How can we protect our photos and documents, what happens when the computer crashes or hard drives fail? How can we keep our data safe from fires, thunder strikes and burglars? You can never know when or exactly what will happen but trust me – your files will eventually be unreadable. As a commercial and real estate photographer I'm shooting tens of thousands of photos each year, which creates quite a volume of files to deal with, files I really want to keep safe. Here I'll explain my workflow from importing the photos from memory cards to keeping them safe and accessible in the future.
The first thing to keep in mind is that all storage media will break down and fail. Yes, that's correct – all of them. CD-R's, external hard drives, SSD's, USB flash drives and so on. The key is to always have at least two copies of your important files and to keep them physically separate so a sudden disaster won't affect both of them. This sounds simple enough but with larger volumes of files this needs some good routines and organization.
The Shoot
When I'm out on assignments I prefer using smaller memory cards for my camera and changing them throughout the day, for example in between locations. I have eight or so cards of various sizes. The reason for this is to not have all the eggs in the same basket, i.e. if a card fails I will at least not lose everything I shot that day. As soon as I can I will then import the photos to my laptop, keeping the files on the memory card so two copies exist on different locations. If the laptop gets stolen or fried during a shoot I still have a copy on the card in my pocket. The chances of both copies gets damaged or stolen at the same time is smaller than dropping the basket with all the eggs, losing everything in a moment of bad luck.
The backup
As soon as I get to the office I run an incremental backup of the imported files to my network attached storage (NAS) using a very convenient program called Personal Backup 5. I've specified beforehand the source and destination folder for the backup procedure so this task is no more complex than clicking a quick launch shortcut. Now we have three copies of the files (card, laptop, NAS). If there is a tight deadline, as with real estate photography, now I will begin selecting photos, tagging and editing them from the "master files" on my laptop. Finished photos are exported and delivered to the clients. I run the incremental backup again, creating a copy of the edited files of the NAS.
Secondary storage
As the storage capacity of my laptop SSD's are limited I now need to free up some space so I move the master files, using Lightroom, to the NAS but this time to a different folder. The master files goes from the primary storage (laptop) to secondary storage (NAS) keeping a copy of the original files still on the memory card and another copy already on the NAS. The NAS is not connected to the internet and it gets its juice through a surge-protected UPS. Multiple copies on different locations, not even connected and thus protected from power spikes and accidental coffee spills.
Tertiary storage
Our data now has three copies: The master files on the NAS, the backup copies on the same NAS and the memory card copy. The backup copy sits on the same physical hard drives as the master files so we can not count on that copy if the NAS fails, and we need those cards empty for tomorrows jobs. We need another physical location to store our files and here I'm using an external HDD connected to the NAS which every night receives a scheduled incremental backup from the master files folder. The incremental backup only copies new or changed files so it will be done by the morning. I will still not format the memory cards until I need them in the camera, just to be safe. Master files on NAS, a copy on the external HDD and temporary copies on the cards.
Vaulting and archiving
Now we are somewhat protected from technology failing but what if there is a fire, a flood or and break-in? The trick here is to keep an off-site copy. I'm using two external HDD's for this, cycling them every week or more often depending on the amount of work I do. Every cycle the connected HDD gets replaced by its twin which I keep at the most secure place possible – the bank. My local bank office is one of the few here in Sweden that still offer their clients a personal box in the vault. Temperature and humidity is stable and said to be safe from floods and fires.
As the NAS grows full I make two archive copies of the full storage on another set of external HDD's, one of which stays in the vault and the other one sits in the office for easy access. Every two years I rewrite all the data on the archive drives, checking data integrity and replacing the drives if neccessary. These archive drives won't have to do a lot of mechanical work since they are mostly offline but the disks may eventually lose their magnetic properties and data can be corrupted if not rewritten and refreshed.
Conclusion
My backup workflow is not complicated to use, doesn't cost a fortune and offers a pretty good file copy redundancy. Future upgrades could include syncing the master files to a remote server but that would require having the NAS connected to the internet which opens up for other threats. This workflow also does not protect from data theft since I chose not to encrypt any of this data. I want it to be easy accessible, quick and as safe as possible. Using HDD's for long term data storage is still the cheapest and most convenient method I've come across. It's also easy find and recover data when my NAS or SSD will fail.
All it takes is a second of bad luck and your photos could be lost forever. Backup your files!
Do you have any questions or tips for an even better backup workflow? Please let me know below!