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Digital technology is new. What if it fails? What happens to our digital wedding photos? How can we make or get
true "archival" copies of digital wedding
photos?
Today's digital photos stored on DVD or CD disks have an estimated life span similar to that of color negative film, the technology which preceded digital photos. They should last a number of years but not forever. The information that follows will tell you how to preserve this digital information over the long haul. Theoretically for centuries if you are motivated to keep following through. If you'd like us to do it for your, so it gets done! --- our fee is $650 for three sets which include duplicate hard drives, non volatile memory cards, and high quality discs.
Here is the basic answer: Store
extra copies of digital images or files in 2 or 3
different locations And every twenty years or
so...Re-copy your digital files again onto new
materials.
The process
described above is called a "best
practices solution."
Examples of why that concept is necessary: 1. Suppose you have digital files stored on CD & DVD disks, but a manufacturing defect causes them to fail in 2 years instead of 25? (It's happened.) 2. Suppose you have your digital photos stored on a hard drive, but the hard drive crashes or gets accidentally erased? (It's happened.) 3. Suppose you store your photos on your computer's hard drive AND backup disks. But a burglar steals the computer AND the backup disks. (It's happened.) 4. Suppose you store your photos on a computer, hard drives AND backup disks, but a flood or fire ruins them together? (It's happened.) 5. Suppose you store your personal photos on your WORK computer's hard drive, but you get laid off without notice and are denied access to your files? (It's happened.) 6. Suppose you store digital photos on camera memory cards, but the data becomes corrupted and un-readable? Or the card gets accidentally written over by new photos? (It's happened.) 7. Suppose you get smart and store your digital photos offsite, on a website designed for photo storage...but they suddently go out of business and you lose your photos. (It's happened.) 8. Suppose you store digital copies offsite on a storage site such as Carbonite.com (an excellent idea) but suppose they get bought out or go out of business? (Hasn't happened yet but you never know.) 9. Suppose North Korea or Iran explodes an Electromagnetic Pulse nuclear weapon in orbit above California? That will destroy data on hard drives, will overload local computers, and will shut down the internet. (Hasn't happened yet but this is a MAJOR MAJOR CONCERN among security experts!) Optical discs (CD & DVD) and photographic prints & albums are not affected by EMP (electromagnetic pulse.) USB & Secure Digital cards in a bank's safety deposit box or in a safe would also be OK. So once again, digital copies made onto several different media types, stored in several different locations, would survive.
Revenge of the Nerds Precautions like the above sound nerdy and paranoid, but are actually what governments and industry do every day to safeguard their digital files against floods, fires, theft, earthquakes, electromagnetic pulse attacks, accidental erasure, and mechanical failure of the storage media (i.e. defective discs, etc.) I've worked professionally in the Information Technology, Photographic and Hollywood motion picture industries. I've seen photo & data preservation skills perfected in all three areas. This article is the end result. A complete set of three multiple copies of your digital wedding photos in three media formats costs $650 if we do it for you. We'll be happy to make this happen if you're interested. Computer-savvy readers can probably take the above steps themselves for a little less. But you have to get around to it. That's the advantage of just paying us to do it for you. There is nothing secret about these "best in class" techniques which experts recommend -- I have revealed it all in this article. The problem isn't secrecy, but we get busy and don't really think these things could happen to us. Well, they could.
Media types Examples of three different media types as discussed above. 1. Portable USB self-powered hard drives 2. Optical (CD and DVD) discs, especially better-quality brands 3. Flash memory cards (either SD Secure Digital cards or USB memory cards.) Plus... 4. Web-based online digital backup storage such as Carbonite.com or Mozy.com The more different kinds of media you use to back up your digital photo files, the safer your data will be. Even if one type has a manufacturing defect and fails early, the others will not all fail at the same time. And by storing copies in more than one location, you'll protect against loss from burglars, fires, floods, or human error.
Feel free to
reproduce this article if you give author's credit
and include a link back to our wedding photography
website. Doug would appreciate an e-mail or phone
call to let us know.
Booking deposit $350.
Phone or e-mail Doug to confirm your date (see CONTACT link
at the bottom of the page.). |
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