A few questions in one thread - about data back up & "what if" you lost all your photos?

13 years 2 months ago #23412 by JB
What would you do if you lost all your photos? I back up all my stuff on CD's, but I just read this morning that CD's have a shelf life of only 5 to 6 years? I have so many CD's that I've made over the years. I never knew this, so now I'm anxious to get home and to look at some of my older CD's to see if the information is corrupted or if it's still there!?

What back up methods have a 100% certainty of lasting (aside for natural disasters).


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13 years 2 months ago #23436 by Baydream
I keep important ones on two separate external hard drives. There is a growing business in online storage, including Google through Picasa Web. Lots of options.

Shoot, learn and share. It will make you a better photographer.
fineartamerica.com/profiles/john-g-schickler.html?tab=artwork

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13 years 2 months ago #23444 by Scotty
I use external drives.

When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.

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13 years 2 months ago #23474 by JB
Have any of you heard about CD's not good after 5 to 6 years?


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13 years 2 months ago #23477 by Baydream
I have heard of some CDs being archival quality and have a longer lifetime.
This is from Wiki
"Real-life (not accelerated aging) tests have revealed that some CD-Rs degrade quickly even if stored normally. The quality of a CD-R disc has a large and direct influence on longevity—low quality discs shouldn't be expected to last very long. According to research conducted by J. Perdereau, CD-R are expected to have an average life expectancy of 10 years.[7] Unfortunately, branding isn't a reliable guide to quality, because many brands (major as well as no name) do not actually manufacture their own discs. Instead they are sourced from different manufacturers of varying quality. For best results, the actual manufacturer and material components should be verified of each batch of discs." DVDs with REAL gold coatings are said to last longer than silver.

Shoot, learn and share. It will make you a better photographer.
fineartamerica.com/profiles/john-g-schickler.html?tab=artwork

Photo Comments
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13 years 2 months ago #23696 by crystal
I have lost alot of my pictures. Granted, this was years ago when I was modeling. My harddrive crashed and I lost several hundred of modeling pictures of me. I was upset, but I got over it. To be honest, losing the pictures I take is more important then losing my modeling pictures.

I have alot of pictures burn to CD. That would include my modeling pics and photos I shot. My modeling pictures are over 6yrs old burn onto CD, the CD is still good.
I have all the pictures I shot, on CD, DVD, main harddrive, 2nd drive and external drive.
This past summer I shot some wildlife photos from a drive through safari (first one I went too). Came home from being gone a week and my computer died (my fridg also died). But before the computer died, I transfer my pictures. The computer started acting up. So I backup all my photos. All my photos were saved, except I lost half of those safari pictures that I took. I was pissed. Good thing is, my husband also took the same kind of pictures since he was with me. So at least there are pictures for memories.
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13 years 2 months ago #23748 by Hamtastic
Ive not heard that before, possible have you contacted CD manufacture?


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13 years 2 months ago #23792 by Scotty
Backing up should be part of your religion.

When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.

Photo Comments
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13 years 2 months ago #24311 by Becky pics

Scotty wrote: Backing up should be part of your religion.


:agree:


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13 years 2 months ago #24583 by Stealthy Ninja

Scotty wrote: Backing up should be part of your religion.


LOL :banana:

I have a backup in my computer, on an external HDD and a couple of backup externals back in Australia (every time my Mum comes here or I go there I give her an external HDD with all my photos backed up).


The op says he uses CDs to back up... CDs?! Do you mean DVDs? CDs would be lucky to hold 100 photos, then they'd need to be jpegs.
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13 years 2 months ago #27907 by digitalpimp

JB wrote: Have any of you heard about CD's not good after 5 to 6 years?


News to me, I thought they had not shelf life?


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13 years 2 months ago #27911 by Pud
I don't know what I would do. At this point, I don't have anything backed up. I guess I should.


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