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Question from Casey: “Few questions: What do you do for secondary backup storage for your pics… Do you use hard drives/ or back up on certain websites? If so, which web do you find the best? Also, how long do you keep or store a clients pics?”
Jess: I used to do disks.. but honestly I have so many disks now I gave up on that now i have 2- 3tb external hard drives that mirror each other my laptop only has current sessions I am working on on it. As soon as I get them on the computer the raws go onto the hard drive and as soon as all edits are done they go on there too. How long I keep them well I have some from 2009 normally I let people know when I have to clean house and sell the disks for really cheap to those who already purchased one or at half off if they only purchased prints before. If they purchased nothing they have 2 weeks to decide if they want to get anything and of course I keep all my favs to use for promoting
Brian: My workflow includes
1) copy entire day to a folder on my hard drive with the following naming convention: YYYY-MM-DD – Description of shoot
2) copy folder to my NAS (Network attach storage) which is 2.5 terabytes raid 6; (4) 1 terabyte HD’s. If any two hard drives fail, I can replace them and the data will rebuild
3) Create a LR catalog for each day using the same naming convention.
4) Copy LR catalog to my NAS
5) Every 2-3 months I burn pictures and LR catalogs to BluRay.
6) I store BluRay’s offsite at my sister’s house
^– the above offers 3 levels of backup. Computer HD, NAS, Bluray backups
Cara: I have an external HD that backs up wirelessly. I also back up final files (not raws, but high res edited jpgs) to a second external HD periodically (usually quarterly.) This second HD is kept in a fireproof box (it contains personal photos as well, that I wouldn’t want to lose.) I keep these files indefinitely. I do not currently back up online, although I’m interested in hearing what others say about that.
Melanie: I have an ehd, I also save to a flash drive, and I load them onto a disk and stick into their folder.
Michael: Good question! I’m currently backing up to an external hard drive but seriously considering Carbonite.
Sheyla: Carbonite!
Mollie: I have an external hard drive, and I plan to move everything to 2 discs.
Becky: I’m on my third external. I don’t keep all my photos but I code for customer edits and personal edits to store.
Mel: I back everything up on to my Smugmug or SmugVault (for raw images or psd files) account. Separate gallery of editied images for Client. They are up indefinitely.
Kristie: I use an External harddrive. I backup the raws and edits
Jeff: I have a 2TB RAID 5, online backup (CrashPlan or Carbonite work great!), plus a 1TB external off-site with essential files & favorites.
Dannielle: I don’t store anything on my computers HD, I have two external that I back up with CrashPlan.
Kelsey: I back them up on CDs/DVDs and an external hard drive
Erick: I use a 5 system back up…. 3 external HD ( NOT mirrored… very important), DVD stored in a fireproof safe and on-line storage.
Patricia: I have a second hard drive that I store them on…just started doing it yesterday…because my poor computer is slowing down
Jaye: Back up is done twice on site (portable hard drive and a disc) and once off site (Google Cloud). As per my contract RAW images are kept for 6 months and edited images are kept for a year. However, because I own and pay for plenty of back-up I have never deleted any edited images and don’t plan to.
Andrea: Following
Casey: Thanks friends!
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