Back That Thing Up!
*** I’m busy working on lots of shoots over on the DrewB blog this week so I asked my friend Julie from Joy’s Hope to do a guest blog on Mom*tog. I hope you learn lots from her story! ***
Once upon a time when I shot rolls of film I couldn’t wait to take them in to be developed. Then as soon as I got them back they would be carefully organized in boxes and scrapbooks.
But then I got a digital camera. I got lazy. I took more pictures, but I printed less pictures.
One thing I did do monthly was burn them on to discs.
I had a PC and was paranoid that it would crash.
Thankfully, it never did and I have four years of carefully saved images.
Then I got a shiny, beautiful Mac.
I foolishly assumed that because it was an Apple it wouldn’t crash.
My OCD monthly disc burns stopped. My iPhoto folders were organized. But they were not safe.
It was on my to do list, but it was one of those things that never got done.
Out of the blue my hard drive crashed.
Just like that.
Gone.
Two years of photos.
Adios.
My baby girl’s entire life was on that hard drive.
I was a crying mess for days.
I learned a horrible, horrible lesson.
A hard drive is a hard drive.
Mac or PC.
They are the same.
The question isn’t IF it will crash.
The question is WHEN it will crash.
Have I scared you yet?
I really, really, hope so.
I honestly hope that I have terrified you!
Now the devastated drive sits in a drawer in my kitchen.
It will sit there until I can save enough extra money to pay the data recovery magicians.
Thankfully, I will get those images back. But it will not be easy. It certainly will not be cheap.
I had a new hard drive put in my Mac.
I installed an external hard drive.
All was well.
Until I started thinking about how many other things I lost.
Fonts, digital scrapbooking kits, sewing e-patterns, my carefully compiled bookmarks, Photoshop actions, much of my iTunes….
I could go on and on. The sheer volume of information that we trust our computer to hold on to is staggering.
Think about how much you have on your computer right now.
Think about having to start over.
With everything.
Doesn’t sound too fun, right?
Guess what?
My new external hard drive crashed.
I’m not kidding.
Not much was on it, and what was on it I had still saved on the Mac.
But really???
Because one electronic disaster in a month wasn’t awesome enough?
So I signed up for Mozy.
Daily they automatically back up your computer to their servers.
Just in case I am the girl with the worst luck in the world, they can restore everything.
Why didn’t I know about them a month ago?
Now you know.
You have no excuses.
Get an external hard drive.
Sign up for a service as an additional safety net.
Burn your pictures on discs.
Don’t be me.
Because it is beyond traumatic and awful.
But the worst part of all, it is preventable.
About DrewB
I’ve started this blog as a way to connect with other moms who love photography. Whether you are a professional photographer who is looking for advice on how to manage your own business and your family or if you are a mom who is looking for tips on how to take better pictures of your kids, I hope that you can find some good information and be inspired!
i signed up with Mozy a while back and started getting incredibly HUGE bills from my internet provider. Every single thing you back up every night counts as an upload. As a photographer, that was A LOT!!! of stuff. I was paying huge bills for three months before I caught this. I hope this helps someone else save some money or do things a bit smarter…
This is not a solution if you are a professional photographer taking a ton of pictures that are huge files. Julie is a Mom*tog, not a pro. If you are a professional photographer you should most definitely already be backing up all of your images to disc as well as an external hard drive.
Yes! Hopefully you did scare some out there Julie! For a while there, I thought, “hey, this is my story too!” I never backed up at all either and heard about hard drives crashing, but said to myself, “it won’t happen to me.” Yeah, right! Guess what? It did happen and I too, was an emotional wreck, my hubby thought to get me some “help”. LOL! My ever sweet dad helped me pay to recover what they could of my images, etc. And, yes, it was NOT cheap and they couldn’t recover everything, got most of it, but there was a part of the hard drive that was damaged bad. And like you said, it’s just not pics, it’s files, recipes, PDF’s, kids homework essays, etc. Ugh! It still hurts to talk about it!
So, after that happened, guess what the next thing I did? Right, went straight out and bought 2 external hard drives. I back up everything to both, just in case one does crash. The sales rep. told me that it was a hard drive and it could crash as well. Good point. So far, neither has. I am also looking into online sites as well to place the stuff. I will check out Mozy. I am also looking into putting pics on Flickr, I have had the free account for a while, but I think it’s worth it to upgrade for more space. These are our pictures, our memories, our life, as well as other stuff that we took the time to put on our computers. Having to start over was not fun, was a really hard lesson, and I will never think again…it won’t happen to me! Cause it will, like you said, not IF, but WHEN it will crash. Very good point there!
