Ok, let's break it down:

There are a lot of large files to grapple with.
I want to keep all images 'forever'.
I need to find archived images.
I would like to view thumbnails of archived images.
There are many images that are very similiar.
Some of the images are chosen to process further.
The images that get attention end up as jpg or tiff.

Use a second internal hard drive to store all your photos on, not the C
drive. As you are using a Workstation, I am pretty sure that you will have
spare slots.

With Adobe Bridge in CS2, you can view thumbnails of all the photos very
easily and scroll between them. You can also associate keywords to them if
you want, but I don't personally, as I know where all my photos are. You
can also make easy selections on what photos you want to compare.

All your RAW images should end up saved as either 16-bit TIFF's or PSD's.
You can also convert to JPEG aswell, but not instead of the TIFF or PSD.
And never delete the *.CR2 RAW image.


My current system is approx like so:
Return from a shooting session with 2 4gb chips of images.
Copy each chip to separate folder on workstation's hdd.
Folder names reflect date and subject/location (2008-01-18 Death Valley)

Good, but why copy each chip to a separate folder? Stick them all in the
same folder, unless there are file name conflicts.

Starting with reverse date for the name of the folder is perfect and
something I have used for many years without any problems. What you put
after the date is up to you and what works for you to identify the photos.
Occasionally, there is no need to use a date prefix at all though, for
example, you can just call a folder 'sky photos', because the date isn't
really important.


Create dvd of each folder, label by date and subject/location.

Ignore DVD's. IMO, unnecessary. Get a USB external hard drive and back up
all your photos from your second internal drive to this periodically. Keep
the external drive off site. Keep it on-site as short a time as possible.
If you want to get really serious, then back up to DAT's every day and keep
them off site. For most consumers, using DAT's are an overkill and
expensive. Depends on your personal situation though, if you make money
from your photos, then carry out a risk assessment.


Select some raw images to work on, move them to working dir.

Why? Keep them in the same folder.


I usually retain the numeric tag that the camera assigns to an image
through the processing stage of an image, until it gets published. This
helps me keep track of which raw image was the source.

Sounds good.


Eventually when workstation hdd are crammed, have to delete older
folders containing raw images.

Hard drive space is cheap. There is no harm in selectively deleting though
because there is no need to store crap. To be honest, I didn't really agree
with your comment above about keeping ALL images for life, but I didn't say
anything because this is a personal choice and up to you. For me, I delete
anything that I consider a poor shot. If there are similar shots of the
same subject, pick the best ones and delete the rest. There's no need to
store crap for the sake of it. A crap photo will always be a crap photo,
unless there is sentimental value to it and there are no better photos to
take it's place.


DVD media has limited lifespan so eventually all will turn to dust.
DVD software/hardware still seem very flakey to me; I'm never sure a
copy won't be corrupted or somehow unreadable.
Even if I make 2 copies of images, if one fails other might fail for the
same reason.
Once on dvd it's hard to view thumbnails, and thumbnails are important
when sifting older images for variations on a theme.
It'd be ideal if thumbnails were available on my workstation for all
archived images.
Tried using external hdds for storage but still questions re durability
etc, aside from cost.

Same as my above comment.

You will also find that you will replace hard drives as you take more and
more images and fill it up. So, they will normally get replaced at periodic
intervals. Your images are never stored for life on them. Look at hard
drives as disposable commodities. Also, don't just buy the biggest one
available at the time, buy one that suits your needs for the next couple of
years and then replace it with a bigger one when it becomes full.


I'm a programmer so I may be able to write something that could help
with whatever process I end up using over time, if there isn't already
such software.

I don't think so. Why use more additional software when you can already do
everything you need to so easily? Of course, maybe you are not using
Windows?



"nano" wrote in message
.net...
Ali I'm sure you're way ahead of me in every regard. Strangely, from
every single one of the responses I learned some good stuff (other than
from yours). I guess you can mark this up as some kind of twilight zone
experience.