Some time ago, I asked how important are your photos to you?
Too many people do not consider the importance of backing up the photos stored on the hard drive of their computers, and have not bothered to implement any backup strategy.

This post provides some information about my backup strategy.



My backup strategy involves multiple backups, using a number of different backup mechanisms, and has evolved to suit my requirements.

Note that the strategy I'm describing suits my needs, but may not be appropriate for your backup needs.

Copy Photos Off Memory Cards

After a photo shoot, I'll copy the photos off my memory cards using a USB memory card reader, and copy them onto the primary drive in my desktop PC.

Note that I do not delete the photos off the memory cards until I have confirmed that the copy process was successful. Depending on the importance of the photos, I may also ensure a backup of the photos is completed before wiping the memory cards.

RAID1 Mirror

The primary hard drive is configured as a RAID1 mirror, ie, my PC has two identical hard drives, and the motherboard in my PC keeps them synchronised at all times, thus protecting me against a single drive failure.

Secondary HDD in Desktop PC

I use a manually-initiated script to periodically copy all photos from the RAID1 mirror onto a secondary data drive in my desktop PC.

This secondary hard drive in my desktop PC provides fast local storage, and as a result, completing an incremental backup of my photos to this drive is a quick operation, and can be done on a frequent basis.

I initiate this backup at least once per day - sometimes more frequently, depending on what I'm doing with photos.

Backup to Fileserver

Another script is used to make another copy of my photos onto a shared drive in a Linux fileserver on my home network.

I typically initiate this backup once per day.

Offline and Offsite Backup on USB HDDs

I have two external USB hard drives that are used for offline and offsite backups. Each month or so, I'll connect one of the USB HDDs to my PC, and use a script to backup all my photos to the USB hard drive.

The other USB hard drive is stored at a relative's house, and I rotate the two hard drives every few months, to ensure the offsite backup is no more than a few months old.

You Can Never Have Too Many Backups

This means I have between 3 and 5 copies of my photos, depending on how recently I completed a backup to an external USB HDD, and how recently the two external USB HDDs were rotated (and that's not taking into account the second copy on the RAID1 mirror).



Find a Backup Solution That's Right For You

There is no single right way to backup your data. It's important to find the backup strategy that's right for you. That involves selecting an appropriate backup mechanism (probably a combination of the various options), as well as an appropriate schedule that suits your requirements.

A Backup is Useless if You Can't Restore From It

Having a backup strategy is important. However, it is equally important to ensure that you can restore data from your backups! It might sound obvious...but there are plenty of stories of people regularly performing a backup, only to find that their data was not accessible when they eventually suffered a failure and attempted to access their backups.



Tape Drive

Tape drives are often used in corporate environments. However, the cost of the tape drives and tape media typically means it's too expensive for home use.

Tape drives are also relatively slow, and recovery from a tape can also be slow, as they do not support random access (ie, the tape needs to be re-would to the specific location where the file being restored is stored).

CDs and DVDs

CDs are just too small, as they can only store 680MB. Even DVDs (4.7GB or 9GB for dual-layer DVDs) are too small when you consider how much disk space you can quickly consume when shooting 15 megapixel RAW files at about 20MB each.

According to a recent article, up to 10% of CDs fail within a few years (discussion on slashdot), so that's another factor that needs to be taken into consideration. The quality of the CDs, the way they were burnt, and the way they are stored are all factors that can affect the longetivity of CDs.

USB Memory Sticks

With capacity of USB memory sticks increasing at a rapid rate, and the price continuing to drop, USB memory sticks can provide a viable method for storing backups for some people. However, the capacity of a USB memory stick is still too limited for large amounts of data.

Hard Drives

In my view, computer hard drives provide a relatively cheap, efficient and fast storage medium for backups. For a given capacity, hard drives are very compact (just think about how much space 500GB of CDs or DVDs would take up!), and in terms of cost per MB, they are cheap.

Hard drives are also fast and convenient, as you can have a secondary hard drive installed in your desktop PC for local backups, or access them via a shared drive from another computer.

External Hard Drives

An external hard drive provides all the advantages mentioned above for hard drives, but also provides the added benefit of portability.

External hard drives can be connected to a PC via USB, firewire or eSATA, depending on the connectivity options supported by the hard drive enclosure. Each connectivity option has pros and cons, but USB is probably the most convenient, due to prevalence of USB connectors on modern PCs.

Backup Software

There is a plethora of backup software out there - some better than others, and some more expensive than others (with plenty of free options too). The options available are far too wide to discuss in this post, but it is important to pick something that suits your needs.

Offsite Storage?

It's worth considering whether you want to have a backup copy of your data stored offsite, at a friend's or relative's house. It will ensure you still have a copy of your data in the event of a catastrophic event such as a house fire, flooding, or even a burglary.



If you are not backing up your photos (and other data) now, then don't delay any longer. Backup your photos before it's too late!

If you are not currently backing up your photos and other data, one of the cheapest and most convenient solutions is to buy an external USB hard drive, and periodically copy your data onto it.