Your Complete Guide to Photo Backups
photo credit: daryl_mitchell
Backing up photos is one of the most critical (ongoing) tasks for photographers, both amateur and professional. The “computer age” has been a blessing, allowing us to store and share huge amounts of digital photos. But that blessing has created the need to protect those delicate digital files, and many people have learned the consequences of not doing so.
Below, you will find a link to a PDF eBook that covers the topic of photo backups. The eBook was created from 12 articles written here on Epic Edits as part of our “Photo Backup” series (and the links to all 12 articles are also below). We covered many sides of the topic, including hardware, software, strategy, and more.
I should also mention that my friend, Andrew Morris (also on Flickr), helped me out with proofreading and editing the eBook. Thanks Andrew!!!
DOWNLOAD PHOTO BACKUP EBOOK
[PDF – 42pg – 2.5MB]
Please feel free to download and redistribute the eBook under the terms listed within.
ARTICLES
READER POLLS
How Many Photo Backups Do You Have?
How Big is Your Photo Collection?
Have You Ever Needed to Use Your Photo Backup?
Photo Backup on DVD: Love or Hate?
Udi
February 9, 2009Brian,
I was waiting for this to come out in one piece. It is a great series and I am sure reading it as a whole piece will make even more sense out of all this backup.
I’d love to see a follow up with selected readers comments, there were a few really great ones.
Brian Auer
February 9, 2009I had considered including selected reader comments in the eBook, but once I saw that the content alone made up 40 pages I figured it was best to leave them out. I’ll have to think of something to highlight the good ones.
Maureen Bond
February 9, 2009Thank you for having this all in one piece. I have 3 external drives and now I think I am in the market for new computer. I need to save to dvd’s and that is my down fall at the moment as more and more folks are telling me that the eternal drives do not last very long. I have enjoyed the read and thanks for eh push to do a better job.
Susheel Chandradhas
February 10, 2009Brian,
This is a great idea. All that hard work collated into one easy to find ebook.
Atniz
February 12, 2009Good guidance. My PC got almost 10GB of photos downloaded from my digital camera. I’m seriously looking for some good storage kit and this is excellent options I have.
vang
March 5, 2009There another simple way that you could email it to Gmail (7.8GB) to store your photo.
Susan Schlenger
April 27, 2009In the ebook section on software, you mentioned that some external hard drives come with backup software, but it may not be the best.
I found that to be true. I purchased a "My Book" external hard drive which came with software. I thought I was all set, until I tried it out and found it was not for me.
I actually tried three additional backup programs until I found one that was user friendly, easy to use, and worked well with the features that were necessary.
Backup Computer Files
themisfit
March 15, 2010Backing up is the most important step after the actual shooting. Thanks for the tips.