Archiving (Backing Up) Your Images

I often interact with folks about archiving image files. Should you back yours up? Absolutely! This article will cover some of the different options to back up your image files. If you feel you would benefit with more specifics on exactly “how”, drop me a line and I’ll consider what to include in an article on a basic “how-to do it”.

Why Archive?
This is a really easy question to answer. I know people who have had the misfortune of having their hard drive crash. They lost everything, including their photos. It’s not really all that uncommon. Archiving (backing up) your files means you have a second copy someplace else. Should something happen to your computer system where you keep them, you have a back-up copy of the file. This is a good idea for ALL your files, not just your images. A short list of reasons why folks back-up their images:

• Protect themselves from accidental deletion.
• Protect themselves from system failure or damage.
• Protect themselves from a hard drive crash (more on this later, you may still be able to get your files back).
• Make moving to a new system easier.

Methods

There are many schools of thoughts on how to keep a back up copy of your files. A few of the common methods are:

• Burn to CD’s
• Burn to DVD’s
• Back-up to External hard drive
• Back-up to off-site location over your internet connection.
• Email copies of your files to your family and friends (just kidding!)

The above list is the very basics. There are many ways to keep your files backed-up, and some people prefer a more elaborate method. You can visit various internet forums where folks share those methods. One of them is the DPReview Storage and Media Forum.

My Thoughts on Various Methods

Burning to CD’s or DVD’s

This method involves selecting files to transfer to a CD or DVD. It’s relatively cheap if you have a small number of files. If you have many, many files, it can be a lot of work to keep choosing files to burn to the next archive disk. I think this system comes with a few risks. One is that you may not back-up regular enough so you may have a gap in what is backed up. More importantly, I’ve had disks become unreadable, and have read of others reporting the same. Many disks are rated with an archival life of 50 – 100 years, but that doesn’t matter, they can still fail. The bottom line is I have read on many techie forums that CD’s and DVD’s are typically not the most reliable for long term storage, and definitely the most time consuming method. But, like I said, if you only have a few files it is fairly cheap.

External Hard Drives
External hard drives get bigger and cheaper every year. They store lots of stuff, and you can setup an automatic process to back-up the files of your choosing. Your files will always be backed up and in one place. They are also more reliable than CD’s and DVD’s. If you have a lot of files, this will be much easier and affordable for many budgets. While they are typically reliable, remember that no device is fail-proof. But your chances are better with an external hard drive than CD’s and DVD’s.

Some folks use two or more hard drives. They swap them out occasionally and keep one off site. Should there be a home disaster, a drive someplace else that was updated in the last cycle is good insurance.

Off-Site

There are many companies that offer online back-up. This works similar to an external hard drive. You choose the files (and folders that are “watched” for new files). The system automatically backs up your files to an off-site location. These services are typically subscribed to by the month or year. Some offer substantial discounts for 3 or 5 year extended subscriptions. I recently renewed my Carbonite service for a 3 year subscription. Many services offer unlimited back-up at a low yearly cost.

The initial transfer may take a while, but I think it’s worth it. I also have large masses of photos come in at once. They don’t get backed-up until they move from my temporary processing folder to their permanent storage location (read more about that here: Where Did I Put That Picture? A Guide To Managing Your Image Files). From time to time there is a back-up that takes while, but no worries, I let it run overnight or for a day and it’s done. The nice thing about this, is (for Carbonite at least) they have redundant systems, so your files are safe and backed up to more than one location. The ultimate in back-up solutions!

What I Do

I have an external drive for a local back-up and Carbonite on-line backup as the secondary protection. I also load many of my favorite shots to my online gallery (Zenfolio) for sharing and displaying, which acts as another backup of my favorite photos.

• External Drive – I use Western Digital, though there are many reliable brands available. Visit the storage an media forum I mentioned earlier if you want more ideas.
• Off-Site – I use Carbonite. They often have a 15 day free trial period, so you can check it out. They also offer remote access to your files that are backed up. That’s cool – get your files anywhere with an internet connection.
• Secondary Off-Site – I use Zenfolio as my secondary off-site. Not all my images go here, but the ones I share with family, friends, and display in my gallery go here. Save some money by using my code using THIS LINK or use referral code SAD-KHF-N9G when you sign up. Why Zenfolio? I talk about that here.

Summary
I strongly recommend you have some sort of back-up plan. The cost of external hard drives and on-line services has come down making great solutions more affordable.

One last thing. Earlier I mentioned if you have a system crash, don’t automatically assume you lost everything. Often the problem is something else (like an operating system crash). You can buy external hard drive enclosures cheap. You can then take out your hard drive, put it in the enclosure, and using the included USB cable hook it up to another computer. It then acts as an external hard drive where you can hopefully see the files stored on the drive and access them. Some folks also use this method to transfer all their files from an old system, to their new one.

How do you back-up your files?
Have you experienced a system crash, did you lose your files?

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