Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

For tax and accounting purposes, backing up is a legal requirement; for images, it is
common sense. Photographers vary in the extent to which they back up their images,
some of them placing perhaps a bit too much trust in their hard drives, others being
sufficiently paranoid to back up even their backups.
Make a Plan
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Backup Software
What every photographer needs is a data recovery plan, and the first step toward making
such a plan is to recognize the distinction between archiving and backup. Because
photographers usually take care to archive their images, there is often an assumption
that little will be lost in the event of a system crash that destroys only current work. It
is very easy to underestimate the inconvenience of losing even a day’s work, especially
if it takes two more days to recover from it. A far better policy is to have a proper backup
procedure in place, together with appropriate software that will assume the responsibility
of carrying out vital backup tasks automatically.
A data recovery plan looks at all the “what-if” scenarios, such as: what if the studio is
raided and we lose all the computer equipment? Do we risk prosecution for loss of business
data? Who would be affected? What will be the financial loss? With a huge choice
of data recovery systems and services available, finding a preventative cure should not
be a problem. A photographer with partners or employees should take the trouble to
document the recovery procedures and make sure that everyone knows where to find
the document—and related disks—in case of emergency. Keep the plan up to date with
a yearly review, especially if the business is expanding. You may need to move from one
backup solution to another.