We live in a world where we rely on technology more and more but we've all lost files and documents at some point.
How many times have you typed something on your computer and it's crashed before you had an opportunity to save it. When writing a long essay or a work related document how often have you simply been concentrating and writing everything out and then the computer comes to standstill....nothing....you have no option to close it down....in fact do you know how to actually shut it down correctly?
Saving your images and backing them up is essential if your photos are important to you.
You may have years of family photos, holidays and events stored on your trusted PC, but have you go them backed up if your PC fails?
Let have a look at the main options of where you can back your work up; firstly do you find your computer isn't as fast as when you first bought it and how it takes ages to boot up or perform an action? This may well be down to the amount of space you're using to save and store everything, the more you have on your PC the harder it's working and the slower it will get. Sure you may have 1TB storage on your computer but are you aware of how much space you're actually using?
Photos are valuable, they're a part of your history and you'd be devastated if you lost them, so the first option is to buy an external portable storage device where you store all of your photos. The second option is to use a Cloud system such as Dropbox (there's plenty out there but Dropbox seems to be the most reliable and popular).
Cloud services allow you a certain amount of space for free and then charge a yearly subscription which a lot of people I know are put off by.
However the Cloud systems are the most reliable way of backing up and storing your photos. The problem with external hard drives is that they can fail, they are delicate units that need to be handled carefully. It's true they are 'portable' but they're not to be thrown about. Portable storage dives can fail!
The cloud subscription that a lot of people begrudge paying isn't actually all that much, consider buying a portable storage device for £100.00 and being told it could go wrong. Dropbox change their rates and have various offers so before you think it's going to cost you £xxxx amount every year, ask yourself how valuable your photos actually are to you and how much would you pay if you actually lost them.
Cloud services allow you to access your photos any time where ever in the world you may be, so it's like carrying all of your photos around with you. Sure the Cloud system could well fail one day, but it's extremely unlikely. In my work as a professional photographer it's vital that I back everything up as reliably as I can in case a client comes to me years later asking for a copy of a photo.
Backing your work up on a Cloud system also means you can free up space on your PC which means it will quicker and feel like new again in some cases. However don't just go and sign up for a cloud service and start backing up your work if you have thousands of precious photos. It takes time to for your computer to load the photos on to the cloud, it's not instant and it depends on the internet speed you have.
I remember a few years ago when I tried to back every photo I had on my PC and it was going to take over 30 days!
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