I know I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again: BACK-UP YOUR FILES! Odds are that you will experience a computer or hard drive crash at some point in your lifetime and you don’t want to be kicking yourself for not backing-up the files from your computer. What can you do and how can you do it? It’s really not difficult, but does take a bit of time and effort to get a system in place. My steps:
1. Download pictures / videos / files to your computer.
2. Copy those files on to an external hard drive. Prices on hard drives come down monthly so you can get a large capacity drive for under $100. Watch for sales and bonus rebates around the holidays. These hard drives easily plug in to your computer via a USB cord OR a Firewire cord. Many come with software that will allow you to set-up daily auto-back-ups which really makes things effortless.
3. Burn back-up CDs and or DVDs. If you don’t have a lot of files burning a CD / DVD is a nice alternative to the external hard drive. I burn my most important images to high quality gold DVDs and keep them in an archival safe binder. This system is meant to compliment my back-up hard drives just in case I have a drive AND computer failure.
4. PRINT YOUR IMAGES! I don’t do this enough. Every month you should go through your images and print your favorites. Put them in an album, send to family and friends or frame them to display throughout your house. Having a print of an image is one more way to protect and preserve your memories. Giving away images will not only make someone else happy, BUT it’s another back-up so you aren’t the only one with the original image.
5. STORE YOUR FILES OFF-SITE! I know it sounds like overkill, but it only takes one house fire, flood or break-in to make you realize how much you value those memories (now that they are gone). Recently a friend had his house broken in to and the thieves took EVERYTHING. TV’s, computers and stereos can all be replaced, but the photos and videos of his toddler son that were saved on the computer? Gone. Never to be replaced. Don’t wait for a tragic event like this to happen before you make changes in your own system. Here are a couple of ideas:
- Give copies of your prints and CDs/DVDs to a neighbor, friend, or family member for safe keeping
- Store copies in an archival safe container in a post office box
- Back-up your files to an external hard drive and store with a neighbor, friend or family member. On a regular basis you can add additional files to the hard drive from your computer
- Buy two external hard drives: auto-back up your files to one hard drive and each month swap out with the second drive that is store off-site. There will always be one drive hooked up to your computer and one drive with files saved and stored safely. If anything ever did happen to your drive, the most you would lose is a month’s worth of data.
- Invest in an online storage solution. There are several out there which automate the process and allow you to access and download your files whenever you want.
Whew. That’s a lot to think about! Make it your New Year’s resolution and start now!