Span projects across DVD

Has anyone come up with a solution for backing up projects to optical media? I can make it work with small projects (DVD-sized or smaller) but anything larger than one disk becomes problematic, since I can't both preserve the project file integrity and span across multiple disks in a filesystem-readable format. Most of my projects, as I suspect yours are too, are more like 10-20 gigs.

g5 2.0DP (first gen) 4.5G RAM, x800 vidcard, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Jan 24, 2006 6:33 AM

20 replies

Mar 18, 2006 3:40 PM in response to kgelner

Ok, I can backup projects on DVDs, but how can I finde later a photo, how do you catalog these DVDs, if you don't want to keep all the old projects in the library?
Is there a software to catalog the backup DVDs with Aperture projects and metadata?

JO

kgelner

Level 4

1,205 points

Mar 19, 2006 12:59 AM in response to Joachim Frey

Ok, I can backup projects on DVDs, but how can I
finde later a photo, how do you catalog these DVDs,
if you don't want to keep all the old projects in the
library?
Is there a software to catalog the backup DVDs with
Aperture projects and metadata?

If you look for older messages dealing with "archive", you can find the current known approach - basically after a project export you leave it in Aperture, but go inside the library and remove the master files. Aperture will still let you search and view large thumbnails of images in the old project.

There is currently no way to track what DVD an archive is on, though you could make a folder named the same as the DVD the project is on and move the "offline" project into that to know where it is at.

ultratim

Level 1

0 points

Mar 19, 2006 1:17 PM in response to Charles Bandes

Dot-Mac's Backup app will easily backup Aperture libraries across as many DVDs as needed.

Backup alone is well worth the $100 .mac subscription.

Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Mar 20, 2006 7:40 AM in response to kgelner

My dilemma is that I would like to both preserve my Aperture data (metadata, versions, etc) and make my backup dvd readable by iView.

In order to achieve both of these things, I need to either:

a) Keep my exported project to 4.4 gigs or smaller (impractical)
b) De-package my exported project prior to backup

Impression will happily span disks, but in the process it breaks the project file into multiple unreadable chunks, which need to be reassembled before they are usable. (So, iView can't do anything useful with the DVDs.) Of course if I de-package, Impression will span in a readable way, but I am leery of re-packaging post-span.

Certainly I could go to a HD-based backup scheme, but I really don't trust HDs for longterm storage, I have had far too many fail on me. I find tape and optical media much more reliable.

miriedel

Level 1

0 points

Mar 20, 2006 9:40 AM in response to Charles Bandes

There's a new app out that might work see:
http://www.completedigitalphotography.com/?p=417

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Span projects across DVD