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Have you checked your backup scheme lately?
Richard
Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,931 moderator
Last week, I stupidly managed to knock my external drive off a table and onto the floor. After my panic subsided, I ran a chkdsk on it and it came up clean, so I thought perhaps the magic smoke hadn't escaped. But about two days later, I started getting I/O errors on it. I ran the manufacturer's diagnostics and it failed. So I bought a new external drive (twice the storage for the same price I paid a year ago). But when I tried to copy my photo archive from the old drive to the new one, it failed early on. :yikes I had a second copy of the archive on DVDs, but I can't even remember the last time I checked their integrity. Fortunately, they were all OK, and after a very boring couple of days, I was able to restore the complete archive. :whew
Two morals to the story:
1) Always keep at least two copies of your pics on separate media.
2) Don't be a klutz. :rolleyes
Two morals to the story:
1) Always keep at least two copies of your pics on separate media.
2) Don't be a klutz. :rolleyes
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glad all turned out well for you.......might think of 2 hdd clones of all hdd's in your system.....including "c" drive......I do this cause a lot of my software is purchased as a download so raher than making cd's I just keep extra hdd copies.....when that 5 yr warranty has nearly ran it course I will make new hdd copies and ebay the old stuff after strenious cleaning and formatting.....
Got the first; working on the second.
I keep all photos off the computer's hd and duplicate everything to a third external. I also keep disc (used to be CDs, now moving to DVD) copies of all raw and final images. Can't be too careful these days. Especially while I'm still working on #2 above.
Thanks for the reminder, Richard.
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I know how you feel!!! I did the same thing with my external drive, however, I was in the process of making backups and did not get my photos transferred to DVD before the HDD decided to die. :cry I hoping that when I take it in for a data restoration at Best Buy ($160 later + a new drive) I'll be able to get all of my data.
www.clemensphotography.us
Canon 7D w/BG-E7 Vertical Grip, Canon 50D w/ BG-E2N Vertical Grip, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L USM, Canon 18-55mm, Canon 580EX II Flash and other goodies.
Ignorance is no excuss, so lets DGrin!
I've been considering getting a bluray recorder for the job. I stopped making dvds round about the time my image directory went past 60 gigabytes.
I now have three copies of everything, one copy each on the drives in the computer and an occasionally updated third copy on external.
I even wrote a little command line script to do the backup, that windows offers to run for me every time I connect the backup drive. I'll share it if you want me to.
http://pyryekholm.kuvat.fi/
How many copies to keep and where to keep them depends on how important they are to you. If I were a pro, I wouldn't dream of working without an off-site, online service like SmugVault. Since I'm just an amateur--and only rarely go back and reprocess pics--my normal SmugMug account provides adequate "last resort" protection for my needs. YMMV, of course.
Pyry: thanks for the script offer, but I use SyncBackSE to automatically back up my machine to an external drive every night. Great little utility, IMO. My archive is around 100 GB. Storing that on DVDs has not been a problem, but restoring it was certainly a PITA. So now I am considering getting a second external drive, which I think would be a lot cheaper than a Blu-ray solution.
I have 144 GB at the moment which includes Lightroom's catalogs (I store them in the image folder so they get backed up too). I have an external hard drive specifically for backups, but as you found out they can be easy to hurt. This is where DVDs or Bluray (you're right, still costs a bundle) discs come in - you'd have to have your house to burn down for those to go south. Another solution would be Smugvault for example (you'd have to have 4 different datacenters burn down together... or bust the company).
Also, if the external drive stays attached all the time a power surge can kill it too along with the local copy - I keep mine disconnected for this reason alone even with everything covered by surge protectors.
http://pyryekholm.kuvat.fi/
So I *think* I'm getting a new Drobo as a gift this holiday season (dropping hints FTW!). It can't get here a moment too soon as I've just recently started up a new video project and I'm nearly out of space on my external HD and my Time Machine backup.
I'm trying to figure out how to move my content onto Drobo while maintaining a viable, large-enough Time Machine volume to back everything up. I want to keep using Time Machine because I like being able to roll back to an earlier version of a file/project. I want to move most of my content to Drobo because I am having external HD management issues. I also want the security, redundancy, ease-of-management and ease-of-use that Drobo provides.
My current set up is this:
- MacBook Pro, 200GB HD
- 750GB external FW800 HD, 690GB net storage capacity
- 250GB external FW400 HD (aging) + 1 500GB external USB2.0 HD set up as a software RAID through Disk Utility, 690GB net storage capacity
- SmugMug + SmugVault
The MacBook Pro contains working video files and my Aperture library.
The 750GB external HD contains an Aperture vault plus "archived" (i.e. stuff I'm not working on right now) footage.
The Time Machine RAID is backing up both the 750GB external HD and the MBP's internal HD.
I have my entire Aperture library including RAWs backed up off-site via SmugMug + SmugVault.
My goals are these:
1.) Move all content except Aperture Library and current video projects to Drobo.
2.) Get rid of the rats' nest of cables and hard drives that currently characterizes my corner of the living room.
3.) Get the older external HDs out of the picture, as I am afraid they may fail soon (they are starting to make the occasional unholy noise).
4.) Keep a Time Machine volume available with sufficient space to back up all of my original content (Aperture Vault + current video projects + "archived" footage).
My constraints are these:
1.) The rats' nest really has got to go--it's part of the deal if I get the Drobo.
2.) We can't afford a second Drobo.
3.) I think I am going to need a larger-than-2-GB partition once the Drobo gets set up, in order to keep pace with the footage my current video project will generate and keep everything on one partition.
Things I have considered doing include:
1.) Taking all of the external HDs and making one software RAID using Disk Utility, and using that for my Time Machine volume. (Problems: rats' nest issues remain, older external HDs may fail soon)
2.) Buying two 1TB external HDs, stacking them very neatly, and making one software RAID array. (Problem: probably can't afford that right now)
3.) Forgoing Time Machine backup. (Problem: No Time Machine backup)
4.) Creating two partitions on Drobo, 1 for Time Machine and 1 for everything else. (Problem: May not leave enough space for new footage + existing content)
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to configure my backup solution so that I achieve my goals within my constraints? Thanks in advance for your help.
I would also suggest:
1) Always keep at least three copies of your pics on separate media.
2) Don't be a klutz.
3) Keep one set off site.
glad you recovered Richard!!!!
now stop doing the hardware bounce test, its frowned upon....
Yeah, right...I'm a software guy so the habit dies hard. Very hard, in this case.
only by those that do not understand the reason for the drop test......I was a drop test professional for 13yrs......then we were sold out to ATT.......
Loved destroying those machines of old........nothing like lifting a 2500 lb PC and dropping it 13" and seeing those 500+# disk drives nad 80# mother boards slam to the bottom of the case.......LOVED IT .....