Photo Storage - what's your method?

[DisneyFan1003]

Just purchased my new DSLR over the holiday weekend and I'm having way too much fun taking pictures! Now that the photo "size" is so much more robust than with my p&s, I'm trying to figure out the best way to store the pictures. I'd love to hear some of your methods! (i.e. - upload to an online storage site, burn to CD, flash drives, external hard drive, etc.)

Thanks!

 

[wdwmagic]

I go with an external hard drive (G-tech), and then backup up that to another external drive. So one of the drives is my working drive, and the other is a backup of that.

Congrats on your new camera! What did you get?

 

[Master Yoda]

I use an external hard drive but if you have a tower you can add internal hard drives for a little less and with much faster performance. You can get 2 TB internal drives for about $80 externals run about $90 for the same size.

 

[DisneyFan1003]

I go with an external hard drive (G-tech), and then backup up that to another external drive. So one of the drives is my working drive, and the other is a backup of that.

Congrats on your new camera! What did you get?

Great idea to use two...hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

I got a Nikon d3100 - so far, I love it! I was going to get the new d5100, but my local camera shop had a great deal going on - I got the camera kit, 200mm zoom lens and a memory card for just over $800 out the door. Couldn't pass that up! Looking forward to my next trip to WDW to really break it in.

I use an external hard drive but if you have a tower you can add internal hard drives for a little less and with much faster performance. You can get 2 TB internal drives for about $80 externals run about $90 for the same size.

Getting a new desktop computer here pretty quickly, so I'll definitely look into an extra internal hard drive...great idea!

 

[Master Yoda]

Great idea to use two...hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

I got a Nikon d3100 - so far, I love it! I was going to get the new d5100, but my local camera shop had a great deal going on - I got the camera kit, 200mm zoom lens and a memory card for just over $800 out the door. Couldn't pass that up! Looking forward to my next trip to WDW to really break it in.



Getting a new desktop computer here pretty quickly, so I'll definitely look into an extra internal hard drive...great idea!

If you build one yourself adding hard drives will be a much easier process. Many of the off the shelf (Dell, HP,etc) desktops have very small restrictive cases. Most will have room for an extra HD or two but things will still be tight. If you build yourself you can get a much larger case that is easier to work with, cools better and adding upgrades will be much easier. You will also get much more bang for your buck in terms of performance.

 

[NowInc]

I use a combination of an External drive and a Carbonite online backup (External drives break too easily).

 

[Monorail Lime]

I've considered moving my RAWs to "the cloud" but Amazon EC2's recent troubles are a cause for concern. Anyone have good or bad experience with these types of services?

 

[wdwmagic]

I've considered moving my RAWs to "the cloud" but Amazon EC2's recent troubles are a cause for concern. Anyone have good or bad experience with these types of services?

I've been using Amazon S3 for some web projects over the last year or so and have been very impressed. Cuuld get pricey though depending how much storage you need.

 

[britdaw]

Congrats on your new camera!! I'm jealous; I have been begging to get a new one; I hate my Sony Cybershot. LOL

I don't have an external harddrive, so I move all my pictures to online hosts to save them. Speaking of which, I have a bunch I need to move...

 

[flavious27]

I use an external hard drive to store my photos locally and then I use Picasa to import all of the pictures; I upload the ones I want to share to the web. In addition I have an extra 20 gigs with Picasa, it is only $5 a year.

 

[NowInc]

I know I said it before, but I can not stress it enough, external hard drives should ONLY be used as a "backup", and not as a "running drive". From my experiences, if you use it as a "constant access" drive..it WILL break (I've burned through at least 5 in the last few years because of that, and I have one thats lasted now 4 years because its only used for backups). If you have the option to do so, save on internal hard drives if the data is going to be viewed often. What most do is they save the jpg edits on their internal HD, and the raws on the external "Just in case".

