A few years ago, something happened to me that I only read about online. I had seen horror stories about memory cards being corrupted or hard drives crashing, but thought I was being pretty careful.
One day, I was working on my laptop while the girls were playing nicely. I had my hard drive plugged in because I was looking for an image that I wanted to use for a blog post. My youngest daughter happened to run around the side of the couch where the computer and hard drive were plugged in and she tripped on the wire. The hard drive fell to the floor. At first I didn’t think it was a big deal. It wasn’t a far drop. Just from the coffee table to the floor. It didn’t shatter or break. But, when I plugged it back in, nothing happened. I couldn’t get it to work. My heart dropped into my stomach and I started to panic. Immediately I called my husband, who is pretty good with computers, and asked him if their was anything I could do.
After a lot of crying and worrying and panicking, we contacted a company who specialized in data recovery. They were able to retrieve about 90% percent of the files, but it cost me a pretty penny. Hundreds of dollars later I learned a crucial lesson. I should have had more than one resource for backing up images.
Nowadays, there are a few different ways to keep your images safe.
CD/DVD – This requires that you keep it in a spot where it will not get scratched, broken or damaged.
An external hard drive – This is a great option, but another one that you need to be careful with. Hard drives can crash (or fall!)
Online storage – There are a ton of options to store images online. This is a great addition to an external hard drive, however there are monthly fees involved. Most are pretty low and don’t compare to the loss of priceless memories.
Ideally, it would be smart to do all of these things. Here’s what I do.
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I use Backblaze as an online storage option. It costs me $5 a month and all of the data on my computer, no matter the size, is backed up automatically. Initially, it backs up all of the data and then adds only new or changed files as I work. And I don’t have to do a thing. Perfect for non-techies like me. Do some research though. There are a lot of options for online storage.
I have a second option for online storage called Shootproof. It’s where I host my client galleries so it’s only available for professional photographers. I am able to archive all of the images that are uploaded for a small monthly fee. It’s perfect for me to keep track of the final, edited images from a session, but if I wanted to go back and re-edit, I would need the original file.
I also use a Toshiba 1TB Portable External Hard Drive. In fact, I just filled it so I will be purchasing another soon! This is something you have to plug in and transfer your files to. I have a few of these because RAW files take up a lot of space. After a client has ordered a collection and their prints are delivered, their session is moved to an external hard drive and stored safely for up to a year.
So there you have it. Three different ways to back up my images! You should be doing at least two of these. One final way to keep your digital images from disappearing? Print those pictures!!