I’m sure you’ve been there. You accidentally delete the wrong file and it’s gone forever. Or your hard drive dies and you lost everything. You didn’t have backups of the data.
I have been there. That sinking feeling, the search for another copy, and the thoughts that I could’ve done better are not things I want to relive.
First thing to know is the 3-2-1 rule for backups. You always want to have at least three copies of the data, on two different storage media, and at least one copy off-site. The way that I go about this is using a 6TB hard drive (this one) with a copy on another 6TB hard drive (this one). I don’t want to put all my faith in one company so I use Toshiba and Western Digital. I have smaller hard drives with the data spread out in a sealed container in a friend’s house. Taking this slightly farther, I add a time machine backup (with this drive). That, with another copy of all the data on more hard drives (these), are in a fireproof safe. All of my personal photos are backed up in the cloud too. Recently, I added an 8TB hard drive (this one) for the off-site backup.
When you get home from a shoot, even if it’s late, you should load the photos/videos onto another hard drive without clearing your cards right away. I fail to do this a lot with personal projects but I do it no matter what for client projects.
If you have a single copy on the hard drive in your computer, I recommend you look into some new hard drives. Distribute copies of your data according to the 3-2-1 rule. Just make sure you check the files after a large transfer. Sometimes your computer may confuse a few zeros and ones and you will end up with corrupt files.
If you don’t have a friend to give a hard drive to, you may be able to bring one to your office at work or you could rent a safety deposit box. Make sure you encrypt your hard drive so there is a barrier protecting it if someone tries to access it.
Some may think I went a little overboard. They may be right, but I’m protected. I sleep better at night knowing everything is safe on several backups.
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