Manzur Fahim
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone,
Hope you are well.
Just wanted to see how are you keeping your images / files safe? File corruption, malware problem, hard drive dying and so many other issues that can, in a moment, take away all the files you have. All that memories, gone in a second. I have lost my data once, though it wasn't super important, it was enough to make me paranoid about data backups. This is how I do it:
1. My first stage of backup happens in my camera. I always use two memory cards, and always in backup mode. So, that in case of one card failure, I will have another copy. I have had card fault happened 2-3 times so far, and those were some good brand cards. So, instead of trusting the card and the manufacturer, I trust having a second copy more. I use large capacity cards, and I do not format the card after every shoot. The photo stays in the memory card until the card is full, and then I switch to my second set of cards. Once the second set is full, I then format the first set and start using it. This is how I cycle through my memory cards, and the cards acts as backup until they get formatted.
2. I installed an enterprise grade hardware RAID controller in my PC. These controllers can heat up very easily, so I modified the heat-sink to accommodate a fan, which keeps it cool enough. I added 8 x 16TB enterprise grade hard drives (Not desktop or NAS drives), configured them in RAID6, so it can still be operational if up to two drive fails. I have additional hard drives which I can use to replace a faulty drive when it happens, and it will start rebuild. This is my main storage, this is where I copy the files from memory cards.
3. First of every month, I do a backup of all my photos and catalogs to an external RAID0 drive. I know that RAID0 is not giving me any drive protection, but this is there so that I can backup files faster than a normal external drive. Currently I have about 18TBs of files, and backup to RAID0 drive takes around 14 hours.
4. 10th of every month, I initiate a backup to another set of external drives. One drive goes to my sisters place after the backup is complete, and I switch it with another drive next month.
5. 20th of every month, I backup the most recent 4TB files to 2 x 4TB SSDs in RAID1.
6. Some important photos and shoots, I also backup to cloud, where I have 4TB storage.
24th of every month, the RAID controller does a petrol read, which scans all my drives to check for physical errors. 26th of every month, the RAID controller does a file consistency check to make sure everything is ok. These are just maintenances I do to make sure that everything is working well. These tasks are scheduled in the controller software, so they are automated.
I set reminders on my phone, so I know when a backup task is due. I do not do automation when backing up, so I choose what to backup and where, and since backup drives are always offline, I have to power them on manually. The least amount of time my backup drives are online, the better.
My website serves as a backup too, but just for jpeg files.
I am very interested to know how you do your backups.
Hope you are well.
Just wanted to see how are you keeping your images / files safe? File corruption, malware problem, hard drive dying and so many other issues that can, in a moment, take away all the files you have. All that memories, gone in a second. I have lost my data once, though it wasn't super important, it was enough to make me paranoid about data backups. This is how I do it:
1. My first stage of backup happens in my camera. I always use two memory cards, and always in backup mode. So, that in case of one card failure, I will have another copy. I have had card fault happened 2-3 times so far, and those were some good brand cards. So, instead of trusting the card and the manufacturer, I trust having a second copy more. I use large capacity cards, and I do not format the card after every shoot. The photo stays in the memory card until the card is full, and then I switch to my second set of cards. Once the second set is full, I then format the first set and start using it. This is how I cycle through my memory cards, and the cards acts as backup until they get formatted.
2. I installed an enterprise grade hardware RAID controller in my PC. These controllers can heat up very easily, so I modified the heat-sink to accommodate a fan, which keeps it cool enough. I added 8 x 16TB enterprise grade hard drives (Not desktop or NAS drives), configured them in RAID6, so it can still be operational if up to two drive fails. I have additional hard drives which I can use to replace a faulty drive when it happens, and it will start rebuild. This is my main storage, this is where I copy the files from memory cards.
3. First of every month, I do a backup of all my photos and catalogs to an external RAID0 drive. I know that RAID0 is not giving me any drive protection, but this is there so that I can backup files faster than a normal external drive. Currently I have about 18TBs of files, and backup to RAID0 drive takes around 14 hours.
4. 10th of every month, I initiate a backup to another set of external drives. One drive goes to my sisters place after the backup is complete, and I switch it with another drive next month.
5. 20th of every month, I backup the most recent 4TB files to 2 x 4TB SSDs in RAID1.
6. Some important photos and shoots, I also backup to cloud, where I have 4TB storage.
24th of every month, the RAID controller does a petrol read, which scans all my drives to check for physical errors. 26th of every month, the RAID controller does a file consistency check to make sure everything is ok. These are just maintenances I do to make sure that everything is working well. These tasks are scheduled in the controller software, so they are automated.
I set reminders on my phone, so I know when a backup task is due. I do not do automation when backing up, so I choose what to backup and where, and since backup drives are always offline, I have to power them on manually. The least amount of time my backup drives are online, the better.
My website serves as a backup too, but just for jpeg files.
I am very interested to know how you do your backups.