i have to do a project about WHAT ALTERNATIVE AND how to backup the captured pic from CCTV system

now, i know (just a little bit) only 2 systems
1. burn into dvd
2. transfer to remote server via ftp

can anyone give me more alternatives and details please

-anyone know how long can 1 dvd backup the captured pic? (after compress it) because to use 120 gb hdd, you can record pic for 1 weeks. then, do i have to use 20 DVD!!!!! to backup all the data in 1 week?

-how much does it cost me, if i want to backup by using remote server?
(i think i have to pay $20 for 5gb storage per month. so, if i want ti backup all my 120gb data, don't i have to pay the website 480 per month!!!!! ?????)

anyone have any idea, please share. i am in trouble, noe T-T

I would recommend just adding a 2nd or 3rd hard drive to your computer.. You can get a 200gig on ubid for $130.00.. Add two of those to your computer.

1-USB Flash - No Moving Part - works just as an extra drive.
2-External USB Hard Drive - That will give you as much as a HD can give.
3-Any FiRE wire / USB enabled external storage device.
4-Removeable Hard Drive Case.
5-RAID Storage

US Modular QuikDisk+ 2.2GB USB Flash Drive
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=166307

ADS Dual Link Drive Kit with USB 2.0 and Firewire Interface
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=524656&Sku=A03-7036&CatId=1204

Sony 130GB AIT2 Internal SCSI Tape Drive
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=709404&Sku=S167-3312&CatId=291

Certance CL400 - 400GB LT02 Ultrium 2 LVD SCSI External Tape Drive
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=36846&Sku=C203-1224&CatId=291

Certance CLL 3200 Ultrium 2 Autoloader Rackmount
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=37000&Sku=C203-1228&CatId=291

Pinnacle ShowCenter Ethernet Digital Media Center - PCTV
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=715163&Sku=P121-8054&CatId=942

I am recording pictures on a computer with GEO600 card, and a 250gb hdd, at the rate of about 2gb per day, and I want to backup this data daily, to a USB external hard drive, also 250gb capacity. With approperate software, how would this backup procedure work? Thank you.

Thank you for your reply. We have been equipping the mentioned computer/recorders with three (3) 120gb hdd. When hdd #1 fills up, the system goes to hdd#2, and then to hdd #3. We were thinking of using only one (1) 250gb drive, and a backup "system" equipped with a 250gb hdd. How would this work if we used 1 main hdd, and then used another like size for the backup. The bank requires that we have a minimum of 5 to 6 months archived data available at any given time. Thank you.

DVRaustralia should be able to help you more in this area, he deals with GEO vision cards. The DVRs I use are different and have archiving options like Digital Archiving add ons, SCSI, RAID, TAPE, etc. selected by menu in the DVR's Eprom programming.

GEO should have an archiving feature, to select where you want the data to archive to. You could use a USB2 External Hard Drive Bay and put in your own hard drive. Select that drive as the archive location, sometimes it will be something like drive F, depends on the device you will use.

Acrually, for you to cover your ass, do what I do.

Plug in a ATI video Card, with TV/OUT, and get a time-lapse VCR to make VHS tapes of the digital images. It's old school, but hey, at least there's the backup that they require.

Yep, even using the standalone DVR we have to make standard tapes using a TV with VCR for the courts here, as they dont have computers nor know what one even looks like!

It is very simple... you have four choices..

1/ Add a removable drive bay of the same size and manually ..once a month or whenever the drive gets full... run the Geo Backup program and back it up to this drive and remove it form the machine.

2/ Add a rmovable drive bay of the same size, use the windows back up program or a third party program, browse to the folders you wish to back up (the events) and tell the softwrae when you want them to be automatically backed up.

3/ Add two more HDD's of the same size and a Raid controller (if not already built into a machine), set your raid level for striping raid and then you have the data spread over three drives, this is great because if one of the drives dies then you can get its info back from the other two.. in other words if drive 1 dies, you can plug another one into the raid array and it will rmemeber what was on the drive that died and will repaitr itself... this can be expensive with SCSI but is well worth it... you can do it with IDE as well.
Eventualy a drive will die.. so this is the safest way.

4/ Buy an external Raid array back up box, it connects via ethernet cable and has its own I.P. address... you can then back up on schedule or automatically and you can hotswop as many drives as you like, this would be the most expensive!

I appreciate your reply(s), but none of them will suit our needs: TV-out, and a time-lapse vcr is what we have, and are in the process of getting away from. Our selling point to our customer was that the vcr age was gone!

The backup that we need has to be 100% automatic, and on a daily basis.

The raid device is over-budget, and not sellable to our customer.

There must be a better way??? Thanks again.

what is your budget, and do you mean using your existing PC DVR cards?

Or any other way ..

for digital, you only have the choice of automatic to tape or RAID. But tape is not much so you still manually have to replace them. 4GB SanDisk USB Flash also, but not that big.

If you are using PC DVR card, you can always use scheduled tasks to auto run a back up program every day.

If you were using a device such as what I sell, Kalatel, they also have a digital video storage (DVSe) add on, specifically for archiving via SCSI, cheaper than RAID, but in all more expensive than PC DVR card. The DVSe holds up to 2000GB (2TB) and can be rackmounted with additional ones to give you as long a reecording as you require.

So if I understand it, I can record on the 250gb "main" drive (using a custom built computer, with the Geo-600, 30fps, card, and a "secondary" 250gb drive as a backup drive. With proper software, the system will backup the "main" drive - incrementally- to the backup drive. Now, what happens when the backup drive fills up? Will it also start to re-record over the oldest data like the main drive will do? Thank you.

if you do it manualy you can overwrite the existind data or what would be better would be to set third party softwrae to back up when you choose.. backing up a full 200GB takes some time, so you may want to see if third party software will allow you to incrementally back up

So lets say that I have some kind of "3rd party" backup software. I have a 250gb main drive, and a 250gb drive that I want to use as a backup drive. Now if this is setup to do the daily backup during the night when the system is not recording, will the system backup just what has changed on the main drive since the previous night. What happens when the backup drive reaches the "full" mark - and will it start erasing the oldest data just as the main drive does? Thank you.

I am not sure to be honest, I always use an IDE raid array, it is juts as cheap $80 for the raid card...and just two other hard drives, they do not have to be SCSI drives... If you have that much time to back up at night the best bet would be to have the third party software, clear the drive and re-copy the dats across, th only reason i did not suggest this earilier was it takes probably an hour or so to do.... Mind you I would imagine that third party software should be able to only adjuts the changed files... but I am not sure

I like the low-tech solution of an external USB drive.

With multiple drives in your PC, a problem that kills one of the drive might kill them all--power surge, lightening strike, phyical damage (or theft) of the PC, etc.

If you backup 2 gig daily, that should take only 5-10min on an external USB 2.0 drive, which is then moved to a different location.

Problem is, even if you automate the proces with a macro, you still need to physically attach and remove the drive.

How about networked backup, where a macro backs up the day's recordings to another PC on the network? With 100mbit Ethernet, it won't take "too" long. But your network will be very slow while the backup is taking place.

You can buy networked external HDD Holders, you run an etehrnet cable staright to them, they can hold one drive or 20 depends on the model you want to buy, BTW power would kill your USB drive as well.. you should have aline filter and Inline UPS and that should fix that problem... as for theft... Geo sends video data on motion detection in set areas to anohter location, therefore you could network it to your home machine ...place a camera near the dvr and after hours have anyone that goes to go near it send the video to your home,,, so if they trash it they are on film!