This week we learned about digital asset management aka DAM. Backing up own images and work is something that is often overlooked by many people. That is, until they suffer a catastrophic hardware failure at some stage in their life. If I know anything about computers, it’s never a matter of if they fail but when.
As aspiring professional photographers, a bullet proof back-up is essential. One can only imagine how gut wrenching it would be to lose client files, especially those that can never be re-captured such as those taken from a wedding shoot.
A 3-2-1 backup system involves having three copies of your work saved, including your master copy or source files. Two copies kept locally but on separate media devices, for example: one copy saved locally on your computer internal drive (space allowing) and the second copy saved to a separate removable hard drive. If your internal drive does not allow for storage of large RAW files then the first two copies of your back up can be removable hard drives as long as they are two completely separate drives.
The third copy of your files should be on yet another separate device but one that is stored offsite. This gives yet another layer of protection should the unthinkable happen such as fire, flood or zombie apocalypse.
At present, my 3-2-1 back up system comprises of master files saved to my desktop hard drive, although I suspect in the near future I may have to expand to a larger drive.
Secondly, I back up a copy of this work to a removeable hard drive. The one I currently use is a 6TB WD My Book external drive. At the time of writing this, my external drive was on vacation at my work place to do a somewhat overdue backup of the work computer ( naughty naughty), although it usually resides at home.
The final stage of my back up system is to save all of my files to the cloud. I use cloud storage with Dropbox. For a smallish monthly fee, I have unlimited storage space, the ability to access my files from anywhere with an internet connection and can share links to my files with other people at my leisure.
I was interested to learn about RAID systems as an option to add to my back-up system and also liked the idea of a camera body with dual card slots to protect against corrupted SD cards. Definitely two options I will be exploring further when funds allow.
Amber Lyons Photography 