Charles, All out backup strategies are only as good as the operators, US. Your problem is a common one and I'm sorry to hear about it. We should all remember to read our backup files on occasion, just to check. Regards, Bob S.
On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 11:48 AM, Godfrey DiGiorgi <godd...@mac.com> wrote: > That's really sad, Charles. It's the sort of thing I worry about and have > worked hard to make sure never happens. > > I never delete any photographs off my working drive until I am certain I > have at least two verified backups on external storage, preferably three. > > I use Time Machine's backup onto a 1T drive primarily as my running backup > of day to day things. > > For the photo archives, I have a pair of 2T RAIDs that I synchronize with > the primary system using ChronoSync .. $30 from > http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/ChronoSync/chrono_overview.html > It is a very configurable and easy to use synchronization utility. I have it > email me back an explicit log of everything that it did when it runs the > daily synchronizations, which I review afterwards to be certain. > > I strongly recommend building a backup system like this for your > photographs. High capacity disk storage systems are so inexpensive nowadays > ... Buy TWO big drives and write the same backup to each using software to > make it consistent. Set it to run every day, at least, automatically. The > risk of making errors and losing stuff is greatly reduced when you build an > automated system to do the job. And maintain it with frequent inspection. > > Godfrey > > > On Jan 1, 2009, at 9:08 AM, Charles Robinson wrote: > >> I fumbled my backup routine.... and now it's too late. >> >> Normally, each month of images is in a separate folder on my harddrive. >> As space gets tight, I backup the folder to three different locations: A >> "disk image" out on an external harddrive, and two different DVD backups >> (one folder of discs at home, the other at work). >> >> Earlier this year, I did some of this shuffling while at work (my first >> mistake) and I lost focus. I created a blank disk image to put all of the >> images into... and then got distracted. Seeing that I had the disk image >> out on the external harddrive, I burned DVD copies of that image and filed >> them. >> >> I had, however, neglected a key step - putting any files into that disk >> image. >> >> (Those of you with Macs know there are two ways to go about making a disk >> image - either an empty "CD/DVD Master" into which you can drop things, or >> "create disk image from folder". For the life of me I don't know why I >> didn't do it the last way - disk image from folder - as that would have >> copied everything in there as part of the creation). >> >> Well, fast-forward to yesterday when I'm poking through my Lightroom >> library. Lightroom thought that my 2008_May images were still on the >> harddrive (they were not) so I went to tell LR that the images were now on >> this disk over here.... but that disk image was empty. In a stunning >> triple oversight, the two DVD images were perfect duplicates of the empty >> disc image. >> >> My Time Machine backups only go back to early November - which is long >> after I nuked the directory from my harddrive. SO! The only images I have >> from my daughter's wedding (and countless other events) are the ones I have >> put online. I'm disappointed and angry and mad and have nowhere to direct >> that energy. >> >> This is just a tale of caution. Be consistent. Check your backups. Make >> sure you really know what you have where. (sigh). I just had to tell >> someone who might understand just how disappointing this all is to me. >> >> -Charles > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