 

[stratman50th]

If you build one yourself adding hard drives will be a much easier process. Many of the off the shelf (Dell, HP,etc) desktops have very small restrictive cases. Most will have room for an extra HD or two but things will still be tight. If you build yourself you can get a much larger case that is easier to work with, cools better and adding upgrades will be much easier. You will also get much more bang for your buck in terms of performance.

I know that the DELL towers are really tight and they give you no extra HDD cable length. Back in the day there was like an extra three connectors on each IDE cable.

I keep several 6 to 8GB memory cards with me. When I get back to the room, or wherever I'm at, I dump my camera onto my laptop. I then back up the laptop on an Iomaga external. I then move the backup to my tower when I get home. That gives me three copies of the full photos directory. I've also been known to burn DVD's of individual directories or trips. I'm terrified I'll loose something irreplaceable. With digital we've taken a step forward in capacity and quick view convenience, but I think we've gone back a step in survivability and longevity of negatives.

 

[DisneyJoe]

I use a combination of an External drive and a Carbonite online backup (External drives break too easily).

I love Carbonite!!!

 

[flavious27]

I know that the DELL towers are really tight and they give you no extra HDD cable length. Back in the day there was like an extra three connectors on each IDE cable.

I keep several 6 to 8GB memory cards with me. When I get back to the room, or wherever I'm at, I dump my camera onto my laptop. I then back up the laptop on an Iomaga external. I then move the backup to my tower when I get home. That gives me three copies of the full photos directory. I've also been known to burn DVD's of individual directories or trips. I'm terrified I'll loose something irreplaceable. With digital we've taken a step forward in capacity and quick view convenience, but I think we've gone back a step in survivability and longevity of negatives.

I feel the same way about digital and losing pictures, I had a memory card that got screwed up without me getting files copied over. I upload what I want to keep, save unto one external hdd and then unto another.

 

[flavious27]

I know I said it before, but I can not stress it enough, external hard drives should ONLY be used as a "backup", and not as a "running drive". From my experiences, if you use it as a "constant access" drive..it WILL break (I've burned through at least 5 in the last few years because of that, and I have one thats lasted now 4 years because its only used for backups). If you have the option to do so, save on internal hard drives if the data is going to be viewed often. What most do is they save the jpg edits on their internal HD, and the raws on the external "Just in case".

A hard drive is a hard drive, no matter if it is an external or internal, best bet is to backup everything to two separate sources (tape and on-line).

 

[ddbowdoin]

personally, I shoot RAW... post process using CS3 or lightroom, then convert to high res JPG and burn my images onto DVDs. HD's, especially the 99$ specials can fail... its happened to many people I know.

 

[gljvd]

I shoot video so i burn through alot of data.


What I did is buy a bunch of SD cards , 16GB class 10 cards are about $20-25 check www.newegg.com for prices. I have 4 of those which is more than enough for each day at the park as the 3 batterys ih ave will go first.

So what i do is i get back to my hotel room and i take one of the cards put it in my laptop connect to wifi and remote log into my home pc . This allows me to transfer all the data back home to my server while i'm away

 

[LilSuzy]

personally, I shoot RAW... post process using CS3 or lightroom, then convert to high res JPG and burn my images onto DVDs. HD's, especially the 99$ specials can fail... its happened to many people I know.

I thought CS3 doesnt support newer camera images (RAW).....I got excited reading this because I have CS3 but not lightroom

 

[NowInc]

I thought CS3 doesnt support newer camera images (RAW).....I got excited reading this because I have CS3 but not lightroom

Camera raw is handled in all Adobe products by the "Adobe Camera Raw" program that is technically separate from the rest of the program. Its free and updated often to support new cameras so that you should have no issues.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/extend.html

Alternatively, they also have a free RAW to DNG (digital negative, the format adobe loves the most) converter..

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=106&platform=Windows

(sorry for only providing the windows link...im working on about 3 hours of sleep after a long 4th of July)

 

[LilSuzy]

Yay!!!! Thank you!!!! I thought I had to buy a newer version of photoshop, now I don't have to