5 Reasons I Backup Digital Photos Everyday

Do you really need to backup your pictures? The simple answer is YES! I’m hoping to explain why backing up your pictures is so important. Before I bought my first digital camera did I ever worry about backing up my photos? Of course not…I printed all of them and kept the negatives and that was my backup…no need to worry. The thought never went through my mind !

But now, that I have a digital camera and I have accumulated literally tens of thousands of pictures I do have to think about a backup copy (at least one) of all my pictures. Even though I do print my favorite pictures on a regular basis I still need to back everything up…why? Because I only print maybe 10% of the pictures I take. So what about the rest? And the videos…my family, my daughter, my hiking trips, all the landscapes and the good times…what happens if my hard disk fails? They’re all gone! So, I have to think about backing up my pictures. There are simply too many to print and too many to lose.

I believe anyone with a digital camera has to have a backup plan with at least another copy of all the pictures and videos. So, for the next few weeks I’ll be writing about efficient ways to backup up your pictures and hopefully some simple ways by which you can do this operation yourself.

1. I Only Print 1% of My Digital Photos

The amount of digital photos I print has been decreasing every year, since we produce so many photos as a family.  I’m imagining that it will keep going lower. I used to look at my printed photos as my emergency backup in case my computer hard drive would fail.  For many years now, having another backup of all my photos has become part of my organization strategy. This way if my main copy of my digital photos fails, then I have to make sure I have at least another copy.

2. Hard Disks Do Fail

Whether you use a spinning hard disk or a fast and quiet SSD, computer components do fail.  If I only have one copy of my digital photos, then sooner or later I can actually loose them all. I had to replace my main hard drive twice in the last 7 years due to hardware failure – hard drives DO crash! Very good thing I had a backup copy of all my pictures.

3. Reformatting Hard Drives is Still Required

I had to reformat my main hard drive a few times during the last 10 years due to operating system failure. Yes operating systems like Windows 10 and Mac OSX are getting better and have become reliable, but software errors still happen and can ruin your storage device.  So, having a working backup is crucial for my peace of mind.

4. Complete Computer Crashes Still Happen

I did have one total computer crash in the last 10 years. The main motherboard of my computer failed completely…it was dead.  When this happens, having a complete backup of my digital photos was unbelievably comforting.

5. I Have Lots of Priceless Photos & Videos

I have accumulated over 200,000 pictures and videos over the last 10+ years. These memories are invaluable to my family and I can’t imagine what it would mean if they would be lost.

Are You Backing Up Your Digital Photos?

Are you convinced you need to have at least one extra copy of all your photos? I hope you are, because all our memories these days are digital and computer components do fail.  Are you prepared?

Essentials for organizing your digital photos

Here are the essential products and services I have come to rely on for many years to keep my media collection organized and safe. Even though these are affiliate links, I wholeheartedly recommend them.

Excellent Lightroom and Picasa alternative. If you need a cheaper and simpler photo manager then ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac (save 40% until Aug 9th) or ACDSee Pro for Windows (save $40 until Aug 9th) is my preferred solution for organizing all my media. It has a very fast browser, great image editing and it's simple to use.

If you do a lot of image editing like I do, I recommend using Adobe Lightroom Classic CC via the annual Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Lightroom has best photo editing capabilities even though it comes with a steeper learning curve. If you do image editing, Adobe Lightroom is my favorite.

I recommend Backblaze Cloud Backup for affordable & reliable unlimited cloud backup. I have been using Backblaze for backing up all pictures & videos for more than 5 years now. All my invaluable digital memories are safe and secure. This is the best solution especially if you have a large quantity of media files.

Use a reliable & affordable external hard drive for backing up everything on your computer. It is absolutely essential for keeping all your memories backed up and safe.

Start organizing now using detailed, step-by-step instructions and videos:
Personal Coaching (closed) Independent Course Private Lessons
Reference book Basics book Picasa book

YOURS FREE! 10 crucial steps most people miss when organizing their digital photos

Most people want to just organize their digital pictures and ignore these crucial steps right at the beginning...when they are shooting and transferring their digital pictures. Then they wonder why they can't organize their digital photos! Avoid most people's mistakes and start on the right track!

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