Many of us take a TON of pictures, and in an age in which people aren’t necessarily making prints or getting their photos off their computer (a topic for another blog post and one of my soapboxes!), it’s more critical than ever that people have a good plan and workflow in place to ensure that those digital files are protected.
It has been said by some that if your files don’t exist in at least three places, they don’t exist… meaning they are subject to loss at any moment.
Hard drives and memory cards fail ALL THE TIME, but here are some tips that can help prevent many tears!
1. First, don’t go cheap on memory cards. Sandisk Extreme Pro cards are what I use, and though they are pricey, I’ve never had one fail. Costco or Amazon are great places to get these cards.
2. If your camera only shoots to one memory card (some newer models now can shoot to two cards at once so you have an instant backup, a feature I love), then use smaller (2 or 4 gb) cards, so that you minimize your losses if your memory card does fail.
3. Import your photos to your computer often. Your hard drive is less apt to fail than a memory card, and of course your camera is more prone to loss, theft or damage than your computer as well. Don’t wait too long before you import those photos to your computer. It’s a sickening feeling when you realize you haven’t imported photos since your friend’s wedding last summer and you lose 10 months’ worth of memories in one swoop.
4. Use an external hard drive to backup your files from your computer. Again, use a decent brand (Western Digital, Lacie, Seagate, among others); Costco and Amazon are good sources for these! For about $100, you can have a lot of peace of mind knowing you have a second copy of your computer’s files.
5. Look into a Cloud-based backup system. Backblaze and CrashPlan are two popular backup options. For around $60 a year, they can provide backup of all your computer files, so even if your whole house went up in smoke (literally!), you would still have a backup of the files. The first backup takes a long time, but from then on, these Cloud-based programs can back up your files in minutes each day. An alternate option is to backup your files to a second external hard drive, and then ask a friend or family member if they are willing to store it at their house just in case the worst happened; it’s great to trade this service with someone else so you are helping each other out.
A good backup system (an external hard drive plus a year of Cloud-based storage) can be had for around $175, which is a small price to pay for ensuring your memories are safe.