A Backup Strategy for a Photographer & Cameraman

The way I roll

(0) G-SAFE to (1) NAS in the office and a copy to (2) BluRay disk stored at home, then copy again to (3) Drobo in data centre.

Data is always stored in multiple locations and on multiple media, protecting against crashes and faults. As those files do not change, I don’t have to worry about keeping multiple versions of each file. That’s the preserve of my project and general office files. My primary concern with rushes is to get them back quickly and reliably, so if my NAS fails, I get the BluRay, if that’s broken or stolen I can recover it from the Drobo in the data centre. The chances of all three failing at the same time is minimal to nil.

And just because I can, data is always fully encrypted during transfer and storage, thus preventing it from falling in to the “wrong hands” (yes, I am qualifiedly paranoid).

And finally

Incidentally, I do use both Dropbox and SugarSync for non-video/photo files such as my project files or office documents! I am doing this because they need little storage space by comparison and I want to easily have them synchronised across multiple computers and with clients and partners. Horses for causes and all that.

The heavy duty stuff get the treatment above and the small day-to-day stuff a separate one. However, and again just because I can, I do include my normal office and personal files in the backup regime described – backing up to local, and remote file server and taking regular backups on BluRay. I see Dropbox and similar providers as a convenience but not a backup solution. Come what may but my files are safe.

I hope you enjoyed looking into my little world and got some ideas of how to keep your valuable data safe. And remember: all data files can get corrupted; all media can break; companies can go bust, change their terms of business or loose your files! Stay safe out there and let me know how you do you backup?

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 17:43 and is filed under Tutorials & Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.