Now that it’s so convenient to capture our daily lives with our phones, we are filming and photographing more than ever. It’s easy to amass a large amount of data and never actually back it up. Luckily, with the advent of digital video, personal computers, portable hard drives, and cloud storage, it has become incredibly easy to access and backup your media. However, people don’t always do it, or they don’t do it right. With so many ways for one to unintentionally toss digital photos and videos into oblivion, it’s more important than ever to back up your data.

Here’s how to stay safe:

 

After transferring media to your computer, transfer it to AT LEAST one external hard drive as soon as it finishes. 

If your computer fails, you could lose all of your precious memories.

Send Your Precious Photos and Videos to the Cloud.

Backing up important files onto a cloud service from Apple, Google, or DropBox is a convenient way to access your data from anywhere with an internet connection. Still, make sure you have a copy of your own on a personal drive to be safe.

Do not mess around with your external hard drive or flash drive while data is being transferred. 

There’s a necessary “Eject Media” selection on all computers for a reason.  Complications with file integrity may emerge if you don’t take the extra few seconds to eject your media after a data transfer. DO NOT unplug or knock over an external drive while data is being transferred. This can lead to hard drive corruption and serious file recovery issues.

Transfer any videos and photos from your device onto your computer BEFORE letting anyone else use it.

Simple miscommunications on this end can easily lead to someone deleting your media either on the device itself or accidentally on their computer.

Macs and PCs don’t always get along.

Each system uses different drive formatting options. Macs use “Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)” and PCs use either “NTFS” or “exFAT/FAT32.” If you plug in a Mac hard drive to a PC, you won’t be able to access it. If you plug in a PC hard drive to a Mac, you’ll (probably) be able to see it, but you won’t be able to write files onto it. So, you should have multiple hard drives formatted for both Windows and Mac computers so you’re always prepared!

Keep your hard drives somewhere safe.

Don’t put external drives high up on a shelf or somewhere where they could be stepped on. Ideally, you should keep them in a drawer or bin that is rarely used (or used only for that purpose).

If you have precious media on DVDs/Blu-Rays, back them up to a hard drive.

Even with cases, discs can get scratched and damaged very easily. It’s easy and vastly important to take the time and transfer the data to a hard drive or two…or three!

Follow these steps to ensure your memories last forever!