Last month was one of the saddest months of my life- FOUR friends (count em! FOUR) called me in tears or near tears to tell me that their computers or external drives had crashed fatally, and that they had lost all their data.

Devastating.

Two were photographers, two weren’t.

So here is a friendly reminder to all of you photographers, business people, and happy-snapping amateur-level Everyday Joe’s: BACK UP YOUR DATA.

I know, the big techie nerdy people try and scare you with all the hoopla and techno babble, so I’ll share with you our method, it’s so simple it’s ridiculous.

  1. We put a picture or make a document on our computer (or external drive, or server, or whatever).
  2. Plug in external backup drive. They’re like $100 (ours are a little more cause they’re bigger, but you can buy a really simple one). Automatic software makes a clone of the new data onto the drive.  You can keep your drive plugged in (and therefor you can schedule your recurring backup whenever you want), but we keep ours off site in case of fire or theft and just remember to bring it in once a week.  We like Carbon Copy Cloner cause you can pay what you want for it! (free so it’s no-risk, but it’s nice to donate if you really appreciate the product). It took like 3 minutes to set up.
  3. Data is backed up at night automatically through the internet to a remote location in La La Land. We use Backblaze because 1. it’s $50/year,  2. it’s UNLIMITED (we have terabytes of data….so the free accounts won’t cut it),  3. it plays well with Macs AND PC’s,  4. it likes external hard drives, 5. free trial and it took like 3 minutes to set up.
  4. Data is burned to a dvd. We like solid-state media as a last resort, because you can’t accidentally write over it with a corrupt file or erase it.  And thieves don’t usually take those sorts of things.  It takes like 3 minutes to do if you do it regularly.

Voila!  There you go!  Triple Redundancy is accomplished in no time at all, and you’re protected against theft, fire, software glitches, forgetfulness, and a Tsunami in your city.

Notes:

-“It’s not a matter of IF, but WHEN.” Words from a genius.  Your computer or drive WILL fail. Right now, tomorrow, next week, or in 2 yearw, but it WILL.

-A backup system works only if you actually DO it, no matter how high tech or simple. We’ve tried RAID systems (desktop and hot-swap) and ended up with this instead. (and it’s cheaper, too….)

-Everyone has something awesome or bad to say about any given drive, computer configuration, online backup system, or brand of dvd’s. Fact of the matter is that your product reliability greatly depends on 1. the alignment of the planets, 2. abilities of the user to not screw it up, and 3. the little Gremlins that live in all things technology. (No, really, things like software version and manufacture date can make or break the awesomeness of a hard drive. We all have our favorites, just pick one brand and stick with it.)

-When all else fails, go to Drive Savers: The Savior of Drives and Data Magicianry (and my own butt…). They’re expensive, but it’s because THEY’RE THE BEST.  If you have insurance, ask your agent if it covers data recovery, because it should. (wait…if you’re a business owner you’d BETTER have insurance…..)

-if you need help, let me know (I’ve been doing consulting sessions when I’ve got time), I’ve got boatloads of information to share on the subject of backing things up and which methods might work best for you).

Techie folk, if you want to know our exact setup, here it is: Mac Pro Dual Quad Core with 4 bays, each with 1tb or more and we call them Pebbles, Elroy, and The Mystery Machine. Clones of each of those on a Seagate Barracuda bare drive of the same size (1 or 1.5 tb), housed in a black case that I can’t remember the name of because it’s not important except for the fact that it plugs into the wall/firewire/usb/esata. Other portable external drives for paranoia’s sake while we’re editing and before we clear our memory cards are Maxtor and Seagate, and we call them Velma and Scrappy. Backblaze for remote backup, but it takes for forever to backup 1 tb, so be patient. Taiyo Yuiden dvd’s (or another brand known for being good, you get what you pay for). RIP Scooby and Shaggy…. they’ve been retired cause they’re too small for anything useful.