Crashed hard drive...

[glbirch]

I download to my primary video/picture drive, my backup (USB external) drive, and archive to CD or DVD (depending on size) after every trip.
Right now the primary, backup and archive copies live in three different rooms of my house. I'm contemplating a fire-proof safe for the archives.
Rick

IMO a fireproof safe is a good investment. Even bought a portable one to store drives and paperwork in while my wife and I moved recently. Not all are created equal, so if you want one for storing backup media, make sure that the one you buy is rated and warrentied for what you need.

Now to figure out how to keep updated backups of 600GB without breaking the bank...

 

[Tom Smedley]

I am finding out that CD's are not reliable too. Have several disks that won't give me back all my files after only about two years. If you do have a fireproof safe it needs to be near floor level and you must realise that unless it is a very good safe the contents might incenerate or melt inside during a hot fire. When I was a volunteer fireman I have seen mirrors and telephones at shoulder level melting and running down the wall. So called fireproof safes that were stored on a closet shelf only produced charred paper and melted plastics when opened.

 

[justleesa]

Uncle Rick, don't forget that CD's and DVD's aren't forever storage despite what many claim. Some CD's have become unreadable in as little as 12-18 months.

Does that mean I have to make a copy of the copy every year or so? If so, won't that degrade the pictures too? What it the most lasting type of storage?

 

[divetahoe]

If you have lots of data you want to save, save it all on the web. You can get a website for not much $$ anymore, and they maintain constant backups and the files will be available to you 24/7 anywhere in the world.

FWIW.

 

[JRScuba]

Seagate hard drives have a 5 year warranty, Maxtor has a 1 year. I LIKE Seagates.

Interesting!!!!!! I worked in the field for quite a few years and saw Seagate fail miserable. On the other hand Maxtor and Western Digital were the top proformers.

Just my $00.02

 

[aHeavyD]

A fire proof safe is a great investment. But stay away from the portable safes. My Dad had a portable safe and when his house got broke into they just carried the safe out. Wow I never thought of how easy it was for them to walk out with all his important papers and stuff.
I invested in one of these Fire/theft proof safes. It weights almost 400 pounds and is anchored to basement floor. http://www.amsecusa.com/safes-ul-burglary.htm
I even got it with the touch pad keys to make it easy for me to open. For a 1000 dollars I thought it was a great investment of protecting my valuables/papers and computer backups.

 

[drbill]

Maxtor has a 1 year. I LIKE Seagates.

Not true. I have only one Maxtor with a 1 year warranty (bought from Fry's due to emergency need), all my others are 3- or 5-year warranties.

 

[drbill]

I have six hard drives (four internal and two external) on my system not to mention two DVD-writers, a ZIP drive and a floppy. I expect at least one to go out each year. Why... I'll be darned! My new 300GB Maxtor just went south! Either that of my Windoze files were actually corrupted. We'll just have to do a little tinkering under the case to find out.

 

[drbill]

Some CD's have become unreadable in as little as 12-18 months.

Using the same CD drive? I have noticed that when I replace an older CD drive with a newer one (or a DVD writer), the older disks are not always readable.

 

[MikeC]

Does that mean I have to make a copy of the copy every year or so? If so, won't that degrade the pictures too?

Leesa, a copy of digital data while maintaining a digital path/stream SHOULD not introduce any degradation of picture quality. That of course assumes no additional data compression.

What it the most lasting type of storage?

Considering that there are photos from the US Civil War still around I would say Kodak photo paper. Digital is not always better, it is quicker and instantly satisfying but not always better.

How many megapixel equivalent is 35mm film?