Great post and LOVE the pic. I so needed that sign when mine crashed and I do believe I looked very much like the sweetie in the photo…for days…no, weeks! Thanks for sharing and scaring Julie!
Julie…when I read about this on your blog, I signed up for Carbonite! I lost 3 months of my baby’s life last year when mine crashed.
I had a mac hard drive crash a few years ago and luckily my husband is a Mac King and fixed it and made it all better. Its still unusable, but all my data was saved. Gotta love the man.
You can have pretty much everything recoverd, not just pictures. Ask about getting your fonts and other files back. My husband has been able to recover TONS of stuff other than pics after several hard drives crashed- in our computers and other people’s. A back up server works good too, just hope THEIR hard drives don’t crash either. My husband backs up businesses’ stuff too and so far he hasn’t had any problems, but you never know. I’d stick with DVDs too. Good luck to you guys!
I learned this very hard lesson not once but twice! Both times in the first year of my first two sons lives. Now I back up with Backblaze. I’m burning to discs. And working on getting an external hard drive. It was horrible to go through and I’m never experiencing that again!
im horrible at doing anything with pictures except loading them on the computer. i read about someone’s similar situation a few months ago and signed up for mozy. i would be devastated if i lost all those pics of my little girl.
Thanks for this post! I, too, have a Mac that crashed! LUCKILY….I had done some backing up, so I only lost about 2 months of my daughters life in photos…but they were the last 2 of her first year! Still makes me sick thinking about it! And the irony in my story is….we knew something wasn’t right, so we went out and bought our hard drive. Only….we decided to take a nap before we hooked it up. And when I went to turn it on to set up the hard drive….CRASH.
I now have the external hard drive and back up on CD…but I am still scared that these would/could be destroyed in a fire. So thank for telling me about Mozy. I will be joining very soon!
Great reminder. I am now looking into Mozy as well as burning to disks-which I hadn’t done in the past.
I have an external hard drive and back up my photos/videos onto CDS as well. I then take those CDs over to my dad’s house, just in case a fire burns my house to the ground. For those who don’t want to pay an internet service such as Mozy to backup your files, you can just have someone store your CDs in a save place for you. That way you have a set of files at your house, and another set at someone else’s house. Plus, what happens to your photos if you ever decide to cancel your membership with a service like Mozy or Carbonite, or if they go out of business?? My dad made this point, which I thought was a good one! Just thinking outside of the box and trying to help people **SAVE** some money! =)
backing up to my time machine tonight!! I haven’t done it since I hooked it up 200+ days ago…. it reminds me every so often, and I keep hitting ignore!! Good post Julie, excellent idea Drew!
I think I would die. I have had a hard drive crash twice and was able to retrieve everything, but I know my luck will run out. I have a 6 week old and would just die if I lost his pictures. I need to put them on my hard drive, TONIGHT, and on my Picasa account. However, since getting a Mac I can’t figure out how to upload my photos onto my Picasa account. Anyone have suggestions or advice?
I’ll check out Mozy.
I hope this scared some people into action too! I also lost precious memories about 2 years ago. Mine was from theft, not from a crash. So, my photos will never be recovered. I lost the first 6 months of my daughters life. It just kills me to know that someone probably wiped the hard drive clean and sold it for a little cash. It was devastating. The first moments after she was born, her first smile, all of her first’s…gone. BACK UP! BACK UP! BACK UP!
As most people on here I am just starting out and hoping to eventually go professional. I am torn between the XS because if the $$ factor. But can I use it if I am professional or do I need to upgrade first. Or the XSI which is discontinued but almost the same as the T1i. OR do I go all out for T1i? Please help.
Drew, I know you said you are working on your DrewB blog…..is that why the tab isn’t at the top right now? I don’t see it…..or the tabs for ‘tips and tricks’, etc. Once I click on mom*tog I always just click the link to see new slideshows. Hope you had a great weekend!
i keep saying im going to do this… and never do! and this weekend my husband left my laptop somewhere and i almost lost my mind at the thought of what is on there… financials, personals, PHOTOS… ugh! im working on it now thanks to your post!
.-= Robyn ´s last blog ..bravest boy i know =-.
I had that happen last year and lost not only 2 sessions but an irreplaceable trip to the east coast to visit my grandparents. I still cry if I think about it. I backup on 3 HD’s now and am working on a complete back up of everything on DVD as well. Good thoughts because it really does seem like it will never happen to you. Then it does. Pro photogs should definitely be backing everything up in multiple places in case more than one dies or gets corrupted
Great find.