Simple question about backing up work flow.

Question

I am using a new Mac running PSE 21. I just purchased 2 - 4 terabyte desktop drives to use fot backup storage. There will be a good possibility that the laptop will get stolenar wet therefore, I don’t wish to store anything media on my computer. I am wondering how to handle the workflow. I am currently uploading to one of the drives from the camera. Then I load the picture into PSE for editing. Everything stays on one of the drives which I will alternate keeping both drives backed up with everything except for the current pictures I am editing. I am planning to keep the drives in a shock proof and water tight pelican case. So, I get a little lost here if I want to keep two backups. Do, I now get a third drive and could use drive 2 and 3 as alternating backups. Does this make sense is there a better way. In the past I have used drop box to save my photos and catalogs, but there was no second backup. I was also terrable at this and it was a mericle I didnt loose any work. I want this process to make sense and if possible, work with two backup drives. During the next 10 years I will be living aboard a 40 foot sail boat making videos and photographs so being efficient, careful, and smart about these backup will be important.

Robin McKeegan

Current Resorces

2 (4 terabyte) External Drives

Drop Box size as required

Phil Pickering · Answer

Hi Robin,

FWIW, here are my thoughts on this...

I would adopt the 3-2-1 backup strategy:

- 3 copies of your data

- 2 different mediums

- 1 offsite location

So in your case that could be:

- Your computer

- An external hard drive

- A Cloud storage provider (Dropbox, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Adobe etc.) or an external hard drive held at a safe offsite location.

Personally, I would copy all my images and videos off my camera direct to my computer; curate them, edit the "keepers", then back them up to my external hard drive at the end of the day. I would then leave my computer to upload them to the Cloud overnight. If you make this part of your daily workflow it should be fairly easy to implement, even if you are tired out 🙂 You can always skip the curate/edit part, just as long as you stick to the backup routine.

If you are traveling and your Internet connection is either non-existent or just patchy or slow, then you might want to consider buying additional external hard drives that you can occasionally FedEx back to a trusted friend or relative just in case the worse happens. Otherwise, you might want to only upload to the Cloud those images and videos which are your "final" ones - the edited, finished versions... or even just your very best ones 🙂

I would strongly suggest not relying on two external drives stored on your yacht even if they stored in a Pelican case. An opportunistic thief might only carry off your laptop, but if the yacht has been targeted then they'll probably just take the Pelican case with them as well as everything else of value.

So if the computer gets stolen, wet, or just dies, you can buy a new computer and restore from your external drive. If your external drive gets stolen, wet or just dies, you can buy a new external drive and just start a new backup from your computer. If both get stolen, wet, or just die, then you can buy a new computer and a new external drive, and restore your backup from the Cloud (or get your trusted friend or relative to FedEx your offsite external drive back to you).

Hope that helps 🙂

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