Here's my usual way of doing backups of photos. It might sounds too much but I have had hard disk failures in the past...
First, I download the photos to the computer then I do a copy of them to a remote USB2 hard disk so I always have 2 copies on hard drives. It is only after the photos have been transfered to the remote hard disk that I delete them from the memory cards.
Secondly, I do 2 backups on CDs. Why 2? Because I use two different CD brands in case one of them wasn't reliable. Burning photos into CDs manually can be time consuming: you have to figure out how many photos would fit onto each CD and trying to keep track of which photos you had copied onto what etc... Sooo I use a neat program called Archive Creator :D You can find it at http://www.rawworkflow.com/ArchiveCreator/Pages/AC-Main.html
This great program can estimate for you how many CDs you need and how many photos fit onto each CD, with an index of all photos on the first CD or at the beginning of each CD. It automatically creates a gallery in HTML format like here in the gallery: you get the thumbnail, a larger size AND the original size.
The best of all is it checks all photo byte by byte after the burning to be sure they have not been corrupted during the transfert. You would be surprised that a few time one or two photos get unreable on the CD, fortunately this program detects it.
After, I keep the two backups of CD in two different places.

I am currently burning onto CDs all photos taken in December. They represent 18 CDs then I have to do the same with another CD brand :p
There is a review of that program at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/archive-creator.shtml

Olly

Wow! sounds like a lot of work for sure, but, with all the beautiful pictures you take and the places you visit, I guess I'd go the extra mile too.

Great,

I have a whole shoebox full of archived photo CD's. Now you gave me something new to worry about :o Like you I also use the external USB drive as a secondary backup but it won't take long for that to get full.

Secondly, I do 2 backups on CDs. Why 2? Because I use two different CD brands in case one of them wasn't reliable.
Olly

I did lose some photos once because my hard drive crashed. I am a little more carefull now. I always try and back up to a CD before I delete the pics off the memory card. A reminder is a good thing.

I do 2 backups on CDs. Why 2? Because I use two different CD brands in case one of them wasn't reliable.


Very good thought!!I lost many photos because of a cd doesn't work now :(
I always back up to a cd before delete them of my camera,but i didn't think this case.

Sophia

I never thought of making two CD's. Thanks for the tip

I forgot to add: use two different brands that use different ways of making them. I do not have the link right now as I am in travel and borrowing my parents computer but there are several ways for producing CDs. One method might be better in the long term than the other etc. Also, there are brands that are in fact identical as the CDs come from the same manufactory so making two backups from them would be somewhat useless...

You can go to http://www.silverace.com/dottyspotty/issue12.html for more information while I find the right link.

Olly

DVDs are less reliable than CDs.
Currently, I am saving on two remote hard disks as with only one day I end with 1-2Gb of photos.

I download all photos to my hard drive then burn 2 copies on CD/DVD. I also upload them to my online gallery server & to my online lab - that way I have several different ways of accessing my photos from just about anywhere.

Robin

Some good information about CD and DVD storage can be found at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/contents.html
There is a lot to read there :)

If your CD or DVD can't be read, you might want to try this software:
http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster

Olly