There is an interesting article on the Scott Kelby blog about how photographers back up their images. One suggestion was that inexpensive USB flash drives should be used for each job, labeled and stored in plastic zip lock bags.
I never thought of USB flash drives working as long term storage. Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of the sustainability of images stored on a flash drive over a long period of time?
I'm curious, too. I have a friend that uses a flash drive instead of a DVD to provide wedding photos. Seems risky to me... especially because they can alter/erase the original.
This has been hit upon many times in the past few months.
Bottom line comes down to the fact that just about ANY 'long' term archival method will be obsolete before the data on said media dies. Meaning floppies are dead, CDs are 2-3 generations out of date, and USB3 is on the table with wireless in the works.
Point being that about every 10 years or so, you will have to move your data from the 'old' medium to the newest thing that will last the next 10 years.
As far as USB flash - it would have to depend on each users needs capabilities.
Can you fit a job on a flash card?
How do you catalog it (besides sharpie on the zip lock bag)?
Are they really that inexpensive compared to other media?
Personally, I go through 50-500GB per weekend - yes, up to half a TeraByte in a single weekend. I use removable hard drives that are now 12 cents per gigabyte and falling. USB flash is what:$2/Gb With a hard drive, I can store 2-10 entire shows, have less to catalog, less time to download/retrieve and less to store.
But again, it depends on ones needs and what process they want to keep up with in the end.
Hammy wrote:
Bottom line comes down to the fact that just about ANY 'long' term archival method will be obsolete before the data on said media dies.
Hammy.
What I am trying to find out is if the image will degrade/corrupt over time not the planned obsolescence of the media.
Yes, in some cases. I am an archivist by trade. Dyes fail, tapes crumble and flash is relatively new. Expense is based on your current needs and where you see yourself in the future. For a light user (amateur), I recommend DVDs understanding that you should re-archive to new media every 18 to 24 months. If you are a professional, I would recommend AIT 5, a tape library system. Retrospect express works wonders. The tapes hold almost a 100gigs at $54 a tape. The drives cost around $2200.
After moving from DLT to AIT four years ago, I have yet to have a failed image. I cannot say the same for DVD, CD or even DLTs.
Hard-drives are so cheap now that you can get a Nas box or RAID box (or even use your case if it has enough slots) and have a multi-disk system going. I would recommend dual-platter hard drives like the Seagate 640GB's. Put anywhere from 3-5 of them in RAID5 and you're good to go - plenty of room and a fail safe.
Nonetheless, I would still recommend having a DVD back up as well - you never know. Dual layer DVD's w/ 8GB capacity are getting cheaper.
For what it's worth though:
A couple of months ago, I lost about $7,000 worth of images due to a significant technical failure. Turns out, I had forgotten to reformat my CF cards - I had all the pictures on them sitting in the bag. It took me 2 weeks of stress and tears to realize it though, lol.
