Photo storage

ebwest · March 20, 2006

I did a search on this and didn't come up with exactly the answer I was looking for.

I recently read a short article, the gist of which was that comsumer CD/DVDs will not last more than 5 or 6 years. The suggestion was to store photos on a tape. My experience with tape drives in the past has not been good. Aside from the question of CD/DVD technology in the future, does anybody have thoughts on this?

Justiceiro · March 20, 2006

ebwest wrote:

I did a search on this and didn't come up with exactly the answer I was looking for.

I recently read a short article, the gist of which was that comsumer CD/DVDs will not last more than 5 or 6 years. The suggestion was to store photos on a tape. My experience with tape drives in the past has not been good. Aside from the question of CD/DVD technology in the future, does anybody have thoughts on this?

What do you mean they won't last more than 5-6 years? Do you mean that new media tech wil make CD/DVD tech obsolete, or that the discs will physically degrade?

ebwest · March 20, 2006

The article said that the disc would degrade over that period of time.

I've done a little more research and found the below discussion on CNET that essentially disagrees with the article.

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-10149-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=152618&messageID=1698511

CatOne · March 20, 2006

There are recordable CDs/DVDs that have much longer (>25 year) storage life. Look for the eArchival Gold stuff. I occasionally get some catalogs of "photo archival" stuff like acid-free mounting boards... these catalogs also include these CDs/DVDs. They're 3-4x more than the $0.19/each cheapies, but if you're using them as archival it may be worth it.

Personally, I'm using portable firewire HDs for most of my archival stuff.

Ric Grupe · March 20, 2006

ebwest wrote:

I did a search on this and didn't come up with exactly the answer I was looking for.

I recently read a short article, the gist of which was that comsumer CD/DVDs will not last more than 5 or 6 years. The suggestion was to store photos on a tape. My experience with tape drives in the past has not been good. Aside from the question of CD/DVD technology in the future, does anybody have thoughts on this?

There is an article at Luminous-Landscape that might interest you.

wxwax · March 20, 2006

By the time your DVD degrades, it will be obsolete. They're already developing two generations ahead. So by the time the next format is released, it too will only have a relatively short lifespan before being superseded. And so on, and so on...

The Luminous Landscape hard drive solution, although cumbersome, might make the most sense.

Ric Grupe · March 20, 2006

wxwax wrote:

By the time your DVD degrades, it will be obsolete. And so on, and so on...

Ain't that the way...

colourbox · March 20, 2006

History suggests we can't rely on any medium for a long time. I put my entire photo library on one big hard drive. Why a hard drive? It will be the fastest and easiest way to migrate. I don't want to be that guy who put his photos on 267 DVDs (and their backups) and then has to copy them all to new media 6 years from now.

Granted, hard drives are notorious for failing, so I have the same library on 3 drives stored at different sites. If one fails, I should be able to get a replacement drive before the other 2 fail. I really should have a CD/DVD archive as well, but...that time thing...

ebwest · March 20, 2006

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I'm off to get an external hard drive.

colourbox · March 20, 2006

ebwest wrote:

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I'm off to get an external hard drive.

As I mentioned, if you go the hard drive route it had better not be just "an" external hard drive, but two drives so that you have at minimum one complete copy.

swintonphoto · March 30, 2006

Drives and storage will be an everchanging thing. I have read some things that suggest you just save on what the latest thing is now (DVD's for example) and realize that you will have to transfer everything every 8-10 years for the rest of your life. So, DVD's are a newer technology than CD's, so I would save on those and know you will have to transfer them in 8-10 years. Don't worry about killing yourself to find the ultimate media now because there really isn't one.

pathfinder · March 31, 2006

I do make DVDs of RAW originals and edited images, but find they are tedious to make ans slow to read. I also have a pair of FireWIre Drives that I use as my primary archival storage.

Firewire drives can be found for about $150 or so for 250 to 320Gb of storage. Fast, cheap, and easy - just the way I like things.

I also keep copies of images on www.smugmug.com also - in case of fire, earthquake, tornado, whatever. Web storage may be the best answer in lthe long run if you have good broadband access.

Kodachrome · March 31, 2006

ebwest wrote:

I recently read a short article, the gist of which was that comsumer CD/DVDs will not last more than 5 or 6 years.Aside from the question of CD/DVD technology in the future, does anybody have thoughts on this?

...hmmmmmm

Interesting topic long time storage...here is my.02

A friend that works for our Provincial musem photo archives was telling me of the 250,000 images they have scanned and have been archiving. Instead of having to order archive prints from the musem and then have to wait weeks while negatives went through their lab. They now have an online sevice where they get your credit card info then send you via email the requested picture.

Two things that have come up...one of course is the file size...if you are working on a book project the file size needed for reproduction is huge...even if the files were Zipped (which they will not do) the file size will choke a server and if it is a dial up connection...you are really out of luck.

Secondly...some of the files that were scanned 7 or 8 years ago have become corrupt...that is the files will not open. As we all know anyfile that has been compromized hangs up the computer...before it gives you the little nasty file not found or the like. So they are really scratching their heads...hard drive storage in various locations works for the home consumer...but when you are dealing with 1000's of gigs it becomes aproblem of understandably huge proportions.

Interesting though...some of the old 80 year plus negs make wonder prints...even another 80 plus years from now the negs will still be making wonderful prints...but will those scanned images be arount in 80 years...I will leave that answer up to you.

It is in teresting that on some of the cd/dvd discs that you buy say even longer life...hmmm longer than what?

Dvd's ....because of the higher density of storage on these the risk of degridation is worse...aside form that some of the dvd's coming out of storage have phyiscally delaminated...what is that all about.

Some of my clients will not except digital files...I have contracts to record performanences at theaters. The photo's that I take are used for archiving for futer generations...they only want high quality medium format B&W...so the people in the know that long term digital storage is an Oxymoron...

So that is a little bit more than .02...guess I ran into about .05

Photo storage

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