How do you back up your digitals files and why do you need to back them up?

Digital files are not archival.  Sometimes people try to open the flash drive they are stored on and they are just not there.  If you eject a hard drive or flash drive with out properly EJECTING it, you can corrupt the files or the drive.

Create a system for storing your pictures.

I always tell my clients to make a folder first on your computer.  Name the folder  “[ Name ] Senior Photos 2020”. Then move your digital photos into that folder.

How to move your files from folder to folder when organizing them:

The best way to transfer files is to do a copy and paste. Command C for "copy" and command V for "paste" on the Mac or use the Control key instead of the command key on a PC. You can also hit command A to highlight all the images and then do a copy and paste. If you drag them, it is easy for them to accidentally fall off  and land somewhere on your computer and then you can’t find them.  

Galleries have an expiration date because they take up room on a server and can not hang out there forever.  Download them right away to your computer.  Look for the down arrow to do that.  Then find the downloads folder on your computer. Move them to a folder you created on your computer.  Have your family members download the same link and do the same thing onto their computer.  If their computer’s hard drive crashes, the files should also be stored on a back up system. For my family files, I use  Carbonite. The plan starts at $6 a month.  The other option is to buy an external hard drive that is always plugged into your computer continually backing it up like Time Machine

I can not stress the importance of backing up your digital images. Most photographers only guarantee 3 months of archiving.  It takes time and money to make a gallery.  There is a fee to redo this again if you can not find the original downloads.

I have a raid system called the DROBO. It has several hard drives that back up from on onto the other so if one hard drive fails I have several other back ups. This type of system has terabytes of storage and costs about $1600 for the Drobo and then about $200 a hard drive.

I hope this helps so you think about storing and protecting your photographs. The absolute best way to preserve them is to print your images. This is why I love albums. They store them all together while telling a story, preserved for generations.