How do you back up?

Question

Hello,
Here is what I have: a dual 1.8 with a Granite Digital 1.6TB RAID 5 tower. This acts as the server. Connecting to it is a Dual 2.7 via giga-bit and a laptop wirelessly. All RAW files are on the RAID 5. We shoot primarily weddings with two photographers and average about 1,200 RAW files. How is anyone backing up 1,200 RAW files? Will Aperture allow me to successfully do this? Why do I say successfully? Neither computer will burn a readable DVD of the RAW files. If I use finder, I will have one image repeating itself over and over instead of 1,200 different files. If I use Toast, I get a hit or miss of corrupt files. Sometimes Photoshop will open one, sometimes it won’t, but then Bibble may open it and so on. I tried iView, which offers a backup CD option but then doesn’t display the blank DVD in the dialog box to choose from. So how do I back these files up?
For what it is worth, the Dual 2.7 spent 6-weeks in the shop and they can find nothing wrong with it. I have a case with Apple, but haven’t heard from them in weeks. I can repeat the issue on either machine (dual 1.8 or 2.7) with ease (RAW or JPEGs). Apple even sent a program to record what was going on when I was doing this but again, mum from them.
Which brings me back to my original question: I have several weddings that reside on the RAID 5. I want to back them up to discs (I know tape would be better but I am not there yet). Will Aperture easily and successfully accomplish this? If not Aperture, Capture One? And if anyone can tell me why Toast or Finder can’t, that would be even better!
Thanks for any help,
Mike
G5 D2.7, D1.8, 1.2 iBook   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

Answer 1

Hello Charles,
So far as anyone can tell me, it appears that
Aperture has no facility for backing up to optical
media. ...
depends of how much fear you have?
The closest I have been able to come is to
export a project and then span it across multiple
DVDs, ...
my current procedings maturing aperture:
remember i am the one amongst others, heavily linking files and directories from the commandline. =:-)f
so i burned a cdrom from a small project, with standard finder methods -
created a burn-folder on the desktop.
open finder, goto 'Aperture Library',
ctrl-click the Aperture Libary 'thing' in the finder and
drag it to the burn-folder on desktop. burning.
i've had no luck, with linking the mounted cd to a folder within the library.
but once i copied the burned 'sample.approject' to a folder within the library,
i 'recvoverd' the newly inserted data to the datadase, when aperture starts next time. this all works for me.
my recommendations for modifications to a proper workflow:
? my test is somehow screwed up, so i cannot tell it for sure:
aperture even accepted the identical 'sample' project-names
each located in a seperate folder. but steps to produce this were not
reliable ( i have to redo with correct order)
so
- rename the 'sample.approject' to something meaningful like 'sample2.approject' within the burn-folder, before actually burning the disc,
would be a better solution.
So btw, i am pretty much suprised by the easei did that, so i can imagine aperture will give us build-in capabilities to archive to cd or dvd, sometimes in the future.
and last but maybe not least:
iview can be pointed to the created cd/dvd, quite the same you did before.
anybody will complain about the speed, will you?
cheers
=:-)f