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As someone who has had 2 external drives crash on her within a 3-month period, the subject of storing and backing-up photos and other files, is something that has become top priority.
I don't know exactly why it happened, but my gut feel is it has something to do with my new Windows Vista-running laptop -- since I never had problems with my Maxtor drives until I switched to this.
Because the disc space in my pc/laptop was not enough, I was using my external drive as my storage drive. However, I learned later on, that these external drives are meant for back-up -- meaning, you can't just store everything in one place. Luckily, I was able to back-up my photos onto my dvds before the 2nd crash so my photos are intact, but the rest of my other files are lost somewhere in space.
So how to minimize the risk of losing your files? I have learned that the safest thing to do is to store them in several places. This entails quite a bit of time to do but at least if one of them fails, all is not lost.
My new process, which hopefully will work is:
STEP 1: Save onto my laptop hard drive. My laptop has 120gb of space, most of which is allocated for program files. So I can't keep everything, especially photos here.
I download everything tha is not a program file onto a folder "for back-up". Downloading or saving onto my hard drive is the fastest way to transfer data from flash drives/memory sticks.
STEP 2: Back-up on dvd. DVD discs have a bigger capacity (4.7gb vs 700mb) and are more reliable than CDs. This is my 1st line of defense.
About 1-2x a month, I back-up photos, digital downloads and important files onto dvd which are labeled by month.
STEP 3: Back-up/Upload to online storage. This is my 2nd line of defense.
After backing-up on a dvd, I upload photos to an online storage site (I use Zenfolio for photos and Adrive for documents) which I can access from anywhere and also allows photo-sharing so relatives abroad can download full-size photos.
STEP 4: Move files from laptop drive to to external drive (I now have a Fujitsu 300gb portable drive). This is my 3rd line of defense. I also use the external drive as my on-hand storage drive for files that I need to access regularly.
Only then do I re-format my camera memory drives.
I know this is very tedious to do but just think what you'd do if you lost your files? Choose what's best for you, but just remember to have more than one back-up plan. Good luck and if you find a better way, I would love to know, too!
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