Lots of us dads these days are snapping digital photos and taking tons of video. But how are we organizing and safeguarding this precious family data? Do you back up your digital photos and videos? Do you use offsite storage as well? How do we make sure that older photos and videos on formats being phased out (like digital video tape) are preserved as well? And what about things like blogs, tweets and Facebook posts? Are these just digital junk, or part of a family archive to be preserved?

Photos: I'm getting better at getting them to the computer to upload, and then off the computer onto an external drive. That's from fear of the sudden computer catastrophe I recently experienced at work, with a $5000 bill attached to it. But most of the data (archived print jobs) were saved, keeping my job from not sucking any additional amount.

However, I'm still quite the paranoid. As I often think, what happens if TheBoy gets a hold of said external drive, and drops, nay tosses, it to the floor? THOUSANDS of photos would be lost. Or what if it's stolen? I've even hidden the external when on vacation, so if we had a break in, they'd get the computer, but not my photos. Overkill? Perhaps. But the photos living on valuable easy to snag tech gear instead of in a big box or photo album(s) is a new problem for our generation. So I'm considering backing THAT up to another hard drive.

That persistance to archiving has come about because of the "elevated photography" business. I MUST keep that stuff at the ready if I really want this business to be successful. Much of these photos are uploaded to a SmugMug account, so those are archived "offsite." I need to be better about getting the "non-paying" photos moved there too. I do like them as an archiving/photography business website. Lots of features. Can be used for family sharing galleries too.

Film: I'm HORRIBLE about shooting and then capturing/editing video. I love to shoot. I love thinking of a shot, attempting it, and knowing I got it. I love the finished product. But all of those time sucking tasks in between drive me insane and I just don't wanna do 'em. So I have probably 20 miniDV tapes floating around my gear. Some are labeled as OK to tape over (as the editing of THAT footage has actually occurred), some are not labeled at all, which requires a double check every time I go to shoot, and some are labeled properly stating footage that has yet to see the light of a monitor. All of it is at risk of being lost or destroyed or deteriorating. And because of the poor labeling, IF I do want to shoot something, I usually just buy more tapes. It's a vicious self-induced cycle.

I am a firm believer that after I've produced the video, I need to ditch the tape footage. Tape over it or something. Otherwise it becomes another item to hoard, and we've all seen what that can lead to with the help of reality tv.

To Nick's Point...

I was searching around for a couple of video tapes that I KNEW I had from when we brought our oldest home from the hospital. I was inspired to import all my video to the computer to prevent data rot, but I couldn't remember what I'd done with the damn tapes. After tearing through the house, searching the closets, rifling through storage boxes at DadLabs, like a bolt, I remembered! In the cabinet under the TV. I found them. All four of them, carefully labeled. Hi8 tapes.

Anybody remember Hi8? Analog?

Welcome to data rot.

I'm taking them to a dub house for conversion. It'll cost $34/hr of footage.

If you have alot of these, there are devices that allow you to plug just about anything with RCA jacks into your computer. The "Dazzle DVD recorder" is one (about $50). That is assuming you still the Hi8 camera for playback.

The disadvantage: to capture 6 hours of tape, means 6 hours of playback... (Which is precisely why my editing duties have continually piled up. This part sucks.)

@nik

Unfortunately, that vidcam is long gone. A dazzle would be ideal if I had the player. It's the downside of being relentless cleaner outer and seller of old gear.

I feel you about watching the capture. I'm having to do it in little chunks.

Hey Daddy Clay -

Yes, I remember Hi-8. I also remember Digital 8. In fact, last year I had to buy a $500 Sony VTR to transfer that Digital 8 stuff. Man, what a truly bad idea Digital 8 was.

I transfer all my pictures and videos to my laptop then to a networked hard drive. I'm thinking I should get one of those tiny usb hard drives to back up everything and keep it somewhere else like a safe deposit box. I just wonder how often I would actually go to the bank, sync it up, and bring it back. I've also thought about some of those pay sites for data backup but I think the cheapest way is the external HD. One purchase and your set. It just requires more effort. I've become this paranoid because I've lost pics before. If you've done it too you know what I'm talking about.

A new form of data rot. Taking your Hi8 tapes to the photo store for digital conversion and completely forgetting about them. Does anybody call and tell you when things are ready anymore?

@bobjr79 I think Mozy gives you unlimited data backup for about $8/mo. So depending on what you spend on the drive, it could be competitive, but I guess you're locked in for life, in a way.

When I was turning off the lights last night at home, I had an old school cylon staring at me. BIggest difference is that these guys have up to 4TB of storage per unit, whereas the original cylons probably only had megabyte brains.

Here is a pic of my new sans digital external hard drive enclosures. I buy the drive and put it in the enclosure.

Right now I am using it in JBOD mode (just a bunch of drives), but it can also be a RAID.

I have been super happy with them. Quiet, sturdy, plug and play.

What is most important to me, having gone through over 30 external hard drives in the past few years, is that the plug on these is universal, meaning that if I lose it I can buy another with confidence.

The opposite is true if you get an external hard drive which first can have a non universal connector. If you lose the power supply, you are sunk. Or, we have multiple drives from the same vendor, and while all the power supplies have the same connector, their current delivery is a little different. An old one puts out 2 amps where a new one puts out 2.5 amps. Makes me nervous.
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Found another 'auto backup' set up...

www.gizmag.com/clickfree-auto-backup-network/13765/

Lots of solutions out there. I think the main thing is being diligent about it. Do it regularly!

I use a Mac and have "Time Machine" setup to back up on an external hard-drive automatically. Everything in my computer including photos, movies etc gets backed up.

The only thing I want to do is to be able to have 2 external drives and keep one in another location (Friend/Neighbor??) so if the house burns down I still have my files. I hear network back up services are not bad either.