Back It Up

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Posted in Organization
ACK! Are you backed up? (Creative Commons License)

ACK! Are you backed up? (Creative Commons License)

I read this post of my gal pal Laurel McConnell‘s on backing up your computer data in July and it’s taken me this long to do something about it.  For months I’ve been meaning to back up all of the stuff on my laptop and desktop computers.  Who are we kidding?  It’s probably been a year since I backed up certain files my computers.  ARGH!  Shame on me!  I know the danger of losing all of my files, particularly my client’s design files or even personal photos.  But, I just don’t seem to find the time to back up my computers all that frequently.

Out with the old…

My system typically involves something archaic like copying to writable CDs (mutiple CDs) or to an external hard-drive.  Both of these processes are labor intensive.  They require me to

1) sit down and sit still – something I don’t do often

2) figure out which vital files I need to back-up

3) drag and drop files over a few hours (the transferring can take a long time)

In with the new…

So, this weekend, I jumped on the Carbonite bandwagon.  And, I seriously cannot believe it took me so long!  This is what is required to start AUTOMATIC and NON-LABOR-INTENSIVE backup.  (This means that you don’t have to do anything but have an internet connection for your computer(s) to be backed up.)

1.) sign up for  a free 14-day trial at www.carbonite.com (the sign-up is ridiculously easy: emaily & password, done)

2.) you’ll be directed to download the software, run to install, and start it

3.) Carbonite will begin to back-up your files (the first back-up takes several days but is done whenever you are online… no need to sit there and wait for it)

It is seriously THAT easy.  From there on, every time the computer is on the internet, Carbonite will back up your files.  You don’t even know that it’s happening!  It’s like magic!  After the end of 14 days, the charge is $55/year.  Yes, it’s seriously that easy and cheap.

There are few other companies out there.  Laurel recommends Backblaze because it allows you to back up external drives.  And, if you are in the creative fields you may want to back up your files on a few different sources (online, external hard drive, CDs, etc.)  But start with something… the online sources are the best for ensuring at least one back-up is being done periodically.

What backing up systems do you recommend?

by Michelle Loretta

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October 20, 2009 - 5:22 pm

Laurel McConnell - So glad you wrote about this, Michelle! I got ANOTHER call from yet another poor soul the other day who had a drive failure… it’s SO easy to do the online backup, it’s downright ridiculous. And what’s this about you NOT doing it earlier- my mouth is gaping in shock ;) It literally takes 5 mins to set up and you’re good to go! Kudos for spreading the word!

October 21, 2009 - 8:45 am

Kathryn L - I’m crazy about backing up my stuff. As a photographer I’m terrified of having a crash and losing all my clients’ memories…that would not be good for business.

So, after I’m done a session I immediately export my files from my camera and burn them to disks that get labelled and stored in a box. This gives me all my RAW, untouched images in case something major ever happens to any of my drives. Currently, I’m looking into renting a safety deposit box to store these in (to get them offsite from my home office) or purchasing a fireproof box so that I can keep them at home but be assured that they won’t be destroyed if there’s a catastrophe at my house. Most likely I’ll go with the fire safe since I’ll be more likely to remember to use it then having to deposit disks with the bank!

Once this is done I keep all my working images on an external hard drive. There’s a new working images drive for each year. These drives also get backed up to a 1 TB external drive once a week during the year they’re used and as needed for older drives.

There is a system out there called Drobo (www.drobo.com) that does an amazing job at backing up things…it’s not cheap, but from what I’ve heard gives people a lot of peace of mind about the safety of their files.

Also, a word of caution about using online backup sites. A few sites like this for photographers went under last year at this time. A lot of people were scrambling to retrieve their very large and very important files from the company’s servers before the plug was pulled on it, this overloaded the system and slowed the entire system down. Some people lost their stuff. If you’re going to use these online backup sites make sure it’s not the only backup you’re doing of your files/harddrives so that if the company goes under you’re not up a creek.

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