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January 1, 2008
Summary
Formerly senior product manager of Kodak’s online photo-sharing service, www.kodakgallery.com, Sean O. Malone talked recently with us about affordable backup and storage options for digital photo and media collections.
In This Article
Q: What’s the best way to protect a large and growing collection of digital photos?
A: I don’t think there’s one great, single-point solution yet. Hard drives are the most accessible and manageable storage option, but they are not designed for longevity. You can expect a hard drive to start falling apart within three to five years, so you’ll need to migrate your collection to a new drive every few years.
A: I don’t think there’s one great, single-point solution yet. Hard drives are the most accessible and manageable storage option, but they are not designed for longevity. You can expect a hard drive to start falling apart within three to five years, so you’ll need to migrate your collection to a new drive every few years.
Q: What about optical storage?
A: For most people, CDs or DVDs are an inexpensive and efficient archive solution, although they’re slower and less versatile than hard drives. You can simply create a new set of archive CDs or DVDs every few months. Keep one copy for yourself, store another with a friend or relative, and maybe even keep a third copy in a safety deposit box.
A: For most people, CDs or DVDs are an inexpensive and efficient archive solution, although they’re slower and less versatile than hard drives. You can simply create a new set of archive CDs or DVDs every few months. Keep one copy for yourself, store another with a friend or relative, and maybe even keep a third copy in a safety deposit box.
Q: Are some types of CDs (or DVDs) more suitable for long-term storage than others?
A: Write-only CDs and DVDs are more stable than read-write media, but it’s harder to keep your archives updated. Gold-coated Kodak CD-R Ultima Media CDs are the most durable, stable CDs for long-term storage. The most comprehensive testing ever performed indicated that these CDs can last in excess of 100 years.
A: Write-only CDs and DVDs are more stable than read-write media, but it’s harder to keep your archives updated. Gold-coated Kodak CD-R Ultima Media CDs are the most durable, stable CDs for long-term storage. The most comprehensive testing ever performed indicated that these CDs can last in excess of 100 years.
Q: Are there higher-level storage solutions that an average consumer could use?
A: I use a redundant hard drive system in a RAID 1 (redundant array of independent disks) configuration. When you buy your next PC, you can get two hard drives and a RAID controller for not much more than the cost of the usual single-drive configuration. Or, you can have your dealer install a RAID configuration on your existing PC. You’ll be able to “mirror” your stored data across multiple drives, so if one drive fails without warning, the data is still safe on another drive. Simply replace the bad drive and the RAID automatically “repairs” itself, replicating the data to the new drive. Some RAID configurations even have notification systems that send you an email if they detect problems beginning on one of the hard drives.
Of course, this doesn’t help much if there’s a fire and the drives go up with the house. That’s where online backup comes in handy. There are a number of online services, each with different strengths and weaknesses—most are pretty consumer-friendly, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find one that meets your needs. But consider this as a backup and not as your primary archive. If the site suddenly goes out of business, your archive is gone.
Bottom Line: The key is backup. Combine two or three backup options—multiple CDs, RAID or detachable hard drives, online vaults—and your collection stands an excellent chance of lasting forever.
A: I use a redundant hard drive system in a RAID 1 (redundant array of independent disks) configuration. When you buy your next PC, you can get two hard drives and a RAID controller for not much more than the cost of the usual single-drive configuration. Or, you can have your dealer install a RAID configuration on your existing PC. You’ll be able to “mirror” your stored data across multiple drives, so if one drive fails without warning, the data is still safe on another drive. Simply replace the bad drive and the RAID automatically “repairs” itself, replicating the data to the new drive. Some RAID configurations even have notification systems that send you an email if they detect problems beginning on one of the hard drives.
Of course, this doesn’t help much if there’s a fire and the drives go up with the house. That’s where online backup comes in handy. There are a number of online services, each with different strengths and weaknesses—most are pretty consumer-friendly, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find one that meets your needs. But consider this as a backup and not as your primary archive. If the site suddenly goes out of business, your archive is gone.
Bottom Line: The key is backup. Combine two or three backup options—multiple CDs, RAID or detachable hard drives, online vaults—and your collection stands an excellent chance of lasting forever.