Filing CD/DVD discs...need some advice

[David_Buzzard]

I should say that it's important to use a searchable data base, not a spread sheet. I've got a few thousand entries (pretty much an entire filing cabinet), and if you had to hunt for a specific name on a spread sheet, you'd be there all day. You can also search data bases on other fields, like location, date, key words, etc.

Good ideas on storage. There are certainly lots of ways to store CD's. All I can add is make sure each independant job is on it's own CD or DVD, and that's in a self contained package.

David Buzzard's Technical Blog

[KevinStecyk]

Here are two popular and robust databases:

Portfolio: Font Managers - Creative Asset Management - Font Management - Digital Asset Management

iView Media Pro:
Digital Asset and Image Management Software - iView Multimedia

Both products retail for about USD 200.00.

Hope this information helps.

Regards,
Kevin

[ChrisPerry]

Originally Posted by David_Buzzard

I should say that it's important to use a searchable data base, not a spread sheet. I've got a few thousand entries (pretty much an entire filing cabinet), and if you had to hunt for a specific name on a spread sheet, you'd be there all day. You can also search data bases on other fields, like location, date, key words, etc.

Good ideas on storage. There are certainly lots of ways to store CD's. All I can add is make sure each independant job is on it's own CD or DVD, and that's in a self contained package.

David Buzzard's Technical Blog

Control-F. At least that's what works in Excel for searching the spreadsheet.

[JasonBischoff]

Control-F is what I use

[ksgkphoto]

Hi,

I personally tend to dislike CD/DVD media as a long term archive.

There are some issues that just aren't overcome by DVD/CD archiving.

A) its not "live" "online" data, as such you can't really "know" if the data is uncorrupted, I have in the past reached for a disc only to find that after 10 years or so it had deterorated (it was in its jewel case) admittedly this was a "cheap" disc and we are talking from way back when burners were invented but the experience hurt...

B) Are you burning "two copies" and archiving one set offsite?

I guess I have the following questions that you might want to answer:

What is my obligation to store these images in perpetua?
What is my fiscal liability by not protecting these images to the nth degree?
What is my financial downside to not having images available for later sale?


I use a 4 level of security approach. Ie for me to "loose" data 4 bad things need to happen.

My specific solution isnt for everyone, but there are some newer inexpensive methods of storing data that are on the market. You might need to hire a computer geek for a few hours to implement a solution for you, and you might end up spending $2000 in total on a solution, but that solution will give you a lot of redundancy and peace of mind...

There are devices called "network attached storage" NAS.
Some are expensive, some are less expensive.
D-Link make a unit that has 500Gb of redundant storage, buying 2 for less than $1000 will give you high quality storage for 500 gb of data (TigerDirect.com Best Deals - Computer Parts, PC Components, Desktop Computers, Laptops, Notebooks item 2x D700-5386 )


I use a similar setup but server based and then I use a simple application called second copy to copy files back and forth between the two NAS units. (this needs to be configured carefully to prevent a failure on one unit propagating to the other unit, but its not hard...)

second copy costs about $30.

I use a standard naming convention for each folder that includes the date in reverse format and any various keywords such as the event name so a typical folde rmight be: 20070115 chris brandy neff wedding, using this a simple windows search lands me at my files in seconds.

For older archives you can "zip" an entire folder gaining approximately a factor of 2 savings.

Using the above approach if any one drive "goes down" you still have a copy of the data on the other 3 drives (there are two identical copies in each unit, one on each disc)

I use a further layer of security which is to store the second unit "at my house" and enable second copy to work over the internet, so even if my office burns down, the data is still secure.

This is a long way from "simply" buring dvds but for me it gives me "instant" access to any of my files and the knowledge that unless the city burns down that I'm reasonably assured that the data will survive.

True its less expensive for me to implement as I'm skilled in this stuff, but those who are IT challenged shoudl consider outsourcing this stuff. After all with the kind of revenue generated over a year an infrastructure investment of $1-2000 per year or more isnt that bad...

If you really want more details on how to specifically implement this stuff, I'm happy to go into more depth, but I feel I've rambled on enough already...

Regards

K

[michaelnotar]

i think i am going to separate my OS on on SATA drive in my computer and my personal shots on my other SATA drive also in my computer tower. i will place all my work images on a desktop array i think they are called..basically large multidisk HHDs set up in RAID 5 but maybe mirrored.

curious to know what other think of this system for stability or in general
would like to here from ksgkphoto.

[BillyGarrett]

Chris,

As for me, I store all my CD/DVD's in slim jewel cases vertical in used file cabinet drawers. I bought one 6 drawer filing cabinet at a auction for $5. I keep the file cabinet in a closet. You can store a lot of DVD'd there. The only thing that I had to do was make a small rack to keep all the disk vertical. And when I store them in the cabinet I place a divider into the rows to show when a month ends/starts. And as I see from previous post I see you use excell to store your info. I do the same, when I shoot an event I copy the pix to a DVD, name the DVD with the date that it was shot in reverse date order. The reverse date becomes my order #, and on my spreed sheet I imput that data as my contents for a master list of my photo inventory. My order looks like this year-month-day-client-#disk. And when I do a client search by name I can go to that or those disk for that person. Most photogs have thier own language when it come to filing thier work.

Here when I store my disk, they are basically stored by thier dates. Than on the front of the divider that I made to hold them I write the start and end of each row on that divider. And than I have on the cabinet drawer face a card that has what is in each drawer. So in the cabinet they are dust free (almost), and in a near controlled environment.

My racks are made from simple wood products. I went to my local home depot, purchased a few fir strips. 1/2"x1"x8'. cut some plywood into squares to match the jewel case covers and screwed the ends together using wood screws. did add a 3/4" difference to the top of the racks so that I can stack another rack on top of each other. As for the divders to seperate the months, I cut normal file dividers in half and made tabs on them.

Hope this helps you. I try hard not to keep too much stored on my HD, I try to get them off as soon as I can. For work that I am in the working phase of, I make a copy of my RAW work, than copy that onto a external HD and work off that. Keeping my main HD free from clutter.

billy g.