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khaiky5
Participant
March 6, 2020
Question

Can Photoshop files be corrupted by copying?

  • March 6, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 722 views

I recently copied and pasted a folder with about 28 GB of Photoshop files on the same desktop of my Windows 10 PC. The copies were then cut and pasted onto a flashdrive, so the original files are all I have on my PC. I was wondering if I should at all be worried about whether the copying process damaged the original files, because I hope I don't need to go through every single file and check if they are corrupt or not. Thanks!

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4 replies

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 7, 2020

 External & internal drives are known to fail.  Every file is susceptible to catastrophic failure.  Backups are essential.  Off site backups are safer in the event of a disaster (I live in California where fires and earthquakes are common).

 

I use Backblaze backup and file recovery service.  Everything on my internal and connected external hard drives is backed up to cloud servers nightly for which I pay approx $6/month. 

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
T
Test Screen Name
Legend
March 6, 2020

Flash drives are certainly unreliable. They should never be your only copy. But, no, reading a file doesn’t corrupt it. You do need a thorough strategy for backups though. Disks break every day. Computers are stolen or broken every day. Files are deleted by accident every day. Do you have a plan for carrying on your work when that happens?

    K
    khaiky5Author
    Participant
    March 6, 2020

    What should I use instead of a flash drive? Like an external hard drive?

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 6, 2020

    Corruption is always a risk and you always need to take precautions. One of the most important is to have more than one copy of each file - in other words, backup.

     

    Cut/paste is risky. Copy/paste is safer. Removable media are always more risky than "hard-wired" internal disks. Connectors can become loose and erratic failures can happen.

     

    In short - take precautions. The only way to check if a file is corrupted is to open it.

      K
      khaiky5Author
      Participant
      March 6, 2020

      Cool. If it's corrupt, will it just show an error message if I try to open it? Or will the layers just look all messed up?

      Just Shoot Me
      Just Shoot Me
      Legend
      March 6, 2020

      What exactly makes you think any of them are corrupted? Let alone all of them.

       

      Copying a file does not touch the original file. The file is read then written to the drive and folder you have selected.

        K
        khaiky5Author
        Participant
        March 6, 2020

        It's not that I think they're corrupted; it's just that I'm afraid if they are. I'm afraid because it's a bunch of work that I don't have copies of and I hear stories about files being corrupted. It's good to know that copying doesn't touch the original file though.

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