Lexar storage tips

I`m very concerned about long term storage. I hate digital for this reason. Two

days ago I suffered another terrible fright after downloading a card full of

unrepeatable images (somekind of Windows failure). The archives looks to be

correctly recorded on my detachable HDD, but were corrupted. I did`t notice it until

I tried to open them later. Thanks God I like to use several cards in order to switch

betweem them to avoid this kind of fatal consecuences.

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Well, the tips are <a

href="http://www.lexar.com/dp/tips_lessons/kames_protect.html">here</a>...

what a pain !

Interesting, I by far prefer digital because I can have multiple identical copies of the original.

 

I always make copies onto multiple hard drives before formatting my memory cards. Typically a corrupted (image) file cannot be copied from one hard drive to another. But always make a few spot checks after you copy.

You sound, Jose, like exactly the guy Nikon had in mind when they built the D3

(which can write the same files to two CF cards simultaneously).

 

I never re-format a CF card (that I care about) until I'm sure I've got the files in at

least two places. Like Shun, I actually like the fact that I can have pefect copies of

my "negatives" in difference zip codes, safe and sound. Plenty of bad things can

happen to a film canister or an envelope of negatives

YES YES & YES.

 

Notice he says after two other locations are established, he reformats the card in camera.

The key work is reformat, not erase. Step 8

I agree that digital have solved many film problems (duplication, copying, processing, etc.), even almost all film problems. That`s great. I`m just bored of making and checking HDD, CD, DVD copies... of hundreds and hundreds of images. Only to select the best images bores me... I`m too lazy, I think I need to use more efficient procedures.

During the film days, black & white negatives have a long life, with color the dyes in

the negative or transparency can fade and both can be a food source for mold as

well as a nice place to gather dust. Black & white prints printed in a chemical

darkroom can last a long time especially with a selenium solution applied to the

print. Color prints can fade.

 

Then you can have a flood, fire or an alien take you and your stuff somewhere,

maybe where superman lives.

 

Redundancy can help, but

 

Nothing is forever.

It is not all that difficult to write some software to verify that each file compied is fine. I am sure that such software is already widely available.

 

A few years ago, I went to a seminar by the late wedding photographer Monte Zucker. He mentioned that there was once a fire in his studio because of some electrical problems. It burned down the place and took the negatives from some 21 weddings with it, before he had a chance to make any prints from those negatives.

 

In my house there are a few binders full of negatives and several boxes of slides. They are fairly safe but I feel far more comfortable with the digital images on my many hard drivers. Except for the images I shot recently, I have a full set of duplicates at my parents' house, but I can't create exact duplicates of the slides.

Bill nailed it. Nothing is forever.

 

No matter how many backups, redundant hard drives, (an EMP can certainly trash them all at once, and frankly, they used to last longer, imho) cds, dvds (they have a limited shelf life) or copies and duplicates you may have, there is simply no guarantee that you won't lost something precious every now and then.

 

Of coure, backup, duplicate, copy, minimize your losses, and learn to live with them when they happen. Surely there will be more unrepeateable images in your future.

 

Days lost lamenting lost days.