If your hard drive crashed tomorrow, your house burned down, or someone stole your computer, what would happen to your photos, documents, and other digital data? Having had my own brush with this recently, I took a fresh look at my own safeguards and the steps you can take to protect your own data in different scenarios.
1. Your Hard Drive Dies. It happens. Your drive is dead, and the data either gone, or a $1000 hostage. The easy prevention is automated backup to an external drive.
For as little as $100, you can duplicate your data on a second drive. Many include backup software, or Mac users can use Time Machine, with caveats. If you do critical work on the road, a smaller, USB-powered external drive or DVDs can safeguard that data while your main backup drive is safe at home.
2. You House Burns Down or They Steal Everything. Your computer and responsibly-installed backup drive are both destroyed or stolen, along with all your data. Preventing a loss in this situation requires an automated, off-site backup.
Several online services offer a variety of prices and software; one notable offering is Jungle Disk, an inexpensive program that uses Amazon to store your data with a la carte pricing. It also encrypts your data, so it can’t be read in transit or by anyone else on the server - something to look for in any off-site solution you choose.
If you already have extra space on a computer at another location, and are technically proficient, Duplicity will match Jungle Disk without costing you an additional penny. This detailed guide shows how to set it up.
Those are the basics: copy your data onto at least one external drive at home and one online, off-site location, both automated so you can’t forget to run them. If your data is your professional lifeblood, here’s a glimpse at the hardcore backup system of a commercial photographer.
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