Is Your Data Safe?

I have been scanning and archiving old family photos in order to help preserve them for the future. The first set of photos are the only copy of each photo available so they were chosen first for archiving.

It is important that when you archive photos that you create a system for backing up your files so you won’t lose them. I have created my own system that should ensure I will always have a copy of each file I archive.

Archive Method

I have several media that I use to ensure I won’t lose any of my archived data. One point that I would like to make is that you should always have multiple copies of the same file. Never only make one copy and hope that it survives.

Below I have listed the media that I use for backing up in the order they are used in the process.

1. External Hard Drive. This is my first source for my archived data. It is readily available so I use it to access the archives on a regular basis. Even though I can readily access the archives, I never make changes to the files directly. I simply make a copy of the file on my local hard drive and then change the copy of the file. In the future I would like to implement a NAS device to allow my desktop or laptop to access my archives.
2. Online Backup. I recently added this method into the process for backing up. Once I move the files to the external hard drive, the online backup’s tool that runs on my desktop will detect the new files. At this point it will back up the files online automatically. For my online backups I use Mozy.
3. DVD. I always backup my data to two DVDs and keep them offsite. If I ever lose my entire archive collection, I will use these DVDs to restore all the files. The DVDs I chose for archiving purposes are Taiyo Yuden DVD+Rs. Taiyo Yuden is known for their high quality DVDs, and for various reasons +R are better than -R for archiving.

As you can see from the list above I make multiple copies of my files on various types of media and store them in multiple locations. Is this overkill? Perhaps, but if something happened to my files I feel confident that I can easily restore them without worry.

Have Your Say

• Do you backup your data, and if so, do you have a process?