When recently on vacation in St. Augustine, FL, I was fortunate enough to have a computer available to use for backing up my data regularly. I was there for 3 days and each day I made a CD to save images on so my flash cards would be readily available every day.
Here was my procedure:
1. Insert card/reader into USB
2. Copy contents to desktop
3. Remove card/reader from USB
4. Burn desktop contents to CD
5. Delete desktop contents (public computer)
6. Verify CD readable
7. Delete files off CF card.
This all sounds well and good, right? I returned home last night and naturally was excited to start sifting through my images for the "keepers". Two of the CD's copied over to my images drive flawlessly. The 3rd, however, copied about 2/3rds of it's data over before the remaining third started reporting Cyclic Redundancy Check errors (CRC errors = bad/corrupted data) on the CD.
Assuming the worst (that these images are the keepers - although I can't even view thumbnails to verify them), I am now in the recovery phase using a third party software solution to recover the data off this CD that was apparently corrupted during the read/write session. It's only about 20 images, but in principle, a stress-inducing and time-consuming process.
The software I am using takes about 30 minutes per image. I recovered two successfully last night prior to calling it a night. I started a 3rd this morning, and will likely be able to get another 2 or 3 done before having a social obligation tonight.
So, it seems a step 8 is now in order for those backing up to optical media: verify that the content is not only readable, but accessible after backup before clearing out flash media, preferably on a different computer than the one you used to create the backup.
Or you can opt for an image tank perhaps. Those devices will do a verified card-copy onto laptop HD so you'll be reasonably sure it's safe on HD. It will take a lot of work out of the equation and because it involves less steps.
On the other hand, if you produce about a CD-R per day, then you can also buy, say, 4 GB worth of CF cards, 4x1 or 2x2, for way less than an image tank. 4 GB equates to about 6 days. The price per gigabyte in the €/US$ 10-13 range nowadays.
Thanks for the ideas. God-willing, I will have a Macbook Pro by the end of the summer. For the time being though I do have 4 GB worth of storage in the form of one 2 gig card and 2 one gig cards, but had neglected to take the 2 single gig cards with me. Since we were on a tourist-type weekend, I didn't think I would take that many shots on a 3 day trip of basically sight-seeing and hanging out at the beach and pool.
This is definitely not my usual method of backing up data for a variety of reasons. Rather, this post was made to provide a little amusement /diversion for those that have had similar experiences, as well as to offer a little insight on the added benefits of verifying both readability and accessibility prior to file deletion on flash media.
