How to Backup Your Digital Photos
Do you know the best way to backup digital photos? So how important is it? Do your images really exist? If you really think about it, your digital files could suddenly cease to exist from an unexpected power surge, blackout, or hard drive crash.
In a literal sense, digital images don’t actually exist in physical form, unlike your old negatives and slides. Instead, they are only 1’s and 0’s stored in a “virtual” form on a delicate hard drive or memory chip.
The ephemeral nature of digital images makes it essential that you back up your files so that your treasured photos will be around for future use. One way is to backup your files to DVDs, CD’s or a USB drive, but this can be a labor-intensive project.
Plus, you still need to store the archived media someplace safe. But because of changes in technology and the uncertain archival nature of the media, you may find that your images may not still be secure.
Only twenty years ago, the primary storage media was the 3 1/2″ floppy disks (up to 1.4MB). After floppies, came larger capacity devices like the Syquest, Bernoulli, Zip, and Jazz disks (up to 1 GB). Where are they today? Depending on how old you are, do you remember 8-track tapes, Beta-max, VHS, and Compact Cassettes? All of these technologies are museum relics.
Here is what to do
The simplest answer is to store your images and other important files off-site in the “cloud”. This archiving method is ideal because it places your data at your fingertips anywhere you have an internet connection. It’s also easy to restore or download your files to a new computer, tablet, or smartphone.
This procedure backs up all of your important data incrementally so that any changes you make are saved as well. Best of all, the process is automatic and runs in the background, so you never have to “remember” to do it – it just happens!
Today’s operating systems in both the Windows and Mac environments offer built-in cloud storage. Check with your OS provider for the cloud storage options that are available.
Windows 10 and 11 offer “OneDrive” online cloud storage, which is very easy to set up and automatically keeps your images safely backed up. Additionally, OneDrive makes your photos available on all of your compatible connected devices.
Many imaging software providers also include some cloud storage with their products. Applications such as Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Photoshop CC are examples.
