backing up on to DVD

Hi

When you back up your images on DVD say evey month, do you just back up images for that month or do you back up all images again? Do you use a new DVD each time you back up or do you overwrite on the same DVD? Are there any types of DVD you reccomend to use or to avoid?

I would like to thank everyone who has been a great help to me with your ideas and suggestions.

Cheers

Yes! Re-writable DVDs and CDs. These have a limited shelf life due to the dye used and your backup will deteriate over time.

I currently use a double layer DVD (8GB capacity) and add all the new photos till the DVD it full then start a new DVD. I also back up to external hard drive more frequently.

I recommend at least 2 dissimilar forms of backup, eg Hard disk and optical.

Also, keep optical backups in the dark, the dyes hate UV light.

Personally I'm seriously considering going to a double DVD backup where I burn each disk twice, to two different reputable brands of media.

I've had a lot of problems with disks of various brands fading over time.


OH and as Beaky said, never ever use RW media for long term storage. Frankly with USB sticks so cheap these days I think RW optical media are obsolete.

Second that, Mongoose.

Never trust valuable data to unbranded DVDs or CDs. Thruth is that well known manufacturers run tests on their production. Grade A gets their own name, while grade B or C are sold unmarked. The latter is the cheap stuff you can buy in bulk in the superstores.

My favourites are Sony and Verbatim. But even so, I have found old CDs no longer readable, and that scares me a little.

My present backup is as follows: First I synchronise the picture folders on mu stationary PC and my laptop. Then I have an external harddisk to backup my stationary PC and a similar USB harddisk for the laptop. I believe my pictures are pretty safe now.

With my current hardware, I've had no problems whatsoever with the many dozens of unbranded CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R I've bought from various sources. I'm not going to pay rip-off prices for a brand name when I can buy in bulk and get DVDs for 12p each for a perfectly useable product. Saves me a lot of money. I always verify to make sure a copy is good.

The drive used to burn makes a difference. Some are more fussy than others.

The only problems I've had have been with a a few unbranded or cheapo DVD+RW discs, so I stick to TDK for those.

With the most important data, I have it backed up on hard drive too anyway.

A lot of these procedures are great ideas, off site backup, on line backup, etc. but most of us 'amateur' photographers don't need such extreme precautions.

All my favourite images are on my website as jpeg's. Going to the effort and expense of off site storage is more than i want to consider.

When I start selling my images for megabucks, I'll use some of my profit to ensure more secure storage, until then I'll stick to a few dvd's in my cupboard and a usb hard drive.

here's one for your consideration:
Apple tv. http://www.apple.com/appletv/

now I don't know what options are available to windoze users, but there ARE options.
Now for Mac users.....
Give one of these suckers to Grandma, set it up for her, to grab your photos from your iPhoto library (over the net), or off your .mac account, or flicker, and there's a second harddrive, remote location, back-up of your best photos. you can even set it up so Grandma can see your family/vacation photos, updated as you update your albums.

This is actually how I've been delivering Hi-def wedding videos and photos to my Wedding clients!

So are you saying use DVD R and not DVD RW? If so once you have burned images to a DVD R I assume it is not possible to burn any more even if it is not full, therefore would it not make sense to burn images to a DVD RW until that is full and then transfer them to a DVD R ? I am also unsure of the advanatage or disadvantage of the -ve and +ve prefixes to DVD's!

There is a simple test to see how far you need to go.

Imagine your computer packs up and the hard drive contents cannot be recovered. How hard and how long do you cry? Most of us would say easily enough to justify a simple DVD in a cupboard backup system (as you suggest).

Now what if, as happened to a company I worked for, the oil depot over the back fence explodes, rendering the building unsafe and reducing the computer room (which also contains the backup disks) to 100 tons of rubble.

You might say that's very unlikely (and God willing it will never happen to any of us), but it can happen and it's up to each of us to weigh up the anguish if it did happen against the cost and hassle of protecting against it.

I would suggest that most of us amateurs have a small subset of photographs which we could never replace and would be devastated to loose. A wedding, a newborn baby, loved ones now departed. Here the monetary value is irrelavent, they can't be replaced for any price.

Yes, that is exactly what we are saying.

I recommend a directory on a HDD which you fill up until it hits 4.3GB and then burn to DVD, but your solution would also work well. RW disks are really not suitable for long term storage, this is not what they are designed for.

+ vs - is more or less moot now since almost all drives burn both. They are just standards for the burn process and which is better varies from drive to drive. With my LiteOn drive + disks generally work better, but YMMV.

What is more important is disk quality. I have no end of unbranded disks which burned fine at the time but are now unreadable a couple of years on. I used to rate DataSafe disks highly as affordable but good, however in recent times I have had an increasing number of bad burns on those. I have now switched to Verbatim disks and these seem very good.

Also, burn slowly. I have a 16x writer and 16x rated disks, but I never burn a backup faster than 4x.

No, you'll be pleased to hear that your assumption is wrong. It is possible to later add further data to a DVD-R or DVD+R disc if it is not full and not finalised. Your burning software should give you the option to finalise or not.

The formats of DVD-R and DVD+R are different, but there is little practical advantage or disadvantage between them for most simple uses on a PC. Just get whichever is compatible with your drive and cheapest. (Most drives can burn both, but not all). They both play back on all drives when finalised.

In theory it is possible to fit slightly more on a DVD+R than a DVD-R when the data consists of a series of batches, rather than one big block. But I wouldn't worry about it either way. DVD+R need to be formatted before use, but usually that will be done automatically by your software.

DVD+RW is fine for temporary use, in my opinion, and experience with TDK ones.

That is not necessary. See my post above.

Also, if amount of data to backup exceeds the capacity of a DVD, backup software such as True Image can be used to split up the backup into DVD-size chunks.

I've not had that problem yet, but I will redo my important backups onto new discs to make sure they are fresh.

Not everything that is a good idea is necessary, your method will work nicely, as will his proposal of using a DVD-RW as temporary storage, as does mine.

It's well worth checking your older backups, I was quite unplesantly surprised recently to discover an almost 100% failure rate among a particular batch of unbranded DVD's I was using about 4 years ago. Thankfully there was nothing vital on them.

I'm honistly not sure that branded discs are automatically more resistant to this, I just like to hope. I'm planning to start using 2 different reputable brands with different dye types for backups I really don't want to loose.

Paranoid I know, but I have some photos I would be VERY unhappy about loosing.

Fair enough. There are many equally-valid ways to crack this nut

And thanks for the prompt to check or redo old backups - something I've been meaning to get round to.

indeed, that's one of the things that confuses people I think! the important thing is that we all get a method which works for us, and don't get any nasty surprises.