Software to backup pictures with recompression

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Tom - 30 Apr 2006 15:53 GMT

Hi,

I am looking to backup my digital pictures to my FTP/web space online.
However, I have more than 4 Gb of pictures, most of my pictures are taken at
2 or3 mega pixels, so the individual files are quite large. What I would
like to do is recompress all the pictures to a lower resolution (say
800x600) before the backup, so the size is much smaller.

This way, I can achieve backup and still at least have the pictures viewable
at screen quality in case my PC fails.

Does anybody know a tool/utility, able to do batch processing/recompression
of pictures, and also able to work accross sub-folders automatically?

Thanks,
Tom

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Jørn Dahl-Stamnes - 30 Apr 2006 16:26 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> processing/recompression of pictures, and also able to work accross
> sub-folders automatically?

I suggest that you forget this idea. What is the point of backing up a
degraded quality of your pictures? If your HD crash, you will NEVER get
your original pictures back.

4 Gb is not much. You can make a backup of all your pictures on one DVD.

I got 80 Gb of pictures (~ 3 years). I use both DVD and DLT for backuping up
my pictures.

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Jørn Dahl-Stamnes
http://www.dahl-stamnes.net/Foto/

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Rita Ä Berkowitz - 30 Apr 2006 19:40 GMT

> I got 80 Gb of pictures (~ 3 years). I use both DVD and DLT for
> backuping up my pictures.

While I agree that DVD is a great cheap backup for everyday needs for the
basic user, a DLT and AIT drive is not only slow, but also can be more
problematic and less reliable due to premature tape failure. This is why we
totally abandoned ours to use U320 SCSI drives for our backup media of
choice. They are extremely fast, reliable, and very inexpensive.

Rita

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Jørn Dahl-Stamnes - 30 Apr 2006 21:00 GMT

>> I got 80 Gb of pictures (~ 3 years). I use both DVD and DLT for
>> backuping up my pictures.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> we totally abandoned ours to use U320 SCSI drives for our backup media of
> choice. They are extremely fast, reliable, and very inexpensive.

DVDs don't offer that long life-time as DLT. And I have never had any
problems with premature tape failure or any other failure.

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Jørn Dahl-Stamnes
http://www.dahl-stamnes.net/Foto/

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Rita Ä Berkowitz - 30 Apr 2006 21:19 GMT

> DVDs don't offer that long life-time as DLT. And I have never had any
> problems with premature tape failure or any other failure.

Yep, DVDs are great for general purpose backups that you have enough sets of
that if a few fail you will have already covered your butt. As for tape,
you generally don't *KNOW* that you have a problem till you have to restore
a catastrophic failure. Been there done that and seen it happen too many
times were people have backed up religiously and rotated older tapes out of
the stream. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have several redundant backup
copies when using tape. It's all in how much you value your data.

Rita

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Rudy Benner - 30 Apr 2006 16:34 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> Thanks,
> Tom

A better approach is to backup to CDs or DVDs, even make more than one copy.
I put each day's work on a CD or more than one CD, then consolidate a week's
work on a DVD.

Servers crash. I have had to upload my backup files to my server more than
several times.

Keep the original files.

That is my opinion.

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Tom - 30 Apr 2006 17:41 GMT

Thanks, I am backing-up my PC files to DVDs, but I also like to have an
online backup (encrypted), in case there is a fire at home for example. I
know I could have the DVDs offsite also, but it's more maintenance and DVDs
are not necessarily reliable anyway.

The internet provider where my website is hosted is very reliable.

>> Hi,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
>
> That is my opinion.

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Jørn Dahl-Stamnes - 30 Apr 2006 21:01 GMT

> Thanks, I am backing-up my PC files to DVDs, but I also like to have an
> online backup (encrypted), in case there is a fire at home for example. I
> know I could have the DVDs offsite also, but it's more maintenance and
> DVDs are not necessarily reliable anyway.
>
> The internet provider where my website is hosted is very reliable.

Keep a copy of the DVD at some friends or rent a safty deposit box at your
local bank (which I do). You could keep a copy at work too.

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Jørn Dahl-Stamnes
http://www.dahl-stamnes.net/Foto/

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Marvin - 30 Apr 2006 16:52 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Thanks,
> Tom

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jimbok - 30 Apr 2006 20:29 GMT

>Does anybody know a tool/utility, able to do batch processing/recompression
>of pictures, and also able to work accross sub-folders automatically?

Irfanview, freeware, will allow you to batch resize to virtually any
size you want. It will also allow you to use options to sharpen,
lighten, etc. during the process. It can also work across
subfolders.
www.irfanview.com

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jimbok

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