We all know the best way to protect our digital photos is to back them up. One of the easiest ways to do this is with an external hard drive. I recommend we use the 3-2-1 Method to keep our digital photos safe. Keep at least 3 copies of your digital photos, on two different devices or mediums, with 1 in a separate physical location.
An external hard drive is an excellent location for your first backup copy for several reasons:
- It’s easy to use – you just plug it in to your computer to access it.
- It’s easy to update – you can copy and paste files to it.
- It doesn’t require wifi – you aren’t dependent on wifi access, or wifi speeds.
You can keep it close by in case you need to access you backup quickly – sometimes you might just need to copy something back to your primary collection, or you might need to check where your last backup copy ended off.
It’s relatively inexpensive – an external hard drive can be purchased at Amazon, Staples, or Best Buy for less than $100.
An external hard drive has an average life expectancy of about 5 years. When you purchase a new external hard drive stick a label on it with the month and year it was purchased – now you will know when it is time to replace it. I recommend purchasing a new one every three years. If you choose to use a Solid State external hard drive (an SSD) it will have a longer life expectancy. We are expecting an average life expectance of about 10 years as they don’t have any moving parts. They are more expensive than a regular external hard drive though.
An external hard drive is very easy to use. Plug it in to a USB port on your computer and you’ll see it show up in by the list of folders on the left-hand side of your screen in both Windows Explorer and Finder. You can copy and paste things in and out of it just like you would any other folder.
The one important thing to remember about using an external hard drive is to eject it when you’re finished using it. Don’t just unplug it. If there is data still transferring between the external hard drive and the computer, it can become corrupted. Always be sure to eject your external hard drives. On your MAC simply click the arrow next to it. When it disappears from your list it’s safe to detach it. On your PC click on the ^ symbol in your bottom tool bar. Click on the icon that looks like a USB connector. Click on Eject your external hard drive. Often you will get a message to let you know it’s safe to detach your external hard drive.
I use an external hard drive for the first backup copy of my photo collection. In fact, my collection has become too large to keep on my computer, so I use another external hard drive to hold the primary copy of my photo collection. If this is the case for you, make sure your two external hard drives are not from the same manufacturer and time period. If that manufacturer had an issue with a run of external hard drives, you don’t want to be caught with both your primary collection and your backup copy of it on external hard drives that could fail at the same time. I make sure mine are from different manufacturers or that I’ve purchased them in different years. Spread out the risk. When you are creating a backup plan for your digital photo collection, consider using an external hard drive as the location of your first backup copy. You can see the ones I recommend on the Resources page HERE.