The Importance of Backups

I wanted to share a very recent experience I had that reinforced the importance of backing up your image files throughout a shoot.

I recently did a two day shoot in studio for a project. The shoot involved a 5 light setup, several different backdrops, and a large number of various props as well as 10 models. On both days we started shooting at 11 am and didn't wrap up until midnight - we had about a 1 hour break between models for makeup and set changes.

During the breaks I was very diligent about downloading my cards to my laptop, and then backing up the laptop files to a portable USB hard drive before I reformatted the card for the next shoot. At then end of the 2nd day of shooting, we packed up everything and, closed the studio and I bid adieu to the last model and my assistant.

I came back to my office, opened my laptop, and began to keyword the photos before transferring them to my desktop for cataloging and processing. I noticed there was about 2200 photos from the two days of shooting. Just as I started to work on the images, my laptop began acting erratically, so I rebooted it to start afresh, but then laptop refused to start up, couldn't be restored, and the software diagnostic CD stated the hard-drive could not be restored. Three days later, the laptop is still down and it looks like the hard-drive will need to be erased and the operating system software will need to be reinstalled.

Because I had all the files on an external hard-drive, though, I was able to connect that to my desk top computer, transfer and backup all the files, and begin to work on them with no time lost because of the laptop failure. This is the first time this has happened to me, but I'm sure glad I had a good backup work-flow in place and I thought I'd share my experience here as a cautionary tale.

The three most important things in using a computer:

1) Backup
2) Backup
3) Backup

Good for you Mark! There has been a lot of pain caused by lack of diligence.
I have started writing my cards to a 2TB external RAID 1. As soon as I do this, I have two copies.

Nothing beats a good backup regime, nothing. However, before reformatting the laptop hard drive I have had success restoring data using one of these. I can't tell you how many of my friends and family just have not learned the lesson of backups.
http://www.tigerdirect​.com …?EdpNo=1086960&​CatId=2781
Pop out the hard drive, attach to your desktop or another laptop and as long as the drive is not physically damaged you can get the data off of the drive before reformatting.

wise words...

I have my RAW files on DVDs and RAW + Amended images on an external HD too.

gjl711 wrote in post #9030879
Nothing beats a good backup regime, nothing. However, before reformatting the laptop hard drive I have had success restoring data using one of these. I can't tell you how many of my friends and family just have not learned the lesson of backups.
http://www.tigerdirect​.com …?EdpNo=1086960&​CatId=2781
Pop out the hard drive, attach to your desktop or another laptop and as long as the drive is not physically damaged you can get the data off of the drive before reformatting.

+1

if the solution is to reformat your hard drive and install onto it, you still have options for the data since it means the drive is still usable. You can always buy a new hd to install onto. Then recover the data off the old hard drive.

I've extracted all the needed data off the hard drive utilizing the startup CD and a portable hard drive, so I'm covered there. However, having that backup really eased any stress I felt about the crash. My point is that including a "backup the files" step in your workflow can save you a lot of grief.

Mark_Cohran wrote in post #9031358
I've extracted all the needed data off the hard drive utilizing the startup CD and a portable hard drive, so I'm covered there. However, having that backup really eased any stress I felt about the crash.

oh.. I totally agree. Nothing beats a good backup system... Nothing...

Completely agreed. EpicEdits has a great series of blog posts about backup options and strategies for photographers...

http://blog.epicedits.​com …e-guide-to-photo-backups/

I must admit after having a couple of hard drives fail on me a few years ago backing up is now part of my routine.

It either gets done weekly (if ive been quiet) or after a major event (that i cant redo).

That reminds me - its due now!

Bad luck your laptop dies, but good luck you had backups.

It just goes to show you, Mark. Luck favors the prepared.

It's like what I always tell small businesses, always back up your accounts receivable. It you lose your accounts payable, they will remind you. But if you lose your accounts receivable, you're out of business.