Make sure you are backing up ALL of your important photos, documents, and other files.
Have you ever tried to back up hundreds of Gigabytes of pictures from one drive to another? In my experience, it takes a LONG time! When I walk away, I usually end up with an error message ten files into the process that needs my attention and stops progress until I answer a question. This process wastes so much time! Juggling hard drives and keeping good backups has become a significant concern and a major hassle. Thankfully, there are better ways to maintain backups for all of your media without the headache of dealing with failing drives and the investment of hours of time.
Past Items
Let’s start with how to back up your non-digital items. As discussed in previous articles, the best way to preserve your older photos, videos, etc is to have them digitized. Getting these memories out of closets and into a permanent place can be summarized in five steps:
- Digitize – Get all of your physical media digitized
- Back up – Choose a cloud storage that will keep your backups while maintaining your privacy
- Organize – Organize everything in albums for ease of access
- Tell the stories – Label and tell the stories related to the pictures or video
- Share – Share your family memories or favorite moments with family and friends
Present Items
To back up your current digital media, there is a similar process. Again, find a cloud storage that meets your needs. I recommend that one of the features you look for is the ability to auto-sync from your phone to your storage account. Take time to label and tell stories that go with the photos you are backing up. A picture without the story becomes meaningless very quickly! Make sure to share your photos and videos with your family and friends. Memories really do help to bring everyone closer.
Future Items
It is important to consider the future in your backup plans. One thing to think about is future changes to formatting or technology. To preserve your digital files, it is essential to change with the times to keep everything up to date with current formats. Do you have a plan of how you will update to newer formats? I would suggest finding a cloud storage option that promises to automatically migrate your data to future formats. And of course, share what you have! You can send links to your albums, create storybooks, prints, wall art, or other gifts for your loved ones. Future generations will only know about you and your story if they have access to and can find your photos and stories!
Final thoughts
It is vitally important to back up your digital media. Hard drives fail and computers crash. Today, we have several options to help us keep our pictures and videos safe. I hope this information above gives you a good place to get started. Also, World Backup Day is March 31. We are offering a free informational webinar and would love to have you join us. It will be March 31, 2022 at 6pm MT. Click here to RSVP. And as always, contact me with any questions!