Photo Credit: Michel Tcherevkoff

For a professional photographer, losing an image collection can be the difference between income and unemployment, and for any photographer, losing precious pictures can be heart wrenching. While backing up images may seem tedious, it can save you from problems further down the road. A good archival system doesn’t have to be terribly expensive or complicated to set up. Read on for our strategies.

Back It Up

There are three main types of backup media—hard drives, optical disks and tapes. Hard drive backups are the most expensive option but also the quickest. Data can be backed up to an alternate external hard drive or an internal hard drive device. This method is best for anyone who wants to back up a large amount of data very quickly. However, hard drives aren’t expandable, so if you fill one up, you’ll need to buy a whole new unit. And while hard drives may seem like the sturdiest option, look out for each drive’s “mean time before failure,” which indicates the average amount of time a user can use the drive before it fails—permanently. As a back up for the backup, a RAID system (redundant array of inexpensive disks) can be configured with multiple drives so that if one drive fails, the RAID continues to function.
    Optical disks, more commonly known as CDs, are great for inexpensive archiving and minimal storage. Just burn your catalogued images to a CD (or DVD), and label and store them in a clean, dry place. Plus, when bought in bulk, CDs cost mere pennies per disk. The downside? Disks are limited in capacity, holding from 5 to 8 gbs, and are best for photographers who want to back up a small selection of images.
    Tape backups are the least attractive backup option and are priced in between hard drives and disks. This type of backup is typically implemented by large companies that store high volumes of information since tape drives are small, easy to store and can be used in automated backup systems. The difficulty in tapes comes from their fragility—remember getting cassettes stuck with a spool of magnetic media wrapped around a playhead? Same idea. Overall, tapes are great if you’re looking for a high-volume and easy-to-catalogue solution, but they require a lot of oversight, making it not worth the hassle for most photographers.

Know What's New

A new breed of Internet-based archiving is cropping up, with many online image management sites—like Mozy.com and Photoshelter.com—offering online photo-centric backup. As the speed of the Internet increases, these will become better solutions, but in the meantime, they’re a bit too slow to be used as one’s main backup tool. They are, however, ideal for photographers who travel often and want to make sure their files survive any problems with lost luggage. The costs range from $4.95 to $49.95, depending on the extent of service.
    Another option is backup software like EMC Retrospect, available in server versions and single-user versions. Several smaller backup system packages exist, but Retrospect is the most serious contender in the field, making it the tool found most often on photographers’ hard drives. Simply install and configure the software, and Retrospect will automatically run periodic disk-to-tape backups to protect servers, applications, desktops and notebooks. Also, despite its cumbersome and clunky interface, many backup systems—like the Maxtor OneTouch—come bundled with Retrospect, making it both powerful and free.
    Search our Buyer's Guide for some of the coolest tools for quick and painless backup.