high availability solution designed to keep your system up in case of a harddisk failure. What it does not protect you against is accidental deletion of files, accidental saves or other software related problems such as hosing the file allocation table. Actually it introduces problems as a power outage could cause the array to de-synchronise if one drive finished writing before the other. It also doesn't protect you against power surges, fire, flood, theft, or any other good stuff that a backup solution should cover.

Backups should be free from these problems, which is as simple as storing the backup off site. Take it to work, or put it in a safety deposit box, give it to your dad or something. 

Now my solution looks like this:

- Images are loaded onto my main computer.
- Daily an automatically scheduled run of an open source program called Synchronicity which does an incremental copy of files to a NAS box under the stairs. This NAS box amongst other things features a 2TB RAID1 array for redundancy and also allows us to access files from the TV / other computers. Delete a file from the NAS at the end of the day my backup software will replace it. Delete a file from my PC and it'll still be available on the NAS.
- On the weekend I manually run Synchronicity to do a mirror backup. This ensures that if I legitimately delete things it gets removed from my backups. This is manual not scheduled so it doesn't happen just after I accidentally stuff something up on my computer. 
- Once every 2-3 weeks I bring a harddisk home from work and plug it into my NAS. An automatic script on the NAS (seems to be a common feature for even the cheapest NAS boxes these days) will make a copy of the the entire drive onto the external. This one then gets taken back to work. It is the backup and the last line of defence. 

Having 3 locations for files is important as there's always the ability for data to be lost while you're configuring your backup or making an initial backup.


Advanced tip for you RAID1 folkes:
If a member of a RAID1 fails do NOT replace it without doing an incremental backup of your important files first. Re-syncing a mirror array will absolutely thrash a harddisk for a good 10-14 hours and may even cause the failure of the other drive. After you have made your backup disconnect the backup drive and THEN rebuild the RAID array.


----------



## slackercruster (Apr 28, 2012)

Hard drives, different computers, cd, dvd, thumbdrive, flash cards. Tons of multiple back ups. 

Organized? I'm only half ass. Need more work in that area.


----------

