I thought maybe I’d take a moment to talk about backup.
Okay so it’s not very sexy or glamorous but backup is important. It is one of those areas that may not seem worthwhile when everything is working as expected but if the unthinkable were to happen and your work is lost then the value of a well thought out backup strategy is priceless. I think it’s extremely important that photographers should take the time to ensure their work is fully backed up. If you can imagine for a moment that all of your work was suddenly lost forever? How would you feel? I know would feel incredibly upset, after all these are not just photographs, they are stories and experiences, moments frozen in time that can never be repeated and this is not even thinking about all of the time that has gone into getting those shots and the subsequent editing of them. It’s absolutely clear to me that I needed a backup solution because I want to ensure that no matter what happens my photographs are going to be safe.
So there are lots of different approaches to backup and I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other. You can spend a large amount of money on specialist hardware but you can also do it more cost effectively. The most important thing is that you have your work backed up in a way that works for you, the actual method is secondary.
There are backup solutions as well as data protection solutions. Some backup solutions also employ data proctection while some do not. Backup generally means that the data is backed up in multiple locations while data protection generally means you have your work stored with a version history, so even if you were to make an administration error and accidently delete some files from disk you will still be able to go in and retrieve them easily. In this post I’m really talking about the basic act of ensuring that your data is backed up in more than one location, this is basically protecting yourself from hardware failure which is a legitimate concern and something that is likely to affect us all at some point in time (it has certainly affected me).
I have my photos stored on multiple RAID drives in my computer, this happens seamlessly and once setup requires no intervention. It just means that my computer uses multiple hard drives to store the data and that if one drives were to fail I can simply replace it and carry on without any loss of data. This way I am covered against hardware failure on my primary drives. I also have a large external hard drive which is connected to my computer and backs up my photos every night. This runs automatically and backups any changes or new files, this includes all of my Lightroom & Capture One catalogues that contain all of my edits – it is important not to forget about the catalogue files if you are using non-destructive editing software (and if you’re not then you really should be!) because without them I would still have my photos but I would have to edit every one again individually which could potentially take a huge amount of time.
With this setup I am confident that my files are backed up in multiple locations and even if multiple hard drives were to fail in my computer’s RAID configuration I still have everything backed up to my large external drive.
So far so good, this covers me from hardware failure but it doesn’t cover me against some other potential issue such as fire, flood & theft. For these reasons it is important to have an off-site backup solution, this could be as simple as a hard drive stored at a trustworthy friend’s house or even some DVDs stored offsite (but be aware than most cheap DVDs and CDs have a limited lifespan and could potentially be unreadable a few years down the line). For these reasons I find that a cloud-based backup service is the best option.
There are a number of online backup services available and I am currently using a service offered by Mozy. For less than £5 per month all of my photos and software catalogue files are automatically backed up to the cloud every day. Mozy offers version history, file encryption and unlimited space so for the money I find this gives me incredible peace of mind. Sure, the initial upload can take some time (I think it took two or three weeks for my initial upload) but now all my new photos are uploaded quietly in the background overnight and I can relax safe in the knowledge that everything is backed up securely.
I also use Dropbox across my various computers for file sync and while I don’t suggest you use this as your only backup solution I do think it can have a place in your backup workflow. Dropbox allows you to easily synchronise files across many different computers as well as allowing you to easily share large files with other people. Dropbox also keeps a file version history and the ability to restore deleted files. I find this particularly useful when taking photos using my iPhone. It is simply a case of using the Dropbox app on the iPhone to upload the files while on the move and then they are instantly available on all of my computers and backed up via Dropbox so that if I were to lose my phone I would still have my images. I can then include the iPhone photos as part of my regular backup workflow when I return to my computer.
I am currently considering buying some Drobos for my backup solution to use instead of my existing RAID solution as they offer some additional features but the principle remains the same. It doesn’t really matter how you do it but you should really take the time to ensure that your work is fully backed up and that if you suffer a hardware failure or theft then it is as the very worst an inconvenience. Without a backup plan you are taking a huge gamble.
You can create fee Mozy and Dropbox trials, so why not give them a try to see what you think (these are not affiliate links and I do not benefit from you using these services in anyway, they are just products that I actually use and value):
http://mozy.co.uk
http://www.dropbox.com
http://www.drobo.com
Have I missed anything important? Do you have anything to add? If so let me know.
Happy shooting!
