Best Photo Backup Method

[Kerm]

I have approximately 200GB of photo's that i want to backup to DVD.

What i'm wanting is to have each disk accessible, rather than having one large image or needing all the disks just to get to 20 photos.

Can anybody recommend good programs for this? How do you back your photo's up?

Thanks guys.

[crazzy88ss]

you're going to use ~50 DVDs? Why not get a 250gb external drive for cheap and put them all on there?

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

i use an external HDD and flickr. You can redownload pictures from flickr using third party programs (flump) and its free.

[t_r_nelson]

Agreed. Get an external HD and back them up.

If you really that concerned about it, take the HDD to a safety deposit box so it's not where the compy is, in case of a fire. Go and get it once a month and do another backup.

[Kerm]

Thanks guys, good advice, however I do use an external Hdd. I would also like to back them all upto DVD's to then send home.

I'm currently travelling and if my stuff was stolen then i'd lose them all.

I have the DVD's, just don't have the time or patience to sit there and sort them all out into 4.5GB folders and then try and remember which photo's i've burnt.

I don't have the bandwidth to upload 200Gb of photo's online either.

Tricky I know...

[crazzy88ss]

hm. I honestly think the only way is to do it manually :(

[Kerm]

Bugger...

[Argote]

Ship the HDD and buy a new one?

If you still want to use DVDs, then just add all of the files into a project with your burning software and it'll automatically split it into x amount of DVDs. To see which files you have not burned yet just sort by date taken or something.

[sask]

Well, I think you have a few options.

- If you want to burn to DVD, what you could do is use something like WinRAR to split up an archive into 4.7 gig archives or parts and burn each part. That way you don't have to worry about splitting up the photos into DVD size chunks. I personally wouldn't go that way as it'll take time and you don't want to have a bad burn and lose a part of it.

- So my advice, buy a small HDD, back it up and send it home to someone. Way simpler and less time consuming.

Hope this helps!

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

This might help you. It will split the files up into multiple ZIP archives in such a way that you won't need the other ZIP archives just to extract some photos.

SpinZip - http://skwire.dcmembers.com/wb/pages/software/spinzip.php

· 1. User-specified approximate size.

· This method will create create something like "spanned zips" that any compression app (WinZip, WinRAR, etc) can do. However, the key difference with SpinZip is that the zips created are independent of one another unlike a normal spanned set where you need all the zips to extract the files.

My suggestion would be to limit the file size (4000mb), then use the extra space to create a recovery record. This way, even if the DVD is damaged, it should still be possible to recover your pictures.

http://www.ice-graphics.com/ICEECC/IndexE.html

http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

[lawtai]

I would think putting it on a HDD and shipping that would be simpler than putting it on DVDs... Just imagine the time it'd take to burn all those discs!

[Rigby]

for safe archival and an external hard drive for simple everyday access.

[Kerm]

This might help you. It will split the files up into multiple ZIP archives in such a way that you won't need the other ZIP archives just to extract some photos.

SpinZip - http://skwire.dcmembers.com/wb/pages/software/spinzip.php

My suggestion would be to limit the file size (4000mb), then use the extra space to create a recovery record. This way, even if the DVD is damaged, it should still be possible to recover your pictures.

http://www.ice-graphics.com/ICEECC/IndexE.html

http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

Amazing, that seems to be exactly what i was after.

I'll check it out, huge thanks.

I already have a whole bunch of blank DVD's, and no money to buy and ship a HD sadly.