Image Backup Difficulties - HELP!!

[Scotchy]

Hello all! My first post on CiC - bear with me if it's amateur, lol. Back when I used a P&S camera, I used to use a NERO program to back up those images to a CD-R/RW with no problem. Since getting a DSLR (D90) roughly 2 years ago, I can no longer use the program to burn to a DVD-R/RW or a CD. It will not let me. It will attempt to burn, go through the motions and say it completed properly but nothing is on the disc. It is FRUSTRATING to say the least and scary to think my only back up is transferring my images to my laptop. The program I have on my computer is NERO Express 6 (1995-2004). I also have NERO Express Essentials. I have toyed with the idea of uninstalling the NERO entirely and get a different software program to back images up to a DVD, then getting an external hard drive to clear my computer and free up some space. My Photoshop Elements 7 has begun to crash and I wonder if there are just too many images on my computer’s hard drive and that’s the cause.
In essence my questions are:
1) Could these NERO programs be too old to back up images from a DSLR?
2) If not, any ideas what the problem is?
3) What software programs do you use/recommend to back your images up to a DVD?
4) What other back up options are there?
5) Could the reason my Elements has begun to crash be a result of so many images on my drive?
Sorry for the lengthiness of this post, but I do appreciate any and all info/help given!

[Geoff F]

I think the simple answer to these questions, Jennifer, is 'Yes possibly'.

At one time, I used Nero, I think it was version 5 or 6 and I liked the software. But my version wouldn't write DVD just CD so I ditched it for a simple free Ashampoo model which has done everything that I want. Never tried anything fancy with it and the newer options all seem so complicated for what I want to do.

How big are your individual files? some older software and computers struggle with the massive file sizes of modern cameras. Particularly if you have multiple layers and/or save as a Tiff or similar format.

Hard drives which are overloaded with photos and operating software often grind to a halt when the machinery needs a 'breather'.

Is your computer registry choked up with old information which isn't necessary? I use a Registry organiser software occasionally to sort out all the old and unwanted stuff.

When did you last do a disc defragment? File information easily gets scattered and takes extra time to recover when you open or save a file.

For safety, I burn everything to DVDs plus use an external drive for storage. This drive works as my main storage area and the DVDs are just in case. Hard drives will eventually fail.

Just one other thought, are you using exactly the same discs? I have found some versions which do exactly as you describe. They appear to burn but nothing gets written

[whited3]

Jennifer,

Two solutions for you.

Get yourself an external USB drive and use MS Sync toy (freeware) to back up to.
Freestudio (also freeware) comes with a suite of tools that include CD and DVD burning.

Cheers,

Mark

[John Morton]

One issue I have come across using Nero 6 is that, if I have a TIFF which has been converted to a LAB color space, the program just doesn't seem to want to work! I had a lot of issues trying to burn discs, until I realized what was wrong; and now, if I can't get a disc to burn, I go through the files I'm trying to save and sure enough I seem to find a file or two that I converted into LAB color space during my workflow but didn't convert back into RGB color space.

So the short answer is yes, Nero can have problems with file types it does not recognize.

[Manfred M]

I would caution you on using DVDs as a backup medium. These are not generally meant as a medium for permanent storage and your off the shelf DVDs can become unreadable in as little as a year. There are some DVDs that are designed for archival use and are less likely to become unreadable.

Right now, the only company that makes a disk that I might consider is Millenniata; but I am waiting for them to come out with a Blu-Ray version before I jump to that technology. DVDs are too small for the massive amounts of images and videos I Currently I use external backup using RAID or similar technology, on top of the copy on my computer.

http://millenniata.com/

[davidedric]

Definitely get one, or even two, external hard drives. Even Terabyte drives are cheap nowadays, and that's an awful lot of DVD's!

You can get specialist back-up software (I happen to use Norton Back Up and Restore, which came with the computer). The advantage is that these will normally back up incrementally (i.e. only changes) so they are quite quick. The downside is that you don't actually get to know whether the restore works until you actually have to try it. (A lifetime of working in IT has made me a bit paranoid).

An alternative is just to copy your photos over en masse every so often. Yes, it will take time but you can leave it churning away overnight, or something. That way you can really see the saved images.

I also have RAID (mirrored) disks on my PC, for extra security.

Dave

[Scotchy]

Thank you all for your time on this. Each idea and suggestion has been helpful! I have tried some of your suggestions and can tell that my PSE 7 is freezing up less frequently. Once I get into the city, I will be purchasing an external HD as back up to the DVD's. It seems I can burn a DVD in my organizer of PSE 7 and will try that. It's a never ending search to find the best way to keep our images forever, isn't it!? I can't say my issues are cleared up entirely, but am glad to have new avenues to explore and try to remedy them. -J

[Geoff F]

Just a couple more thoughts about freeing up your hard drive.

Have you used the Drive Clean Up tool recently. Location and operation may vary but mine is under the System Tools option. Also, if you use the same computer for internet use, do you have a regular Cookies blitz.

I usually clear out all this stuff weekly to prevent any conflict between stored information which isn't of any current use.

[jcuknz]

If you are using Windows then the external hard drive is simply another source to transfer files to. Even W7 which my wife has, and I hate being an XP person, it is quite simple to transfer a copy of a file to the external source [that HD you aim to buy] ... or whole blocks of files. You just select the files to be transferred and drag one of them across to the HD source, and the others go with it. There is no need of any 'special' programme to do this as Windows has it all ready for you to use.

I gave up using CDs for storage ages ago after I found some CDs just didn't retrieve. I guess the ideal is to have two external HDs if your material is commercially valuable ... i have had a HD failure though that was my own fault and fortunately I had backup on another computer's HD.