Backup Your Images

Nothing is more important than backing up your data. Unfortunately, this is something that gets pushed to the wayside so we can get a new camera or lens gets. What good is all that camera equipment if we lose all the images taken with it???

It all boils down to storage... Here are some helpful suggestions on how you can preserve your images for years to come:
1.) Do not format your memory cards until you have backed them up. It is important to have yourself "at least" two copies before formatting your memory card!

2.) Invest in quality not quantity. It is easy to see a hard drive for $80 and want to pick it up. However, be sure to do your research and make sure that these hard drives are reliable. We wouldn't want to get into a car that wasn't reliable and take it for a drive across country now would we? Same goes for your hard drives.

3.) Go for speed. Look for hard drives in the 7200rpm or faster range. Also ensure that your external hard drives have various input jack options. These 250 gb rugged external hard drives by LaCie are portable and can withstand a good beating. Trust me, I have tried and they are still kicking!



4.) Things are always better in pairs! Do your research on data redundancy and set yourself up a nice RAID system. The basic nuts and bolts of RAID is that you can have your hard drive mirrored meaning that one could crap out and you will have an exact replica to takes its place. Furthermore, you can put a new hard drive in the old one's place and have the RAID mirroring kick right back in. LaCie also makes amazing products for redundancy. This particular model is the LaCie 5 Big Network NAS file server and it can expand to offer you up to 7.5 Terabytes of data!!!


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5.) Upgrade your CDs and DVDs from the Walmart brand to archival grade. The cheap DVDs have an average shelf life of like 5 years. Go with the more expensive, but more reliable, archival disks. These last well over 90 years and are more scratch resistant.

6.) Keep a backup off-site. Take one of your hard drives or keep a running record of DVDs and send them over to your mother-in-laws house. Just keep them somewhere safe and away from where you keep your other hard drives. This goes with the saying about having all your eggs in one basket. Heaven forbid you had a fire or a natural disaster hit your house... Having an off site backup ensures that you have one copy somewhere else that is hopefully going to be out of harms way.

One can get pretty overboard with backups so be sure to do your research and follow a backup regiment that will suit your needs and fit in with your already existing workflow.

Thanks for stopping by!
Mike